0:00:05 > 0:00:10I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and sky,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
0:00:14 > 0:00:19And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
0:00:19 > 0:00:24And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37These lines evoke perfectly the feelings about the sea
0:00:37 > 0:00:39that so many of us have.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47For some, the lure of the sea is to be on it, in a boat or dingy.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55For others, it's crashing through the waves on a surfboard.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01And for millions, it's just wanting to be close to it.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The sea just has a great fascination because it's the unknown.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09It's a great challenge.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16My father used to say to me when I was little,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19"Get it or on it and go as fast as you can."
0:01:24 > 0:01:28There was nobody on the beach, why not? Let's just do it.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31There's my dad jumping up and down in the altogether looking like a loon
0:01:31 > 0:01:33and having the time of his life.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38To enjoy the sea in the early years of the 20th century,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43you had to be either living close to it, or rich enough get to it.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Sailing especially was largely the preserve of the upper classes...
0:01:47 > 0:01:50and their hired hands.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54As the century unfolded, that changed.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57A revolution took place that saw more and more people
0:01:57 > 0:02:01being able to get to the sea and enjoy it in all sorts of ways.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Lots of them filmed those experiences,
0:02:05 > 0:02:10and their movies and memories reveal why that revolution happened
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and its consequences.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Five, four, three, two, one.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26- Mark. That is your start.- All clear.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Artemis Challenge, all clear, all clear. Have a good sail.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35This is the starting platform of the Royal Yacht Squadron,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38one of the most exclusive yachting clubs in the world,
0:02:38 > 0:02:43and this is one of its busiest times of the year, Cowes week.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Can you please be quiet?
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Quiet please. SHORT BEEP
0:02:47 > 0:02:51One time, that was your preparatory signal for Artemis Challenge.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55In charge of today's racing is squadron member Simon van der Byl.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58There are starts every five minutes,
0:02:58 > 0:03:00but Simon has an army of people to help.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Laser SP3, just to remind you, you are starting east of the east line.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07Plus one line. Out.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Now it's a case of fingers crossed, whether we can...get them away.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18Five, four, three, two, one.
0:03:18 > 0:03:19- Gun. - CANNON FIRES
0:03:19 > 0:03:21Recall!
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Too many of them were over the start so they have a general recall,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29they all go back... Ooh, damn. Start again.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33If you can see the individual boats that are over,
0:03:33 > 0:03:38you can call the individual numbers. When there's a big mass, you can't.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42We have to wait till they get back round, and the sequence goes again.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46Laser SP3, just to warn you, this will be a black flag start.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50You will be expelled to outer darkness if you get this one wrong.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Five, four, three, two, one.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57BEEP, CANNON FIRES
0:03:57 > 0:03:593465 is now over.
0:03:59 > 0:04:033465, you have been black flagged. You should retire.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09The regatta at Cowes has been the highlight of the sailing calendar
0:04:09 > 0:04:11for the rich since Victorian times.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13All clear!
0:04:16 > 0:04:18Typical of the class of gentlemen
0:04:18 > 0:04:20who were competitors at Cowes in the 1930s
0:04:20 > 0:04:25was this Royal Yacht Squadron member and amateur film-maker.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36Well, I wish it was sharper, but that's age for you. It's shaky.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39It's very hard to hold a camera steady when you're at sea anyway.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43With the sort of equipment they had then, I think it's not too bad.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50He was born to an upper middle-class family in Berkshire,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and he went to Eton and to the Guards,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55had a very traditional upbringing.
0:04:55 > 0:05:02After that, he joined the Army and went into the Grenadier Guards.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05He was posted to Egypt in the late '20s, early '30s,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09at which time he took quite a lot of these movies.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Then he had a blinding row with his commanding officer
0:05:14 > 0:05:17who wouldn't let him sail in some race that he wanted to,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19and he was a very impulsive chap, my father
0:05:19 > 0:05:22so he just said, "Right, OK, I'm quitting."
0:05:23 > 0:05:26He had an uncle to whom he was very close,
0:05:26 > 0:05:31who founded the Lymington Yacht Club, and he taught him sailing.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37I think he might have been unsettled with himself or something,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39not entirely happy with himself, but at sea,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41it became utterly different for him.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44He enjoyed the whole element of being at sea
0:05:44 > 0:05:47and was much more relaxed and happy at sea.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56So this I think must be Cowes because the boats were dressed overall,
0:05:56 > 0:05:58flags all the way up and down and round.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05Cowes, of course, was in the '30s, in its absolute heyday.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09It came to prominence and public notice really through Queen Victoria
0:06:09 > 0:06:12when she bought Osborne House.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16And then, after the death of Albert,
0:06:16 > 0:06:21she spent a lot of time there and that just naturally drove
0:06:21 > 0:06:23the aristocratic community,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27and in particular the yachting community, to Cowes.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Cowes was perhaps the pre-eminent yachting venue in the world.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35It was where people needed to be and wanted to be.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40Gerald Potter, a wealthy person, the car of choice a Rolls-Royce,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45would have fitted into the whole of that world perfectly.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50And like many of the upper middle classes
0:06:50 > 0:06:53who could afford to sail at Cowes in the 1930s,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Gerald Potter was wealthy enough to be able to commission his own boat.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04This film is the construction of Gerald's boat, called Carmela.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11I think he just liked to be able to look back on something
0:07:11 > 0:07:14that was very dear to his heart and be able to see it all over again.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21Wealthy people had yachts designed and built for them.
