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  Sailing was on the Olympic programme for Athens 1896, but was cancelled due to bad weather, so the boats did not compete until four years later in Paris

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  Women have been Olympic crew-members since the London 1908 Games and women-only events first featured in the Seoul 1988 Games

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  Founded in 1720, the Royal Cork Yacht Club (Ireland) is the oldest sailing club in the world

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  Cuban father-and-son duo Carlos de Cárdenas (44) and Carlos de Cárdenas Junior (16) won the Star class silver medal at the London 1948 Olympic Games

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  At the London 2012 Games, Cypriot Pavlos Kontides won his country's first Olympic medal in any sport by taking silver in the Laser class

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  Britain's Ben Ainslie and Brazilian duo Robert Scheidt and Torben Grael have the most Olympic medals – five each

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  With a gold, a silver and two bronzes, Italy’s Alessandra Sensini is the most decorated female Olympic sailor of all time

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  King Charles II of England was a great sailing enthusiast, even converting a jachtschip, a Dutch merchant vessel, into a competition boat

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  A total of 49 different sailing classes have featured in the Olympic programme at one time or another, including vessels of up to 20 metric tons

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  In racing, there are specific rules for overtaking, such as which side you may pass, all depending on the direction of the wind relative to the boats