Having had to wait a frustrating extra day because of the lack of winds in Qingdao there was never any doubt that Ainslie would come home victorious in the Finn.

The 31-year-old from Lymington went into the race already guaranteed a silver medal and knowing he had to finish no more than five boats behind nearest rival, American Zach Railey, to ensure he won the gold.

In big waves on the Yellow Sea and a strong 15 knot breeze, Ainslie led at the top mark and controlled the race from there, extending on the upwind legs to take victory and the Olympic gold medal in style to add to those won in Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years ago.

That saw Ainslie, who also won a silver medal in Atlanta in1996 as a teenager, surpass Rodney Pattison's record of two gold and a silver won between 1968 and 1976.

Ainslie's Olympic tally also put him alongside the Soviet Union's Valentin Mankin and Germany's Jochen Scuemann.

Only Danish sailing legend Paul Elvstrom has won more Olympic gold medals, with the four he won between 1948 and 1960, and Ainslie will equal that if he wins again in Weymouth in 2012.

Ainslie said: "I’m kind of speechless, it felt like it would never come but there was great breeze and to win the race as well, I am a happy man.

“Conditions have been really tough, the light winds have been a real strength of will but today was a complete turnaround.

"I approached the race a bit differently to yesterday, as because the breeze was so light yesterday I couldn’t let Zach get away from me but today I was confident that with my boat speed and fitness I could get away and it all came good.”

Earlier, the Yngling team had held their nerves in what was a two-horse race for the gold against the Netherlands.

The Britons came home in first place for the first time in the regatta with the Dutch trailing in fifth.

The British trio had entered the event as heavy favourites after dominating the Yngling class for the past two years, winning back-to-back World Championships, last year's Olympic test event in Qingdao and this year's European championships.

But they went into the medal race with only a slender one-point advantage after finishing fifth behind the winning Dutch crew of Mandy Mulder, Annermieke Bes and Merel Witteveen in the eighth and final preliminary race on Friday.

Like Ainslie's event, light, unsettled wind conditions saw the race being postponed from yesterday but the boats were eventually flagged off in much heavier conditions 24 hours later as strong winds and heavy rain descended on the waters off Qingdao.

The Dutch had the jump on the British boat at the start but it was Britain that reached the windward mark first, just a second in front of the Dutch and the rest of the field.

They maintained their lead at the second mark and although they were overtaken by Germany during the second leg, the Netherlands had dropped back to sixth, 51 seconds adrift of the British.

Ayton, Webb and Wilson regained the lead on the run to the finish line and crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Germany and a minute in front of the fifth-placed Dutch.

The Netherlands eventually took the silver while Greece finished in third place in the race to secure the bronze medal.

It was the second gold medal for Webb and Ayton having been victorious in Athens when they were part of a boat that also included Shirley Robertson.

Robertson, also a gold medallist in 2000, had split from Webb and Ayton after she started a family and had formed a new crew to try to qualify for Beijing.

Having failed to achieve that, she was at quayside in Qingdao working for the BBC and seemed genuinely pleased for the crew.

Ayton said: "We have been mentally rehearsing for this for the last two days.

"We knew if we went out there and did it well, we'd have a chance of winning.

"It's been brilliant, this campaign has been about pure perfection and we're just an awesome team."

Webb said: "Our experience was everything, we stayed sure and we got better."

For Wilson this was her first Olympic medal.

She said: "This has been the dream and it hasn't really sunk in."