0:07:21 > 0:07:22They were all hand-built,
0:07:22 > 0:07:27individually drawn and individually built. No two were the same.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33An owner would invest a huge amount of his own time and his personality
0:07:33 > 0:07:36in having a yacht built,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39and employ a professional skipper and partly professional crew
0:07:39 > 0:07:42to sail it and race it for him.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45He would have been very typical then
0:07:45 > 0:07:49of what might have been called the after guard on big yachts,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52who stayed at the back of the yacht, directed operations,
0:07:52 > 0:07:53who owned the yachts.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01This was how the sea was enjoyed in the early years of the 20th century
0:08:01 > 0:08:03by people with wealth.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09But for those from a less privileged background,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11a more improvised approach was required.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied,
0:08:23 > 0:08:28And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
0:08:28 > 0:08:33And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the seagulls crying.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42'They're coming out of the train with the luggage
0:08:42 > 0:08:44'which my father was carrying.'
0:08:44 > 0:08:48He was carrying a basket on his shoulder.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Lewis Rosenberg shot these films in the 1920s.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59They are all wearing suits.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01And you never think of people going on holiday,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04especially a camping holiday, wearing suits and ties.
0:09:04 > 0:09:10'It's such a contrast to the way that we travel nowadays.'
0:09:13 > 0:09:17My father came from an East End Jewish family,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20his parents had been immigrants from Poland.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24He always had a camera with him.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27I think he was just wanting to capture and retain
0:09:27 > 0:09:31the memories of the holidays that he went on.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36They were a group who met through work
0:09:36 > 0:09:42and all had sort of fairly similar backgrounds, similar political ideas.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45They saved for a year, two shillings a week.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52My father made the tents for their holiday and off they went.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10'There is my father aged 19, 20, looking at me.'
0:10:16 > 0:10:20He looked frightening like me, he moved like me,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22he seemed to talk like me, his gestures were the same.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30He died more than 50 years ago.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33It was the first time I had seen him in 50 years.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36It was quite moving and I just... and I was entranced.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Lewis Rosenberg's films of Ivor's father and the rest of the group
0:10:48 > 0:10:52show just how ingenious these working-class London teenagers were.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58The surfing was extremely unusual and was perhaps indicative of the fact
0:10:58 > 0:11:00that this was a group that didn't follow
0:11:00 > 0:11:04the things that people every day were doing.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07There used to be a thing, before the days of television news,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10called news theatres, where once a week there was a newsreel
0:11:10 > 0:11:14showing the news from around the world and also features.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And my dad's group of friends went there one day
0:11:17 > 0:11:20and saw a feature about surfing in Australia.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23They saw the boards and they just thought it was fantastic.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30The surf board that my father made for himself was a long board,
0:11:30 > 0:11:31and it didn't have a fin
0:11:31 > 0:11:34and therefore didn't balance very well in the water.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42That is actually a remarkable piece of film.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45I have certainly never seen anything like that before
0:11:45 > 0:11:49in as much as it's the earliest surfing photographs
0:11:49 > 0:11:51ever taken in Britain.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53I saw them get up temporarily to their feet
0:11:53 > 0:11:58but nobody had it mastered to stand up right to the beach, did they?
0:12:00 > 0:12:03As you can see in the films, they could never stand up,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05because what they didn't know,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08surf boards have fins which stabilise them.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11On the newsreels, you never saw the surfers
0:12:11 > 0:12:13going in and out of the water carrying their boards,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16you simply saw them on the water standing up.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19No matter how hard they tried, the boards weren't stable
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and it was a great frustration.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28Given the time period, they wouldn't have seen a fin on the boards
0:12:28 > 0:12:29that they were looking at anyway.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33The fin didn't come in until about 1937,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35and that was only in Hawaii,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39and then it slowly spread in the following decade.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44It was only natural that there wasn't a fin on the base of the surfboard.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49'My father is now walking into the sea
0:12:49 > 0:12:52'with his stripy bathing costume on,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54'and he is just trying to stand.'
0:12:56 > 0:12:58He was ever so proud,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01because he had made a waterproof casing for the camera,
0:13:01 > 0:13:06and actually strapped it to the surf board and I'd never seen the film
0:13:06 > 0:13:11of the surf board going through the water. That is remarkable.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14For someone then to think about doing something like that...
0:13:25 > 0:13:29What I was particularly struck with, watching the film,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32was that role my father plays is the court jester.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35He seems to be the centre of the fun, not centre of the surfing,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39not the centre of the chasing the girls, but the centre of the fun.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43For me, that was very, very exciting because he was quite a serious man,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47he was very interested in politics and music and he worked very hard.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51There is one extraordinary sequence where he is naked, which was...
