Barry O’Neill competed in the men’s Flying Dutchman class two-person dinghy at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games alongside Jamie Wilkinson, finishing 19th of 20 boats. O’Neill lived in Ireland while Wilkinson was based in Southampton after graduating and joining IBM, and flew to Heathrow at weekends where Wilkinson collected him for travel to regattas around Britain – a low-budget campaign with most funding invested in travel. After qualifying for Montreal, the crew faced an additional obstacle when their yacht developed a leak and they were forced to charter a replacement boat.