The oldest video footage of Wayfarer racing dinghies
by Magnus Smith 20 Jul 2025 12:00 BST
Equally happy teaching beginners the joys of sailing, or crossing the North Sea or being a strong performer on the race course, the Wayfarer is still the best go anywhere, do it all dinghy © Proctor family
Our video archive is fully searchable, and updated weekly with the latest sailing videos, but here we look back at early sailing in the Wayfarer dinghy class, known as much for cruising as for racing. We have footage from the Sixties to the Nineties for you to enjoy.
Our oldest video covers a famous voyage from Scotland to Norway in a Wayfarer dinghy in 1964. Frank Dye and Bill Brockbank survived F9 winds, capsizes, and most of us would not wish to emulate the trip!
The 1983 National School Sailing Association Regatta at Brightlingsea shows a contingent of Wayfarers rounding a mark at 5m33s and crossing the finish line at 16m37s, so you can skip straight to those points if needed.
Back in 1991 Steve Clarke-Lens sailed 4000 miles in a Wayfarer, and this video mixes a modern interview with original footage.
Finally we have a 1995 Wayfarer promo from Ontario, just to make sure we haven't stuck purely to UK videos.
What of the rest?
Do you know the location of any other old Wayfarer videos? We would love to share these with sailors worldwide. You can submit video links for immediate review.
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