0:13:51 > 0:13:53I don't want to overstress the politics,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56but it was a bit of the anti-establishment.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59It was a time of hope, it was before the Spanish Civil War
0:13:59 > 0:14:02which was one of the first great disappointments.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06There was nobody on the beach, why not? Let's just do it.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09And there is my dad jumping up and down looking like a complete loon
0:14:09 > 0:14:11and having the time of his life.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16It was that sense of political possibility but also teenage fun.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Which makes it such an exciting bit of film to look at,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23and it captures something which we don't have now.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29'These days, you associate beaches with being packed full of people,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33'and these are big, almost empty beaches.'
0:14:37 > 0:14:41The Cornish beaches were almost empty in the 1930s
0:14:41 > 0:14:43because the area had yet to be discovered.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48These North London teenagers were unusual.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51The vast majority of poorer people searching for the sea
0:14:51 > 0:14:55were more likely to do what this movie maker from Manchester did.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Take the train to one of the big Northern seaside resorts.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04I worked in the cinema in Manchester.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06Whenever I got a day off, we'd shoot off somewhere
0:15:06 > 0:15:11with the kids and Southport was normally a good venue to come to.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35Don Sykes was a cinema projectionist and as well as making his own films,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38he collected ones made by others.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42The prints that are on this reel came from a chap
0:15:42 > 0:15:48who was a projectionist at Formby during the silent days.
0:15:48 > 0:15:54Occasionally, we'd get a newsreel with an item about Southport.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59Before I sent it back, he'd snip out that item of Southport and keep it.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07The early films that Don has collected
0:16:07 > 0:16:11show how popular seaside resorts like Southport were in the 1920s.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17It was certainly busy. A lot of people here.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20I think it showed that when people came to Southport,
0:16:20 > 0:16:22generally, they enjoyed themselves.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Plenty to do, plenty of entertainment.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Looking down to see who's bathing,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39there is probably seven or eight thousand people in there.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Right from the beginning, the seaside has been
0:16:44 > 0:16:48what's called in the jargon a liminal space, where the land meets the sea.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50It's nobody's land.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53There's a suspension of the usual conventions
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and constraints on everyday behaviour.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00You're liberated from the discipline of the factory and the office.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04The seaside allows you to break away from your everyday self.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08It's about the carnivalesque, it's about the possibility
0:17:08 > 0:17:11that you can temporarily turn the world upside down.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15And, as course, you can dress up to pretend to be somebody you aren't.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22As well as portraying the town's carnivalesque atmosphere,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25the films Don Sykes collected show how the council in Southport,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28a holiday resort on a river estuary,
0:17:28 > 0:17:33overcame the distinct disadvantage of the sea going out a long way.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36If you're an estuarine resort like Southport,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40what you do is make the most of the space that the extended
0:17:40 > 0:17:43area of sand provides and you consolidate it.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48You have your public gardens, marine lakes, your outdoor swimming pools.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51You have a whole alternative, artificial seaside
0:17:51 > 0:17:54and you can market that as a controlled landscape.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59The council's policy worked well and people from Lancashire mill towns
0:17:59 > 0:18:03flocked to the sea bathing lake and Southport's other attractions.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08The town's cinemas found an ingenious way of using film
0:18:08 > 0:18:12to make money from these teeming crowds.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16The local cinemas in the back end of the '20s and the early '30s
0:18:16 > 0:18:22would send a freelance cameraman out to film local important events.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26The brief for the cameraman was to shoot lots and lots of crowd shots.
0:18:26 > 0:18:27The more the better.
0:18:27 > 0:18:33On the cameraman's tripod was a sign saying "See yourselves at..."
0:18:33 > 0:18:35and the name of the cinema.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Basically, it was an advertising film,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40a very early form of advertising film.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Working-class families continued to pour into places like Southport
0:18:47 > 0:18:49right through the 1930s.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Then, at the end of a long hot summer in 1939,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59the outbreak of war changed everything.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03For six years, most of the coast in Southern England was out of bounds.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07So when peace came in 1945,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10the desire to get back to the sea was huge.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16That desire was encapsulated in the home movies
0:19:16 > 0:19:18of a famous Second World War hero.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43Max Aitken, heir to the powerful Beaverbrook group of newspapers,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47had been a remarkably brave and successful wartime fighter pilot.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53When the war was over, his competitive character
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and love of sailing brought him, and his film camera,
0:19:57 > 0:19:59to this house in Cowes in the Isle of Wight.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06You don't understand what happened to these guys in the war.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09'All his friends were killed, and to put up with that,'
0:20:09 > 0:20:11to get to that level,
0:20:11 > 0:20:17and to live after all his friends were killed...really awful, I think.
0:20:19 > 0:20:25After the war, he then got into offshore sailing.
0:20:25 > 0:20:26It kept up his life a bit.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32At the same time, he was running the Daily Express.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36His father was Max Beaverbrook, my grandfather,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38and he was getting older by this time
0:20:38 > 0:20:40so my father ran the newspapers.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Every weekend, he'd be down and doing his sailing.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55How much did you see of your father?
