Colin Simonds, who was originally selected to represent Britain in the soling class in Moscow, said some team members had had medals "stolen from their grasp by the RYA".

The group also want a guarantee that the RYA will never again insist unilaterally on preventing a team competing at an Olympics, as they did in 1980 in support of Margaret Thatcher's insistence that the Games should be boycotted following Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.

"Three of our team members won the European Championships in their classes in 1980 within a month of the Olympics, beating all the eventual medal winners," said Simonds.

"They had a gold medal and an MBE stolen from their grasp by the RYA without any consultation or discussion.

"The medals are gone – but when will the RYA make best endeavours to put these three fantastic people who have served their sport for a lifetime up for an MBE?

"The USA team were all given congressional medals of honour at the White House, we got a printed scroll – by post."

While the sailing team had their entries withdrawn, the majority of British sports resisted the demands from their Government, and those who came home from Moscow included Sebastian Coe, who earned gold in the 1500 metres and silver in the 800m, and British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan, who was particularly vociferous in arguing the athletes' right to compete, and coxed the British eight to silver.

Simonds points out to the RYA that, since 1980, many Olympic medallists have received honours including knighthoods and OBEs.

He added, "The RYA is doing a great job for the team these days but wants to make sure that even under extreme pressure they never stop their team racing again."

At the annual meeting, the RYA will be formally asked "to forego the right going forward unilaterally to prevent a team attending" and "to make a suitable and agreed gesture to those that they prevented attending in 1980".

Simonds is asking supporters to email [email protected] to be forwarded to the chief executive of the RYA.

A letter to the RYA has been signed by one or more members of every surviving crew selected for the 1980 Olympic Games – Pat Blake and Christian Houchin in the flying Dutchman, Jerry Richards in the 470, Colin and Gavin Simonds, Chris Osborne in soling, Andrew Hurst in the star, Rob White and David Campbell-James in tornado and Tim Law, on behalf of his brother Chris, who died in 2007 in the finn.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]