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North Sails Loft 57 Podcast

Video footage of Firefly dinghies in the 1980s and 90s - plus team racing

by Magnus Smith 15 Dec 2024 04:00 PST
Wilson Trophy at West Kirby in the late 1970s © Martyn Bromley

It's time to dig into the video archives again, almost exactly one year after our first ever video feature, which happened to be on 1950s Firefly sailing. But all we can add now is footage from the 1980s and 90s - nothing from the 1960s and 70s - what is going on?! We will have to throw a few team racing videos into the mix....

See part 1 for the Fifties videos.

The Eighties

Firefly Nationals 1984 - this was at Mount's Bay, and there's a whole hour to watch.

The Nineties

National Championships 1992 - three whole hours of material was recorded at Tenby!

Some team racing for you now, but in the Firefly, of course: London Duck 1993

The Team Racing World Championship at West Kirby was apparently the first ever. Can you name the year?

You can also watch the final with GBR vs IRL from the above event.

This record of Spinnaker Club's team racing history from 1996 has lots of Firefly footage here and there.

Once the year 2000 hit, videos started to become digital, and the nostalgia isn't present. Thus we end our story here... unless you can help?

What of the other decades?

Do you know the location of any Firefly videos from the 1960s or 70s? We would love to share these with other sailors. You can submit video links to us for immediate review.

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