0:20:55 > 0:21:00Um...I suppose not as much as normal families
0:21:00 > 0:21:05in the sense that he was working in London during the week.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08But, you know, Sunday lunches.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10I thought it was perfectly normal.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13That's my mum.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16She was pretty glam, wasn't she?
0:21:16 > 0:21:19- That's me. - SHE LAUGHS
0:21:19 > 0:21:23I was a pretty little thing, wasn't I? Little chubby face.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27That's where I grew up.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30That's my grandfather.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32He was great to me. I was the youngest grandchild.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35He used to call me the prettiest little girl in Surrey.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37I always wondered why just Surrey!
0:21:39 > 0:21:42That's Capponcina, our house in the south of France.
0:21:44 > 0:21:50There's Dad there. He had a house down in the Bahamas.
0:21:51 > 0:21:58Ah! This is Drumbeat, a wonderful boat that my father had.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05I would put Max definitely in the competitive class.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10He obviously loved being at sea, but in everything else he did,
0:22:10 > 0:22:15from shooting giant German airplanes to, you know, polo racing,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19all sorts of other contraptions and craft, he was competitive.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25It was these competitive instincts
0:22:25 > 0:22:27that drove Max Aitken into ocean racing.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31And he had the wealth to be able to commission Drumbeat
0:22:31 > 0:22:34as a boat that he believed could beat the best.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44She was built by Clare Lallow in Cowes,
0:22:44 > 0:22:49then at the absolute height of their powers and abilities
0:22:49 > 0:22:52as the builders of beautiful yachts.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55Clare Lallow considered the boat to be so special,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58he decided to record its construction on film.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04This was a big step forward as far as Father was concerned.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07It was the biggest boat he'd ever built.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11This boat was built in about eight months.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15A lot of the chaps that did this sort of work had part-time jobs
0:23:15 > 0:23:20sailing with other customers at weekends in various boats.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30All you see is people using planes and sharp tools
0:23:30 > 0:23:34of various shapes and sizes, because it's all wood.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39It's a dying art. You won't see this ever again, quite frankly.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43There's a picture of Sir Max with Lady Aitken
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and my father walking out through the yard.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50They've obviously just been in to inspect progress.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56What was so very special about Drumbeat
0:23:56 > 0:23:58was the newness of her design.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02And nothing quite like her had been seen in this country.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06She was just a thing of real, real beauty
0:24:06 > 0:24:09when she came out and was launched.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14She was launched with a great fanfare in the summer of 1957.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21There's my father telling Lady Aitken
0:24:21 > 0:24:25how to throw the bottle on the bow and make sure it cracks first time.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33Bang, there we go, first time.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Father with a drink in his hand. The launching's over.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46The pressure is off. The boat's afloat.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50She was a work of art.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Varnished Honduras mahogany, topside.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56She just sparkled golden in the sun.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Very, very radical boat of her day.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06There's Drumbeat with a huge great fantastic spinnaker,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09which is the big round sail at the front.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13When they put that spinnaker up,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16the boat was taken where you had to go.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25She had a proper galley and dining saloon forward.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27An owners' state room to one side.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30You don't get many of those on racing yachts now.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38But it was not just the look of the boat that was different.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40To make it faster through the water,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Drumbeat had been designed with a revolutionary keel.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47Max Aitken was used to success,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51and he expected the same from his state-of-the-art boat.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53But it never happened.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Its first big challenge came in 1957
0:25:55 > 0:26:00in one of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's most prestigious events -
0:26:00 > 0:26:03the Fastnet Race.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Max was very keen to do that race.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09It started in a gale and then got worse.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17Of the six very smart, modern, brand-new winches
0:26:17 > 0:26:19to the very latest designs they had on Drumbeat,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22five of them failed and stripped their gearing,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25so they couldn't sail the boat and they had to retire.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32And worse was to follow.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35After a couple of years of modest success,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38disaster struck in the 1960 Transatlantic Race.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Drumbeat's mast broke in half.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49Max's friend and skipper of the boat Gerald Potter filmed the aftermath.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55It must have been quite an alarming time when the mast actually went.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01They ended up constructing what's called a jury rig.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05They essentially put a spar on top of the broken mast
0:27:05 > 0:27:09and turned the main sail around so that it was on its side,
0:27:09 > 0:27:14so they still had sufficient sail to be able to make progress.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18There's my father at the helm.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20So obviously someone's taken his cine-camera.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Here you can see how the mainsail is completely sideways.
0:27:24 > 0:27:25The bottom is on the left,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28and the two long sides are pulled towards the back.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29Very effective.
0:27:32 > 0:27:39Max Aitken sold Drumbeat in 1966 and its sale marked the end of an era.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43Perhaps sailing just wasn't thrilling enough
0:27:43 > 0:27:45for the ace wartime fighter pilot.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53He discovered powerboat racing and that was, "Wow, this is amazing."
