No one has come close to matching Paul Elvström's four successive Olympic Gold medals and 14 world championship titles. Now the 72-year-old has just taken delivery of his new Finn. Sue Pelling travelled to Denmark to meet this dinghy sailing legend and chat to him about his life long love of sailing.

As a man who has sailed all his life, I was not surprised to find Paul Elvström's garden at Hellerup, snuggled up against the water's edge. And with his great love of Finn sailing, I was even less surprised to see a Finn dinghy on the ramp ready for launching. At 72 years old, this great Danish yachtsman, who has recently taken delivery of a Devoti Finn, has lost none of his enthusiasm for sailing. But he is first to admit however, that he will not be travelling to any more world championships!
Paul was born on February 28, 1928 at the house where he still lives in Hellerup, just north of Copenhagen. He married Anne in 1951 and has four daughters. Trine, the youngest (who sailed with Paul at the 1984 Olympics in a Tornado) also lives at the house with her husband and three children.
As well as being a family home, the grand Elvström house, which overlooks the Baltic, has a lot of history attached to it - it was the birthplace of the famous Elvström sail loft in 1954.
Paul has spent his life competing on the Olympic circuit and few sailors can match his experience. He is a dinghy sailing legend and one who has, as well as a few tales to tell, some interesting ideas.

Paul, tell me about your first Danish Olympic trials when you were just 20 years old. I understand you had a bit of a difficult time convincing the selection committee you were any good.
'The problem was that I didn't speak English. The Royal Danish Yacht Club said: "We cannot send a young man to the Olympic Games who doesn't speak English." But because I won every race they had to send me. The committee knew nothing about dinghy sailing. For instance in the final race I had very bad luck and capsized. The leader of the committee said to me: "How can you expect to win a place at the Olympic Games when you can't keep a dinghy upright?"'

The Danish selection trials were raced in National Twelves. How did you come to have a fleet of British dinghies in Denmark?
'There were several engineers from England working on a bridge that was being built in southern Denmark. Because they were there for a long time constructing the bridge, they built a fleet of 10 National Twelves in their spare time.'

I understand you disliked the transom mainsheet system on Fireflies at the Olympic Games in Torquay. What did you do about that?
'Yes, I found transom sheeting very stupid so I led the sheet forward along the boom and down to the centreboard case, where I put a turning block and a cleat. So, when I tacked, I eased the mainsheet four inches, cleated it and concentrated on playing the jib. It was much more efficient and a lot faster than the other boats.'

How did you track down suitable fittings?
'I desperately needed a mainsheet block because I knew how important it was. I tried to borrow it from a chap but he wouldn't lend it to me, so I stole it from him!'

Having retired from the first race of the Torquay Olympic Games, you then went on to win a Gold medal. What transformed you into an Olympic champion in such a sort space of time?
'Because I didn't speak any English, I was very shy. During the first race of the Games, a Finnish guy came close to me when I was on port and he was on starboard, he started shouting. I was so upset about being shouted at so I retired from the race and sailed back to the shore.
'Realising that I had very good boat speed I decided to give it another go and from then on I improved in every race and won the last two which was enough for my first Gold medal win.'

With a taste for Gold, you trained solidly from 1948-1952 and, in the newly selected Finn class, you won a Gold medal again. The Finn is obviously a more complex boat, do you think it was a good choice at the time?
'Yes, there is no doubt. Unlike the Firefly, the Finn was a true singlehander.'

How did you train?
'It was very hard work. I trained with Helmer Peterson who later won the Gold medal in the Flying Dutchman for New Zealand. We were more or less equal on speed and we sailed for seven or eight hours every day for one and a half months before the Olympics.'

Olympic campaigns have to be paid for. How did you fund yours?
'I had a house building business. I was totally self-funded during my racing career.'

In an effort to improve your speed, you started making your own sails in 1954. Was that the start of your successful Elvström Sails business?
'Yes because I couldn't find anybody who could make a sail the way I wanted it, me and my friend Erik Johansen set up Elvström Dinghy Sails in 1954 at my house here in Hellerup. I converted the cellar and took the first floor in the house as well. And with the water just over the seawall at the bottom of the garden, we made a sail-testing platform with masts rigged along the pier.'

