A story to treasure - Part 1
It is 1964 and Britain is about to start swinging. It is also when Keith Musto wins the Olympic silver medal in the Flying Dutchman in Japan sailing with Tony Morgan. A great sailor, sailmaker and, like Morgan, entrepreneur. And a passionate supporter of sailing. He shares his fine tale with Tim Jeffery…
1964 would not just pivot Britain away from post-War austerity but also closed the first phase of modern Olympic sailing since the Games were restarted in 1900. Britain’s pre-War medallists were typically a roll call of gentry, ship owners and people with Knightsbridge on their birth certificates or Algernon their given name. Musto and Morgan got to Tokyo
without similar advantages, without ‘yachting’ in their backgrounds. They did so by dint of boundless determination to be better, faster as well as fitter than all their rivals so that their selection as UK repre- sentatives was unassailable… Tony Morgan famously described their
modest Essex backgrounds as ‘being the salt beneath the table’. He died earlier this year having gone on from Tokyo ’64 to become an immensely successful businessman who
50 SEAHORSE
had the ear of Margaret Thatcher, while Keith Musto stopped Olympic sailing because ‘there was no future in it’. With a just-born son ‘I had to get a job’. Musto the company got underway in
1965 and grew from sailmaker into an innovative and pioneering global clothing brand in both sailing and equestrian markets. When Musto was sold 17 years ago in 2007 it was valued at £40million. The 1964 Olympic sailing regatta was
full of young, green sailors who went on to make their mark. Keith Musto was in the exceptional company of industry-leaders and sporting legends in the making. His cohort included Lowell North, Pete
Barrett, Hans Fogh and Eckart Wagner (North Sails), nine-time Olympian Hubert Raudaschl (Raudaschl Sails), Bruce Kirby (editor, designer and Laser creator), Buddy Melges (Melges Boatworks/Sails and America’s Cup winner), Jörg Bruder (Finn class legend) and Pelle Petterson (prolific industrial designer – Volvo P1800, Maxi and Nimbus Boats, America’s Cup skipper, clothing). Also future ISAF-World Sailing presidents and IOC members Peter Tallberg and Paul Henderson. ‘The sport was at a crossroads in that period,’ says Musto, now 88, not that
you’d know it. ‘We were probably one of the last of the amateur sailors. You went to work at eight-o-clock on Monday and fin- ished at five-o-clock on Friday and looked to the weekends with great enthusiasm.’ Having sailing as a pastime was to
Musto both stimulating and productive. ‘You only had limited time to sail, so you got stuck in. I think we benefited enor- mously from the fact that we hadn’t all day to sail.’ Musto and Morgan’s silver medal was
Britain’s first post-War medal since Charles Currey’s own silver in the Finn in 1952 and Graham Mann’s crew who won bronze in 1956 in the 5.5 Metre. None was won in 1960 by British sailors, but the FD had joined the Finn in the five-event line-up as the heavy metre-boat classes started to give way to smaller boats. That silver was very nearly gold too.
Musto and Morgan topped the standings after six of seven races in the 21-boat fleet with an 8-1-2-5-6-2 scoreline. An 11th in the Race 7 finale saw New Zealanders Helmer Pedersen and Earle Wells’ fourth to the British pair’s 11th enough for the Kiwis to claim victory. There’s an old and grainy piece of film showing legendary BBC sports broadcaster
PPL
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124