0:27:53 > 0:27:56And so he brought it over here.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59And he started off something called the Cowes Torquay Cowes,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03which I'm running this year. It grew and grew and grew.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06It went to Italy, France, became hugely big
0:28:06 > 0:28:10and so that rather took over his life, as opposed to sailing.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19I hated sailing because when you get on a sailing boat
0:28:19 > 0:28:20with someone like your father
0:28:20 > 0:28:23or your boyfriend, they're perfectly nice people,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26and when they get on a sailing boat, they grow horns
0:28:26 > 0:28:28and they become absolute horror people.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32And they start shouting and screaming at you.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Whereas on a powerboat, my father used to say to me when I was little,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39"Get in it or on it and go as fast as you can."
0:28:42 > 0:28:45But it wasn't only the rich who were looking to go faster.
0:28:45 > 0:28:46This was the Swinging 60s,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50and just as Max Aitken was getting into powerboats,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54the pastime that Lewis Rosenberg's friends had discovered
0:28:54 > 0:28:58in the 1920s in Cornwall was beginning to re-emerge.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf
0:29:01 > 0:29:05# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf... #
0:29:05 > 0:29:09My name is Gwynedd and I just love surfing.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18# Surf fever brings 'em here to meet the test... #
0:29:18 > 0:29:20Paddling for the wave and then stumbling up
0:29:20 > 0:29:27and then managing to stand up and then going across the wave, it's just like walking on the sea.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf
0:29:30 > 0:29:34# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf... #
0:29:42 > 0:29:43Gwynedd started surfing early.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48She grew up in Cornwall and as a child she was never far away from the north coast beaches.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55The beaches through the '50s were enjoyed just for being beaches.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59But there was always the waves on the north coast of Cornwall
0:29:59 > 0:30:04and this gave rise to a really marked increase in the popularity of belly-boarding.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10One of these belly-boarders was Gwynedd's father.
0:30:10 > 0:30:17He would be at the beach in all seasons, with his board, and his family and his film camera.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22The belly-board one, those were back in the 1950s.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26That's how people used to enjoy their surfing. I still like to use the wooden belly-board.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30That's what I learnt on and you get the feel of the wave.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38Gwynedd was the first British woman I can really remember making her mark in the waves.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41In the mid-'60s when I was just a child on Great Western Beach,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44the next beach to it in the Newquay Bay is Tolcarne.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49Trevor Roberts was the lifeguard and he offered to teach her to surf.
0:30:49 > 0:30:56But he put a proviso on this that if she could actually carry her surfboard down to the water
0:30:56 > 0:30:59and actually put it in the water because it was big
0:30:59 > 0:31:02and she was a girl, he would then teach her to surf.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07It was so heavy I had to put it on my head
0:31:07 > 0:31:11and I was determined to carry the board down. But he was right.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14If you couldn't carry a surfboard, you shouldn't be going in the sea.
0:31:14 > 0:31:21But I managed to carry it down and managed to push it out and paddle out with it.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28Gwynedd was interested in competition and to make a point
0:31:28 > 0:31:32about the girls, she entered one of the early British contests.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37No ladies' section. So she had to surf in the men's section
0:31:37 > 0:31:43which was embarrassing for the contest organisers and it was
0:31:43 > 0:31:46very shortly after that a women's category was introduced to surfing.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55I was the first British ladies surfing champion.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58I was champion for about four or five years.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05By the time Gwynedd was winning these surfing competitions, Newquay,
0:32:05 > 0:32:10like other Cornish holiday resorts, was beginning to attract visitors from right across the country.
0:32:14 > 0:32:20What was happening on this coastline was after the Second World War, there was a period of lull of about
0:32:20 > 0:32:2410 years, but by the time we're into the '50s,
0:32:24 > 0:32:30people are starting to get back into society stabilising and people are starting to take holidays.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36And these young people were seeing something quite different from their
0:32:36 > 0:32:39lives in Liverpool or Birmingham or Manchester.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48One of the great developments of the 1950s is the emergence of the teenage consumer.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53You've got people in work,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55better paid at younger ages than before.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57With a bit of surplus.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01You've changing relations within families as well, so that with a bit more prosperity,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05young people aren't expected to tip up the whole of their wage packet
0:33:05 > 0:33:08and get just a little bit of spending money back.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13It's wanting to be able to display your sort of fashions and freedoms,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16which go beyond those of the 1930s.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20If you've got access your own transport in one form or another,
0:33:20 > 0:33:26you can be adventurous, go away from the conventional resort where your parents might go,
0:33:26 > 0:33:30try something new and have a bit of fun as a teenage group.
0:33:32 > 0:33:39You've moved from a situation in which tastes were shared across the generations to
0:33:39 > 0:33:43divisions between the generations in what they want.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48As so how do you provide for the rising generation with rock 'n' roll
0:33:48 > 0:33:54and at the same time in the same places for the older generations with their kind of music?