Would you say the first Pirat sails you made were the ones that really put your company on the road to success?
'Yes, although our Finn sails were faster than any others right from the start. The sails we made for the Pirat, however - the largest dinghy class in Denmark - really put us on the map. They were fast and everyone wanted them.'

Your four daughters were born while you were away competing at various world championships. How did you get away with that one?
'I can't understand how I got away with it! If my son in law did the same thing, I would be very angry. But it was different in those days! Actually, when Trine, my youngest daughter, was born, I was sailing at the Flying Dutchman world championship at St Petersburg. Before the last race we knew we only had to keep Rolly Tasker behind us to win the regatta. I had the race plan of action all worked out in my head and then my wife rang me to say we had a new baby daughter. Because I had a race win only on my mind, Anne was very, very angry with me. I can understand that now.'

What inspired you to design the now famous Elvström self-bailers?
'I was at Burnham-on-Crouch competing at the Finn Gold Cup. I had the standard tube-type bailer but I forgot to pull it up. When the boat was pulled onto the trolley, I bent it and it broke. From then on I realised that the natural thing would be to have a self-bailer with a flap that came up automatically. Although Holt Allen had already designed such a thing it was plastic. The stainless steel Elvström bailer is exactly the same now as it was then. There was nothing we could improve.'

The Trapez dinghy you designed was probably the first singlehanded trapeze dinghy in the world. I understand you took it to the IYRU evaluation trials. How did it perform?
'The boat was fast but I was not satisfied with the design. I then changed the design to a two-man dinghy and the class is still active today.'

There was a period in your life, in 1959, when you suffered from nerves. How did this affect your sailing career?
'Yes, in 1959 I had a breakdown. I had just won the Snipe world championship. At the time I said: "I am willing to go to the Olympic Games in 1960 but then I must stop because my nerves can't take it."
'I put too much pressure on myself. In my mind I had to win every race and not make any mistakes and I blamed myself far too much. I wanted to be perfect in everything I did and it was simply not possible.'

What did you do during your non-sailing period?
'I spent a lot of time on the water taxiing photographers about on the racecourse. Then in 1964, the Olympic Committee asked me to go to the Games in Japan. They thought, that because I could sail all the Olympic classes, I could be the spare man!'

How did you cope with being an observer at the Games?
'It was awful because I knew I should have been out there and I also knew I could have possibly won another Gold. It certainly taught me a lesson and from then on I decided to give racing another go.
'When I arrived back in Denmark, I said to a friend of mine: "I'm going to Adelaide in the 505 and I'm going to win the world championship. I'm also going to the 5.5m world championship and I'm going to win that. Plus I'm going to win the Star worlds in Kiel." He told me I was crazy and bet 200 krona per event, that I wouldn't win. Having finished second at the 505s I paid him 200 krona, he then paid me 200 krona for winning the 5.5s. And when he crewed for me and we won at Kiel, he still had to pay me another 200 krona!'

Tell me about the idea you had of trapezing round the bow when tacking your FD?
'It didn't work. I spent my time trying to find ways of tacking fast. This was not one of my better ideas. However, I couldn't resist experimenting with trapezes on my One Ton racing yacht during a regatta in Sweden. I gave the crew trapezes and we won the race. Immediately the race finished, the race committee was on the phone to London to get them to change the rules.'

I noticed you helmed your 505 from the trapeze and had your crew in the usual sitting-out position. How successful was that?
'If the crew was lighter than the helmsman, I think it was an excellent idea. We sailed very fast with my extra weight out on the wire.'

And the Sydney Harbour 18-footer sailors pinched your idea?
'Yes. When the Skiff sailors saw what we were doing, they changed from four to three crew and had the helmsman on the wire as well.'

