ANDREW SIMPSON (90-95) wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

For many OPs the events of 2008 were overshadowed by the magnificent achievement of ANDREW SIMPSON (90-95) in winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Sailing with his friend Iain Percy in the Blue Riband Star class off the coast of Qingdao, Andrew  wrapped up a triumphant regatta for British crews with British sailors winning twice as many medals (four golds, a silver and a bronze) as their nearest rivals in the sailing competition. The technically challenging Star class competition was one of the closest of the regatta and at the start of the last double-points medal race Percy and Simpson lay in second place. They finished fifth in this race but their main rivals finished last, and the gold was theirs.

Back in England Simpson, 31, received a hero’s welcome wherever he went. At a reception at County Hall in London in August, when he was presented with a bespoke model of the boat he sailed, he made it clear that he hoped to be around for the 2012 London Olympics. “The aim for 2012 is to be in a position to win a medal in every class,” Andrew told the London Evening Standard. “Beijing was a huge achievement and we will be looking to build on it.” In October he took part in the Olympic Parade through central London.

The blanket press coverage of Britain’s Beijing Olympics sailing medal winners revived interest in previous British Olympic medal winners, including RODNEY PATTISSON (56-61) who won gold in the Flying Dutchman class at the Mexico Olympics 1968 and Munich 1972 and silver at Montreal in 1976. A profile of Rodney, now 65, in the August issue of SAGA magazine described him as “every inch the mariner. He is compact and light on his feet, dressed in nautical cords, blond hair flopping. His eyes light up as he recalls his maverick days in Acapulco and Kiel, the venues for his gold medals. For a decade, he ruled with determination, cunning and burning ambition building up a record that seemed impregnable until 2004 when it was matched by Ben Ainslie.”

At Beijing Ainslie surpassed Rodney as the most successful British Olympic sailor of all time. He was unconcerned. “I’m pleased (for him), because he’s an exceptional sailor. If Ben was an athlete, he’d be making millions, but yachting is not a spectator sport. The only people who follow the races are the competitors’ relations. Everyone else finds them too boring, and that includes me!” The article went on to describe how Rodney was born in Campeltown in Scotland, the son of a Fleet Air Arm officer. When the family moved to Swanage his father taught his four children to sail. Rodney went into the Navy after the NCP but was given leave to sail in the Olympic trials in 1968. “Winning in Acapulco was my proudest moment. I won again in Kiel – in fact, I was so far ahead I didn’t need to sail the last race – but the massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich ruined everything. It cast such a blight that I didn’t travel to the closing ceremony and the medal didn’t mean nearly as much to me.”

Ben Ainslie returned the compliment to Rodney in an article in The Daily Telegraph. “Rodney’s achievements were amazing in his era. He was the best sailor of his generation by a long way. When I was a kid all of my generation looked up to him and were in awe of what he achieved. It seems a little bit surreal to be in the position I’m now in.”