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1948 Olympics - Torquay
Sunday 3rd August at the Royal Torquay YC
An illustrated talk on the Firefly, the people and the events surrounding the Regatta.
Update
The talk was given to a packed bar and from the seraching questions that we asked at the end, gave the current Firefly fleet an enjoyable evening.
One of the starts at the 1948 Olympic Yachting Regatta, Torquay.
496, the Argentinian boat sailed by J. Brauer has the Canadian boat, 483 , sailed by future Int 14 star Paul McLaughlin, neatly tucked away to leeward. 493, Eire, 484, Spain and 481, Finland, are equally looking to be 2nd rank starters. It is possible that the Gold Medallist, the young Paul Elvstrom, is just up to windward of 483. Certainly, he made a number of cracking buoy end starts that helped bring him back into contention for a RTD in Race 1.
"the weather is not normally like this" Torquay in the August of 1948 was damp and drizzly, with a very unstable wind pattern. This meant that even early on, the fleet would soon spread out. Much had been expected of the UK helm, Arthur MacDonald, but he was to suffer an unhappy regatta and just as in this picture, would finish mid fleet.
Late on in the regatta, the weather would become stormy, conditions that would highlight weaknesses in the buoyancy arrangement provided for the boat. With little in the way of self bailing, competitors were all provided with a large galvanised bucket - but in the windy conditions of the last race, these proved ineffective.
Photo courtesy of top foto
The famous French dinghy sailor and designer J.J.M. Herbulot, trying to bail out his swamped dinghy.
Get the next issue of Dinghy Sailing Magazine or Contact Bearfacemedia for more on this story.