Long series of races decide sailing medal

BEIJING, July 25 (UPI) -- Sailing

Gold medals to be awarded: 11

Dates of competition: Aug. 9-21

A variety of craft with one, two or three people on board will fill the waters off the coast of Qingdao during the Olympics.

The sport of sailing is one of the most complicated and mystifying of all Olympic endeavors and it takes some work to follow.

There will be 11 races in each class with the exception of the 49er (a two-person skiff), in which there will be 17 races.

The craft that finishes first in each race receives one point, the one that finishes second receives two points and so on down to last place. As the races go on (two a day), the points are added up and the boat with the fewest points wins.

There are some twists, however. Going into the final race, a boat's worst finish can be thrown out. Only the top 10 boats are allowed to compete in the last race -- known as the medal race. The points in that race must count and the points in that race are doubled.

Brazil and Britain were the only multiple gold medal winners from Athens. The lone American gold came from Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham in the 470 class (a two-person dinghy).