As well as your four successive Gold medals, you've won 14 world championship titles in seven of the world's most competitive international classes: the FD x 1; 505 x 2; Star x 2; 5.5m x 1; Finn x 2; Snipe x 1; Soling x 2; Dragon x 1; Half Tonner x 2. Which class did you enjoy sailing the most?
'I enjoyed them all because of the good competition. However, I loved sailing with the trapeze - it was a dream. And I couldn't see how classes like the Snipe would survive without a trapeze.'

But the Snipe is one of the largest classes in the world so that wasn't the case.
'Exactly, It just goes to prove that good competition is more important than speed.'

You made a comeback to Olympic sailing in 1972 in the Soling.
'Yes, I sailed the Soling at the world championship and then went to the Olympic Games. But because it was at a time when I'd been writing books, I had a hard time trying to convince the authorities I was not a professional sailor. There were also a couple of incidents on the racecourse where one of the other teams broke the rules. It all became too much for me. I became very nervous and couldn't cope with the situation so I quit sailing once again and suffered a nervous breakdown.'

With all that put behind you, you got back into sailing in 1984 with your daughter Trine in a Tornado. Was it your intention to sail another Olympic Games?
'Not really, because at the start we agreed it was only for fun. However, we went to Kiel Week in 1983 for a trial run and Trine decided she really enjoyed it. We then sailed at the European championship here in Denmark and won the event. The committee thought we were just lucky at that event but then we went on to win every race we competed in so they had to send us to the Olympic Games at Los Angeles.'

Was this where you lost the Bronze medal in the last race?
'Yes. Going into the last race we were on equal points with Rob White from the UK, but he won the race and therefore won the Bronze medal.'

I see you have a new Devoti Finn. What are your plans?
'I have a friend of similar age who also has a Finn and, although I bought my Finn purely for pleasure, I know we'll be racing against each other soon. It's a wonderful feeling to sail a Finn again. I love watching the bow go through the water. It takes me back many years.'

Rumour suggests you might attend the Gold Cup in June at Weymouth?
'It is just a rumour. I have no intention of racing or travelling. I have got to the stage where I don't want to have to be at a certain place at a certain time. I also get completely fed up with general recalls, they are such a waste of time.'

How should they be dealt with?
'There should be no such thing. If you are over the line at the start you are out. The same thing should apply to mark rounding and there should be no such thing as redress. In Formula 1 racing cars, if you break down you are out. The same should apply to sailing.'

You've seen great changes in the Olympic Games over the years. Do you feel today's format puts too much emphasis on what the spectators want rather than what the competitors want?
'To retain yachting as an Olympic sport, it has to be made a public sport. Today's format is a total miss. They tried to change the style by introducing match racing but in my opinion it is boring and stupid. The present format is enjoyable for the competitors but is not suitable for attracting spectators. Basically you have to forget about spectators on land because they will never be able to see anything. The most important thing is television, where potentially millions of people will be watching.'

So what do you suggest?
'Sports such as tennis and golf spectators get to know the competitors and the sport is easy to follow, so they make good spectator sports. We need to make sailing more inviting for television and to make the sailors more well known. If competitors are unknown, the sport is not interesting.
'To do this I think three-boat, country-by-country racing for big money prizes is the way to go. The idea is to have TV cameras rigged above the course - maybe in balloons - and there would be cameras on each boat. The format of the racing would be a simple windward/leeward course and, like in tennis, it would be only the winner going through to the quarter finals, semis and a grand final. No races would be held under eight knots of wind.'

Do you think this format would have to be introduced gradually?
'Yes. It would be a mistake to change everything at once. I think the best way would be to start off with a singlehander. Once that's up and running then introduce the two-man/three-man boats.'

What inspired you to write the book Elvström Explains the Yacht Racing Rules?
'The racing rules were interpreted in different ways. I thought this was wrong because the rules needed to be interpreted in the same way all over the world. So with Richard Creagh-Osborne I decided to make a correct interpretation of the rules and published the book. When Richard died, one of his friends took over. Now, my son in-law who is an umpire and an international judge has taken over the rules book. Although it still has my name on it'

Good sailing.

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