The oldest video footage of Flying Dutchman dinghy racing

by Magnus Smith 21 Jul 2024 05:00 PDT

1959 Flying Dutchman Worlds at Whitstable © Douglas West

As we approach the start of the 2024 Olympic Games (the first races are on Sunday 28th July) it is a good moment to dig through our huge video archive to see the oldest footage from the classes that used to contest medals. The FD appeared in the Games from 1960 to 1992.

The class are lucky to have some excellent footage from the fifties, and you can even chose between a black & white video, or colour! They both are silent and show different aspects of the 1959 World Championship at Whitstable YC, UK. Local sailors will enjoy the shot of the street outside the club, showing vehicles of the era.

Now here is the colour version from the same event. Sadly there is no on-shore footage, but a few close-ups on the water are interesting, particularly the blue sails towards the end of the video! We are blessed indeed to have colour at such an early time.

Still from 1959, but on the other side of the Atlantic, Flying Dutchman racing in the USA is blessed with colour too, but sadly the on-water shots are a bit distant. The beach scenes are worth watching.

Now into the sixties, we have sound, but it's not in English! There is some sort of championship in Holland (1962) and again it is interesting to spot the vehicles and clothing on shore.

From the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a modern interview with Keith Musto and Tony Young is interspersed with original footage from the Games. It seems ridiculous now that the pair's physical training was frowned upon by the establishment.

Also from 1964 this silent video sadly has no record of the event title, other than that it was at Monte Carlo.

Of uncertain year, there's Flying Dutchman racing at Glenmore Sailing Club

Later in the the decade we have Kiel Week featuring Star and Flying Dutchman (1966) which is crystal clear, but sadly silent.

We also hjve Kiel Week 1969 also including Star class and larger yachts.

Another Dutch voice-over for this one - Holland, 1967 - but I think I heard the name Fred Imhoff.

Perhaps you'll want to mute the music for Mexico Olympics, 1968. It also includes the Star and Dragon classes, and you'll spot that it repeats twice over... most odd.

Great colour footage, but silent again, from Weymouth, UK, 1974. A quick glimpse of the prize-giving shows which trophy is being awarded, and class experts will know what event this must have been. [UPDATE: We are told it was the World Championships, which had East Germans in first and second with Hans Fogh of Canada third.]

The Moscow 1980 Olympics were controversial, and British sailors were not able to compete, but Ireland sent a team - David Wilkins and James Wilkinson - and this video focuses on them. The Spaniards won gold.

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This next video is pretty wobbly, suffering from being stored on a very VHS cassette tape, I believe. If you can stand it, the television coverage of 1984 Olympics is interesting. It covers Finn, 470, Windglider, Tornado, Flying Dutchman, Soling, and Star. After the advert break, you can watch Christopher Reeve (Superman) sailing a yacht, and talking very passionately about it.

Time for some gratuitous blasting now! See me, feel me, fly me was a class promotional video, but can you guess the year by looking at the clothing (weight jackets!) or the sail numbers?

Next we have another class promo video which I have placed here as I think it is slightly newer than the above. More early 90s than late 80s? You decide...

What of the rest?

Do you know the location of any FD videos that show racing fleets from the 1950s to the 80s which we have missed? We would love to share these with other sailors. You can submit video links to us for immediate review.

Update - new research

A year after publishing this article we had uncovered yet more FD video footage during our research: