The oldest video footage of the Solo dinghy class
by Magnus Smith 13 Apr 2025 04:00 PDT
Bill Loy Snr sailing his beloved Jack Holt Solo 186 'Free' at Reading SC in 1974 © Brian Frost
Type "Solo" into the search box on our video archive and you could see any sort of singlehanded sailing, on keelboats or any dinghy. This keyword causes the same problem on Youtube! So we have done our best to find you footage of the specific dinghy Jack Holt designed in 1956.
Our oldest video covers the Tideway Race 1963 where the Solos raced with the Merlin, GP14, National 12, Enterprise, Firefly classes. Sadly the only Solo you can actually see is number 305 at 0m20s.
Much better coverage of Solos occurs in the next year - Tideway Race 1964 - thankfully.
Footage from the London Boat Show 1974 at Earl's Court shows Gull, Wayfarer, Fireball and Solo dinghies on display, briefly. Catch a glimpse at 1m13s!
Solos appear very briefly during a video of Sailing on the Isle of Wight in the 1970s. Go direct to 2m30s and you'll see that some people had blue sails back then.
This next video is also of unknown year - Mixed dinghy racing on the River Crouch. Skip the concrete boat project at the start of this video, by going direct to 29 mins. SAdly the Solo coverage is brief, again. Skip to 33m09s and spot the lurid deck colour.
What of the rest?
Do you know the location of any other old Solo class videos? They are always going to be hard to find, because of the difficulty of online searches! So we need your help, more than with other classes. Dig out that old VHS tape in the loft!
We would love to share your findings with UK sailors. You can submit video links for immediate review.
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