0:34:03 > 0:34:08# Bring me sunshine in your smile
0:34:08 > 0:34:14# Bring me laughter all the while... #
0:34:14 > 0:34:18For traditional seaside resorts, the problem of catering for
0:34:18 > 0:34:22different types of holiday maker was not immediately apparent.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26Summers in Southport were still very busy when Don Sykes, the home
0:34:26 > 0:34:32movie-maker from Manchester, moved to the town permanently in 1973.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34When we first came here it was a bit of a novelty.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37We'd be down with the kids on the beach every weekend.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41Whenever I got a day off from the theatre. It was absolutely heaving.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44And the kids loved it.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49# Bring me fun Bring me sunshine, bring me love. #
0:34:53 > 0:34:56But changing tastes and growing choice were taking their toll
0:34:56 > 0:35:02and by the late 1970s Southport was seeing holidaymakers drifting away.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07The chap who at that time as director of tourism and attractions knew that
0:35:07 > 0:35:09I had a keen interest in cine-photography.
0:35:09 > 0:35:16And he suggested that we make this film about Southport and what it had to offer.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21We made Wish You Were Here in about 1976.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26When you're making a film of that sort, and I've seen an awful lot of
0:35:26 > 0:35:31documentaries about seaside resorts, you get a sort of this and a shot of that and a shot of the other and you
0:35:31 > 0:35:35get a commentator saying, "And this is so and so and that's so and so."
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Nothing connects things together.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42And, to me, they're totally boring.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44And I wanted to have
0:35:44 > 0:35:48something that connected the sequences together.
0:35:50 > 0:35:56So I roped in a couple of girls to be in this film as though they were two girls on holiday,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59sending a postcard home to mum and dad.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03"Dear Mum and Dad. We're having a smashing time here in Southport.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08"There's lots to do and so far we've had plenty of sunshine."
0:36:08 > 0:36:14Carol worked in the Floral Hall Gardens as a deckchair attendant.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16And so she was number one.
0:36:18 > 0:36:24It was 1976. I was 16. I was doing a summer job at the time
0:36:24 > 0:36:27and so I was a convenient person for Don to pick on.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29- Cheap as well!
0:36:31 > 0:36:40The other girl, Chris, she was a kiosk attendant in the theatre.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42She sold sweets.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46I asked them first of all, "Would you like to have a go at this film?"
0:36:46 > 0:36:47Then we made the film.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52I don't know why he chose two young girls. You'll have to ask Don.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57We didn't have any young chaps working at the theatre that were suitable!
0:37:05 > 0:37:09I think there's a great sense of freedom when you're near the sea.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11I think you feel a bit more relaxed.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Blue skies and sea is much more relaxing than being in a busy town.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21We would go to the different locations and do a little bit of filming each day
0:37:21 > 0:37:25and it was just a question of picking out the tourist spots of Southport.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28"The models of towns and village life
0:37:28 > 0:37:33"are all built on the premises and the details are quite fantastic."
0:37:33 > 0:37:35When you're doing it, put a bit of thought into it.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39If you're going to take a shot of that, you need a shot of this.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42But in between time, you'd need a shot of the other.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45And so we covered things like Pleasure Land...
0:37:48 > 0:37:50..the Botanic Gardens...
0:37:50 > 0:37:52- Rotten Row.- Rotten Row.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57A tour on the open top bus.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01"You can forget that old joke about the tide not coming in at Southport.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04"Cos it does. We saw it."
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Basically it was made up as we went along.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12I think it's always been thought of as a Victorian seaside resort
0:38:12 > 0:38:17and so I think he wanted to show more of a fun entertaining side of the town.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28There's not as much for the visitor, entertainment-wise,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30as there was 25 years ago.
0:38:32 > 0:38:37The model village, that's gone and that is now Safeway's.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42Sea Bathing Lake's gone and in place of it, the Vue cinema.
0:38:42 > 0:38:50The Floral Gardens that are featured with the English Rose and Rosewood Competition, that's gone.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59One of the things we can learn from Southport is that
0:38:59 > 0:39:05if you want to be a successful resort, rather than a town that happens to be by the seaside,
0:39:05 > 0:39:13if you want a seaside identity, you have to keep your existing icons and recognise them for what they are.
0:39:13 > 0:39:19And when you're building new stuff, it shouldn't be stuff that you could find anywhere.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27When the film was finished, we had a premier at Southport Theatre
0:39:27 > 0:39:30and we could show a picture as big as the normal 35mm picture
0:39:30 > 0:39:32what can be 25 foot wide.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35We had 1,600 people in to see that.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37Good night. Knockout.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49Though he didn't realise it at the time, Don was filming a seaside experience in decline.
0:39:52 > 0:39:59But at the same time, a young film-maker in Cornwall was capturing a seaside phenomenon on the rise.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03Surfing had all ready come along way from the pioneering days of the early '60s.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12This film I made in 1976.
0:40:12 > 0:40:18Two of my friends wrote the soundtrack, so I had two original pieces of music in it.
0:40:18 > 0:40:19Talking Surfers Blues...
0:40:19 > 0:40:22# Funny thing's happening in the world today
0:40:22 > 0:40:24# Gonna capture the moon, or so they say
0:40:26 > 0:40:29# Tell you boy, it's not too certain
0:40:29 > 0:40:32# Folks down here are goin' surfing... #
0:40:32 > 0:40:35And Getting Wet, which is the title track of the film.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40# Getting wet Hm, getting wet in the morning light
0:40:40 > 0:40:44# Ooh, I'm getting wet...
