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The British yachtsman Andrew Simpson was a leading figure in the development of the Artemis Racing 72ft wing-sailed catamaran for the upcoming America's Cup. He has died at the age of 36 after being trapped under the boat when it capsized in San Francisco bay during a routine training exercise.

Simpson, known to all fellow sailors as "Bart", won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in the Star class with his long-term sailing partner, Iain Percy. The two had been friends since meeting at a competition while boys, and last year campaigned again with the Star in Weymouth, Dorset, where they won the Olympic silver medal. They had led throughout the regatta and were prevented from taking their second gold by just one wave that lifted a fellow competitor at the finish line of the medal race. In 2009 Simpson was appointed MBE following his Beijing success.

All sailors have their specialities: Simpson's extended from his search for speed into the nuts and bolts of how it might be obtained. His meticulous boat preparation was second to none, and Percy was content to leave the majority of the details of this to his crewman. Simpson spent many hours working on their Star and was rewarded with unsurpassed boat performance.

In addition, he was a superb athlete. He knew he had to be extremely fit to give the necessary physical energy to sailing a boat at its limits and concentrate on the mental aspects of sail trim and tactics. Percy relied a great deal on the input he received from Simpson, who had trained physically for his task after admitting that he had "flabbed up" after a year of not sailing the Finn, the men's heavyweight single-handed dinghy.

Born in Chertsey, Surrey, Simpson begain sailing at the age of six, with his father in a Seafly dinghy from Christchurch, Dorset, and progressed into the Royal Yachting Association youth squad, where the chief coach, Jim Saltonstall, took pleasure in how Simpson "enjoyed learning to sail better all the time". He was also able to sail while at Pangbourne college, a boarding school in Berkshire, and went on to take an economics degree at University College London.

Simpson proved to be the perpetual bridesmaid, never quite able to best his two contemporaries, Percy and Ben Ainslie. However, he showed no lasting concern and was happy to contribute to joint success with Percy.

After finishing second in the Finn trials for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he became Percy's training partner in this class. When Percy won gold, he said that the medal was "half Andrew's".

It was natural that Simpson would follow his skipper into the America's Cup with the Swedish Artemis team, and he was full of enthusiasm, relocating his family to San Francisco for six months. Constantly smiling, Simpson was enjoying the campaign. "This may not be racing for Britain," he said recently, "but it is in preparation for the time when our country can mount a challenge."

He is survived by his wife, Leah, and two sons, Freddie and Hamish.

Crispin Read Wilson writes: When Andrew Simpson was at Pangbourne college, I was director of sixth-form studies and sailing coach. Pangbourne started life as a nautical college, and sailing takes place on Burghfield Lake.

A brilliant, intensely competitive but fair-minded member of the sailing team for five years, Andrew returned for a day in 2008. He described his nerve-jangling gold medal race to the whole school, gave an inspirational coaching talk to its sailors about racing and self-improvement, and competed in a match. Always a popular figure, he never let success go to his head.

• Andrew James Simpson, yachtsman, born 17 December 1976; died 9 May 2013 Source