BBC Four presents The Sailing Sixties

A strange early proototype mutlihull from the 1960s © BBC

This BBC programme is (curiously?) available on Youtube, and has some wonderful footage documenting how sailing for pleasure became available to the masses via affordable dinghies in the 1960s.

Highlights include:

• Vintage Mirrors raced by all ages, with Barry Bucknell giving his views
• Flying Dutchman with cotton sails
• Crazy early multihulls being labelled dangerous
• Bob Fisher (a regular writer for Y&Y) teaching Valerie Singleton to sail, on Blue Peter!
• Robin Knox-Johnston aboard Suhaili, reading from his diary
• A very sad interview with Francis Chichester showing how sailing alone affected his memory