Oldest videos of sailing in Hornet dinghies

by Magnus Smith 2 Dec 2023 10:59 AEDT

Early Hornet with a sliding plank for the crew © Hornet Class Association

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 everything that shows sailing in Hornet dinghies.

Some time in the 1950s this video was taken at Hayling Island. There is a brief Hornet shot at 0m45s and then longer coverage at 10m40s showing rigging up and launching.

You can clearly see the sliding seats in this footage from Thorpe Bay YC in 1958 too (plus airplane news from same year).

Unusually, the Hornet appears in a newsreel from Cowes Week 1961 - skip to 5m19s if you don't want to watch the other yachts first.

Cowes Week 1967 has a Hornet featured at 3m11s, but not for long.

From sometime in the 60s, this training video talks about all the basics of rigging and how to sail. The video starts off using a Hornet and then switches to an Enterprise. Sadly there is a watermark so the footage is not as clear as it could be.

Also from an unknown date in the sixties Hornet open meeting at Topsham SC is great viewing!

At the end of the decade, we have silent footage of a sliding-seat Hornet being rigged on Hayling island, in 1969.
You will need to visit another website in order to view this: www.britishpathe.com/asset/216568