Competition Format
All the Sailing events on the Olympic programme, excepting the women's Elliot 6m event, were fleet races and followed the same competition format.
In fleet racing, each event had 10 races (15 races in the 49er event). Points were awarded in each race: first scored one point, second scored two points, etc. After all races were completed, points from the worst race were discarded. The remaining points were added together. The 10 best athletes/crews then advanced to the medal race, where points were doubled (first place got two points, second got four, etc.) The points total after the medal race determined the placings. The athlete/crew with the lowest number of points was declared the winner.
The match racing event started with a round-robin stage. The winner of each race got one point; a half-point was awarded to each crew in the event of a dead heat. The best eight crews progressed to the knockout stage, where crews raced each other in series of best-of-three races.
Read more about this topic: Sailing At The 2012 Summer Olympics
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