BBC The Sailing Sixties documentary

[TheDragon]

Surely been seen by many here, but new to me. Interesting BBC docu posted in 2017 starting with dinghies and then focussing on Sir Francis Chichester and the Golden Globe race. An annoying mixture of actual footage and re-enactments for the latter, and of course the story is well known, but still a few voices and details I did not know. For example, had not previously noticed that Suhaili did not have lifelines. Pity they failed to mention Moitessier's voyage, or that Sr. Robin gave his 5000 pounds prize to Crowhurst's widow. And of course completely Brit focussed.

Worth an hour of your time if you have not seen it.

 

[plenamar]

Nice !

 

[bigrpowr]

thank you for sharing!

 

[IStream]

Agreed. Thanks for the link!

 

[alphafb552]

How the fuck do you talk about the Golden Globe without even mentioning Moitessier?

 

[Panoramix]

How the fuck do you talk about the Golden Globe without even mentioning Moitessier?

Britannia rules the waves...

Some of the WW2 BBC/channel 4 documentaries also give the impression that the RAF/RN won the war nearly alone.

My daughter studied twice the hundred years war, once in the UK and once in France, obviously the 2 stories were different, she was about 8 and asked me "Dad, at the end, tell me who won this war? The French or the English?"

 

[IStream]

How the fuck do you talk about the Golden Globe without even mentioning Moitessier?

To be fair, they did mention Moitessier. It was literally a 1 second mention. 

 

[tillerman]

How the fuck do you talk about the Golden Globe without even mentioning Moitessier?

Never heard of him. Is he foreign?

 

 

[tane]

...if you've never heard of those 3 - you should probably be banned from SA!

 

[tane]

legends in their lifetimes, all three & particularly HBH (movies, books, "the most daring raid of WW2!).

"the dentist" Dr.DL! Rehu Moana fist  cat rtw! Auxiliary propulsion a f...ing "best outboard motor for the world! & through the patagonian channels to boot!

"Tahiti Bill Howell"! Golden Cockerel! "White cliffs to coral reefs" (& I still don't know why he was kicked out of Tahiti...)

 

[tane]

seems I need to ban myself: Valentine HowellS - unequal TBHowell...(shame...)

 

[shanghaisailor]

How the fuck do you talk about the Golden Globe without even mentioning Moitessier?

Idiot. It was a BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) documentary, part of the 'Timeshift' series in 2002 about the development of the sailing scene in Britain in the 1960's. The fact that Motissier had fuck all to do with how sailing developed in the UK is perhaps how the fuck you don't mention him. Actually there were several other sailors (brits most of them) who also did not complete the course.

I raced a mirror occasionally back then there were several home built at the time and also the Enterprise (we had a fleet of 25 at our club several also home built)which Bob Fisher showed Val of Blue Peter the ropes on. Blue Peter was a youngsters magazine programme which ran for years and had an almost religious following. The fact that sailing was on BP was far more relevant that a Frenchman sailing to Tahiti. In fact most of those that sailed probably never heard of him at the time. 

 

[Panoramix]

Britannia rules the waves...

Some of the WW2 BBC/channel 4 documentaries also give the impression that the RAF/RN won the war nearly alone.

My daughter studied twice the hundred years war, once in the UK and once in France, obviously the 2 stories were different, she was about 8 and asked me "Dad, at the end, tell me who won this war? The French or the English?"

I've just watched the documentary and it is fine IMHO. It is just from a British perspective.

 

[shanghaisailor]

Was the 60's the 'Golden Age' of Sailing, full stop, be it racing or cruising, full of all sorts of characters?

Or am I just a nostalgic fool?  I was born '69 , so have no first hand knowledge of that era apart from what I read and old photos I see.

Here are three guys you may or may not have heard of....the big guy in the middle with the awesome beard, Val Howells, only passed on a couple years ago aged 91.  If anyone hasn't read his books, he wrote some mighty entertaining  narratives of his ventures aboard his Folkboat 'Eira'.  Even got a medal from the Duke! (Himself a keen sailor).

View attachment 393144

well said, a true 'age of enlightenment' in short handed distance sailing and indeed sailing as a whole, the founding of the 'Half a Crown' Club, the Transat, the Mini Transat, actually a British idea started by Bob Salmon. NO fancy Pogos or scow bows, one competitor basically sawed a foot off a 22 footer to comply with the 21 foot limit now quoted metric as 6.8m.

A really excellent book is 'Blondie' - he was a remarkable man with an amazing story, war hero, singlehanded sailor and inventor of the 'Haslar Self Steering which most of the gear today owes its lineage to.

 

[Panoramix]

well said, a true 'age of enlightenment' in short handed distance sailing and indeed sailing as a whole, the founding of the 'Half a Crown' Club, the Transat, the Mini Transat, actually a British idea started by Bob Salmon. NO fancy Pogos or scow bows, one competitor basically sawed a foot off a 22 footer to comply with the 21 foot limit now quoted metric as 6.8m.

A really excellent book is 'Blondie' - he was a remarkable man with an amazing story, war hero, singlehanded sailor and inventor of the 'Haslar Self Steering which most of the gear today owes its lineage to.

Although the mini transat was indeed invented by Bob Salmon, you have to put it back in context as the French administration was prohibiting these kind of races. Most of the entrants of the first mini were French, the idea had been floated around and that was their only hope to race across. Some had to leave Brittany at night without lights as the French equivalent of the border agency was arresting them.

As for the fancy boats, this is what happens when you organise sailing races, it starts with crude boat and then people go over the top.

It is a shame that Don Macintyre took over the plywood boat crossing across the Atlantic races with his crazy rules, it could have been the ticket...

 

[ROADKILL666]

Loved that video.Just goes to show you how much cooler they are 

 

[TheDragon]

i still have the answer letter Chichester sent me when i wrote to him after  living in dylan thomases house in wales as a child

Care to share? He was my teenage hero, reading all his books in high school, but would not have dared to write him (grew up far away in East London, South Africa).