INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL After Tokyo In Montréal 1976, Conn Findlay returned to Olympic competition, but this time on the sailing course in Kingston, Ontario, crewing for San Diego Yacht Club’s Dennis Conner in a Tempest class sailboat. Conn had gotten to know Dennis while sailing for him in preparation for America’s Cup competition. Findlay was the ideal Official Report XXI Olympiad 1976 Italian Tempest Class Sailboat A Tempest Sailboat has a skipper and a crew member who spends much of his time hiking out on his trapeze. “All I recall as we crossed the finish line was thinking to myself, ‘Thank God this whole thing is over!’ “The whole four years, not just the race. I was overcome with relief, not pumped with the ecstasy of victory. “With the wind howling outside just before we launched for the Tokyo final, one of my last thoughts as Dick Lyon was taking my picture [‘the Ghost’ earlier in this chapter] was to ask myself, ‘Why are we putting ourselves through this?’ “Once the race started, it was all mechanical for me, and none of those doubts or anxieties were ever in my mind. It seems like it is always the ‘before’ and the ‘after’ that are hard to deal with.”3504 crewman to climb into the boat’s trapeze, essentially a small seat at the end of a long wire strung from the top of the mast, and “hike out,” placing his substantial body weight far out beyond the gunwale to counterbalance the push of the wind as the boat raced along. Stan Pocock: “Having done extremely well in the early races, they were almost certain to take the Gold. In the final race of the series, they were in good shape when the trapeze broke. “Conn went in the drink, and by the rules, Conner had to turn back to pick him up and, of course, lost too much ground to finish in the money.”3505 Findlay: “My swim actually came in the third or fourth race.”3506 The competition in 1976 for the sixteen countries entered in the Tempest class consisted of seven fleet races with points awarded for the placement in each race, 0 for first, 3 for second, 5.7 for third, 8 for fourth and on down the line. At the end, the lowest point total won the Gold Medal. 3504 Mitchell, correspondence to Dick Draeger, 2009 3505 S. Pocock, personal correspondence, 2005 3506 Findlay, op. cit. 963
