At the 1907 The Hague Conference of the IOC Ryde at the Isle of Wight was appointed to host the sailing regattas, for all classes, of the games of the IVth Olympiad.

However, when there were only two British entries for the 12 Metre matches, and both yacht were located at the Firth of Clyde, the decision was made to use Hunters Quay as a second venue.

[1] The RVYC was founded on 24 May 1845 by Prince Albert to give Queen Victoria a Yacht Club which she was entitled to enter as a mere female!

This had a lot to do with national traditions as well as with the fact that there were no standardized boat types with uniform building instructions and measurements.

Several initiatives were started to create a formula that made it possible to have boats race each other without having to calculate the final result.