Video footage of Firefly dinghies in the 1950s

Apart from one small boat and the warship (ahead and to leeward of the leaders) Torbay was all but empty of spectator craft and there isn't a coach boat to be seen © Torquay Library / Henshall

Our video archive is fully searchable, and linked to all the clubs and classes in our database. It is updated weekly with the latest videos of sailing, but here we delve into the past, and round-up older footage of sailing in Firefly dinghies, since we have several good ones from the 1950s.

We start off with the oldest clip, which shows the Firefly National Championships at Torquay - the Gore Cup - in 1955

There was an alternative news report from the Torbay Nationals 1955 too, with some similar shots.

With a less precise date, this is general sailing in Emsworth during the 1950s which includes Firefly appearances - skip along to 10m40s, to see the best footage, which shows F1119 Salamander, until 13m25s. There is more Firefly racing action at approx 23 mins, 37 mins, and 41 mins too. At one point a small fleet shows sail numbers from 2 to 1523! The oldest of these had been used in the 1948 Olympics.

Towards the end of the decade the boat builders were getting very quick. See cold moulded veneer construction of a Firefly at Hamble in 1958 and marvel at how fast they can work. The baking of a boat in an oven, wearing rubber, is uncommon!

Next we have two general news reports from Herne Bay in 1958-9 which include a full 5 or 10 minutes on the Firefly racing.

We cannot embed those videos here, so please visit screenarchive.brighton.ac.uk/detail/11697/ which covers 1958 and the Firefly material starts at 4m30s and ends at 11m50s.

Then the 1959 report is at screenarchive.brighton.ac.uk/detail/11617 where you can skip to 19m30s (Firefly coverage ends at 24m17s) unless you like to hear about railway electrification and other local news.

Next up is a wonderful promotional film for Fairey Marine, outlining their range of dinghies, in the late 1950s. The Firefly features at 1m50s.

There is also a second Fairey Marine promotional film from a similar time, which includes the Firefly.

Here is a great video from Wales, with no knowledge of the date (can you guess from the sail numbers?). A factory called Richard Thomas and Baldwins in Ebbw Vale had a sailing club, and here you can see their Firefly racing.

We end with Sailing at Eastbourne SC 1959-1960 (includes Enterprises too, so skip to 3m42s).

What of the other decades?

Part 2 of our series covers videos from the 1980s and 90s.

Do you know the location of any Firefly videos from the 1940s, 60s or 70s? We would love to share these with other sailors. You can submit video links to us for immediate review.

Keep watching with:

• Newest Firefly videos
• The very oldest sailing videos of all
• The video search page

The Trials were held out on what would soon be the 1948 Olympic race area - photo © Torquay Library