0:40:44 > 0:40:51It was made on Super 8 and I did it purely as an amateur enthusiast surfer and film-maker, really.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54# Hm, getting wet in the morning light... #
0:40:54 > 0:41:01He may have been only an amateur, but John was just as imaginative with his film camera in the '70s
0:41:01 > 0:41:06as Lewis Rosenberg had been with his camera filming surfing back in the '20s.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10The point of view shot is the shot which is the money shot.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12It was my speciality.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17And I always used to wear a helmet, not for protection,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20but I used to wear the helmet so that they could
0:41:20 > 0:41:24see me in the water because you can imagine a head in the water
0:41:24 > 0:41:26is a very small object.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30And they used to say you could tell the Hawaiian surfing cameramen,
0:41:30 > 0:41:36because they had big bumps on their forehead where they'd been hit by surfboards!
0:41:36 > 0:41:39# Getting wet in the morning light... #
0:41:39 > 0:41:43In the 50 years since cinema newsreels had first brought pictures
0:41:43 > 0:41:52of this new pastime to Britain, surfing was just becoming a global pastime.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55But there was nothing new about what lay behind its appeal.
0:41:55 > 0:42:01There's nothing that compares with the thrill of actually standing up on the wave.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05There is no engines, no power. It's just the force of nature that's actually driving you along it.
0:42:07 > 0:42:14# I love you by night and day Sweet Atlantic Ocean
0:42:14 > 0:42:15# Getting wet... #
0:42:15 > 0:42:20And John did more than just make films for himself.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23He showed them.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27First in local dance halls and later travelling across the country
0:42:27 > 0:42:30he conveyed to others what was happening in Cornwall.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38John with his journeys around the country, showing the surf films,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40became very much a carrier of
0:42:40 > 0:42:44information from one place to another on a sort of cultural level.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47What they were looking at was trying to find out what on earth the surfers looked like
0:42:47 > 0:42:51and the waves looked like in other parts of the country.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53What's this that I'm part of?
0:42:54 > 0:42:57I know that locally,
0:42:57 > 0:43:03surfers were regarded as something of oddballs, to a certain extent.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05It wasn't rugby, it wasn't cricket.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07It was an individual sport.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12And most of the people that did it had a bit of a bad reputation
0:43:12 > 0:43:15of having long hair and smoking dope
0:43:15 > 0:43:18and not taking life too seriously
0:43:18 > 0:43:20which is really what all the surfers were about.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24They were just about enjoying the water, enjoying the pleasure
0:43:24 > 0:43:27of surfing and listening to really good music at the same time.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31It was slow in the beginning.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34And the main reason was because although a lot of people
0:43:34 > 0:43:38might have seen it and thought, "That looks kind of interesting,"
0:43:38 > 0:43:41the ones who were able to act were the ones who could get their hands on a surfboard.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45It wasn't something that was mass-produced, that was sold in the shops,
0:43:45 > 0:43:50Therefore you had to find somebody who knew how to make it or make it yourself.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58At the beginning of the 1960s, surfboard technology hadn't moved
0:43:58 > 0:44:01much beyond the old-fashioned home-made, wooden belly-boards.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07By the end of the decade, fibre-glass was replacing
0:44:07 > 0:44:10wood and boards were becoming much lighter and much cheaper.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17I've had this one about six years.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20It's eight foot long
0:44:20 > 0:44:27and it's not really a short board, like the young fellows like to surf and the young girls.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29It's quite light, actually.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31I want to be able to get out through the surf.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35I catch a wave quite easily and have a longer ride.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf
0:44:37 > 0:44:41# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf
0:44:41 > 0:44:45# Ride, ride, ride the wild surf
0:44:45 > 0:44:51# Got to take that wild last ride.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54# Surf fever brings 'em here to meet the test
0:44:54 > 0:44:57# And hangin' 'round the beach you'll see the best... #
0:44:57 > 0:45:00And it wasn't just the boards that changed.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05When Gwynedd Haslock started surfing in the early '60s wetsuits were unheard of.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11In the winter, you didn't surf
0:45:11 > 0:45:15but in the autumn you'd put on a woolly jumper.
0:45:15 > 0:45:21That would keep you warm and then people were starting to buy suits
0:45:21 > 0:45:24and I managed to get a diving suit, which zipped up at the front.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28We were making it up as we went along.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32We didn't know how to make a wetsuit but we'd find out how to make a wetsuit.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35And so on and so on with every aspect of the sport.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39It took a surfer here to look at it and go, "We need to
0:45:39 > 0:45:43"refine these designs to become more athletic, more flexible."
0:45:45 > 0:45:48And it was surfing that demanded that the wetsuit grow better.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57And, as well as getting better, wet suits got cheaper.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Once an expensive item, the mass-produced supermarket
0:46:01 > 0:46:06varieties were well within the price range of the casual holiday-maker.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11Here, in the 21st century, surfing has now definitely arrived.
0:46:11 > 0:46:16Beaches that I and my earlier peer group surfed alone
0:46:16 > 0:46:20are now absolutely jam-packed full of people surfing.
