The oldest video footage of 505 racing dinghies
by Magnus Smith 5 May 2024 04:00 PDT
First 505 hull completed, just awaiting varnishing and fitting out © Jack Chippendale
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 early racing in the 5o5 class.
The oldest footage we could find was from Emsworth (UK) during the 1950s and it is a long video covering many classes. You may not have an hour free to wallow in nostalgia, so feel free to skip ahead according to this guide, since the first two 505 moments are mere seconds:
- 24 mins - See number 49 launching, with her age also betrayed by the cut of the sails
- 49 mins - a reefed 505 can be briefly seen
- 54 mins - newer models launch and are seen racing (keep going till the end)
Update: we later found London Boat Show 1955 includes a 505 glimpse
Next up is a wonderful promotional film for Fairey Marine, outlining their range of dinghies, in the late 1950s. The 505 features at 2m45s but only btiefly.
Update: we later found 505 Championships in Cork, 1957 (skip the Cowes Week footage)
Then we move to the sixties, with 505 racing in Argentina, 1969 with spinnakers flying. This silent footage is courtesy of British Pathé.
Update: we later found Sheffield Viking SC in the 60s which has a few 505s
and Clontarf Easter Regatta 1960 likewise
Update: First Seventies footage is 505 championships on Lake Macquarie, 1970
There is only one boat in this next video, but it is fun to see a 505 in Stockholm, 1971. Someone is having a great time singlehanding it! (Note, half-way through the video it changes to a slideshow of still photos.)
Update: we later found Munich 1972 Olympics has 505s in the Kiel Week footage
Now we move to a series of great footage from the Worlds, starting in 1973 with the 505 World Championship in Hong Kong (see also some extra video and event photos and results).
The next year the event was in Marstrand, Sweden, 1974 (see also event photos and results.)
Then we move to the eighties, with the 505 Worlds in Cork, Ireland, 1982. (See also event photos and results.)
We now have nine links from Youtuber Ebbe Rosen, covering the 505 Worlds in Enoshima, Japan, 1985. Take your pick!
Ending our eighties focus is the 505 Worlds at Felixstowe, Great Britain, 1989. (See also event photos and results.)
A random selection of archive 505 material from the 80s and early 90s now. There are some land-based sailor quotes as well as plenty of on-water blasting. Amazingly, for 1990 there is even some brief masthead footage! No GoPros in those days.
In the early nineties we next have the 505 European Championship at Quiberon, 1990.
Update: we later found Europeans at Quiberon 1990 (part 1)
and (part 2)
plus the Worlds in Marstrand 1991
Last of all we move to the UK for the 505 World Championship at Mount's Bay, 1995.
What of the rest?
Do you know the location of any Five-Oh videos that show racing fleets from the early years? We would love to share these with other sailors. You can submit video links to us for immediate review.
Keep watching with:
The UK's leading dinghy historian recorded a series of videos about the life of John Westell, the 505's designer. (Skip to part 3 if you are interested in the Coronet, the forerunner to the 5o5, or to part 4 for the 505 story starting.)