0:46:22 > 0:46:27From the time Roger and his peer group first surfed those empty beaches in the 1960s,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31the sport had evolved in a haphazard "make do and mend" fashion.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36The same was true of sailing.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39Once it had been the pursuit of an elite.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41By the '60s, it too was changing.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56When I was a seven-year-old, there was lots of young people in boats.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01There seemed to be more enthusiasm for sailing and general boating and mucking about in boats.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25I first came to Porlock when I was seven. That was in 1955.
0:47:25 > 0:47:30We came from Sussex and I knew nothing about the sea at all.
0:47:30 > 0:47:36I used to hear the waves all night and it used to rock you to sleep.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38It was a lovely sound.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53Porlock, on the coast of West Somerset, was a classic mud harbour
0:47:53 > 0:47:58and the years that Bill Hogg grew up there were filmed by one of the yachtmen, Maurice Culverwell.
0:47:59 > 0:48:08When he died - he died by drinking himself into oblivion, I'm afraid - but he left me all his films.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17That's my father waiting for me to come in from sailing.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21I'm afraid I used to sneak off and leave father set on the shore.
0:48:21 > 0:48:22Poor father.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Part of the fun down here was our harbour master used to
0:48:31 > 0:48:34involve us quite a lot and we used to help out with other people's boats.
0:48:34 > 0:48:40And people from away expected us to look after them and the harbour master used to keep an eye on us.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49That's Mike Ley.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Mike Ley was brought up in the Wear. He was my first mate.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12We went to school together, we got in lots of trouble together.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22Mike use to take the mickey out of me a bit because I didn't talk properly
0:49:22 > 0:49:24because I didn't say "Ooh-arr" and all that!
0:49:24 > 0:49:26He's a bit more posh then we are.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31We're two different classes, in a way. In those days, it was to be recognised.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34But the common denominator was the sailing.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39We could do everything down here. Everything from younger age, we had model boats.
0:49:39 > 0:49:45And then as you got bigger before we went sailing in proper boats, we used to have small dinghies.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Put a mast up on it and a sheet.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51I think the freedom gave you confidence.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54When I had my first boat Mike and I used it to go
0:49:54 > 0:49:57out quite a lot together and he used to show me the ropes.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01There's only one way to teach someone to sail, take them out there, put them on the helm.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03And just let them do it themselves.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08I suppose you could say it was a good pulling thing in those days.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12You could say I've got a nice car, you could say, I've got the use of a boat.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14Do you want to go for a sail? "Oh, OK."
0:50:18 > 0:50:23Mike and I have always been very competitive, not only with boats, but with girls.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44'These two pals were lucky, they lived by the coast.'
0:50:44 > 0:50:50But changes in technology and new materials in the 1960s would give similar opportunities
0:50:50 > 0:50:53to thousands of ordinary people wherever they lived.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Technology would democratise sailing.
0:50:56 > 0:51:01The revolution began in the late '50s with plywood and kit boats,
0:51:01 > 0:51:07the most famous was the red sailed Mirror dinghy named after its sponsor the Daily Mirror.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09But the DIY phase was short lived.
0:51:16 > 0:51:26The next big jump from development in the whole pastime is the development of glass reinforced plastic.
0:51:26 > 0:51:33That obviously marked the end of the do-it-yourself boat-building era.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40The next iconic small boat is the laser
0:51:40 > 0:51:43which is just stamped out.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45Absolute mass production.
0:51:45 > 0:51:51Everyone identical, barely a piece of wood anywhere on it.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53All made out of glass fibre.
0:51:54 > 0:52:00Fibreglass was to mark the end of an era in the yachtsman's relationship with the sea.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04At the top end of ocean racing there would never be another Drumbeat.
0:52:06 > 0:52:13Drumbeat's from an era when all the Class 1 boats had beds and proper galleys and bathrooms.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16They were designed to be lived aboard.
0:52:16 > 0:52:22Modern Class 1 boats have left all that behind.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24This one is typical.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27There is hardly a trace of wood in it.
0:52:30 > 0:52:36Orca is a state of the art boat designed purely for racing,
0:52:36 > 0:52:39The technology may have changed,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44but the reasons for wanting to be aboard are the same as they've always been.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46It's a bit like going down a ski slope.
0:52:46 > 0:52:53Just the exhilaration of that and all the sensations of the weather and the wind against you.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58Going along full speed not necessarily entirely sure what
0:52:58 > 0:53:01you're going to do about getting the sails down when you need to slow down.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03It's just exhilarating.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08It's the buzz, it's the competitive element to it.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11We are surrounded by ocean it's there, every day is different.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16A bit of it is the romance and it's the quality of the racing.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20There's nothing like a boat that gets you round the course
0:53:20 > 0:53:24quickly and allows you to get bigger distances than otherwise you would.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33They will satisfy people who want a piece of sporting equipment.
0:53:33 > 0:53:42They will not at all satisfy the need of ownership which is fettling it, worrying about it,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44painting it,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48debating with your wife what colour you might paint it.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55We used to spend a lot of time varnishing, rubbing down,
0:53:55 > 0:54:01and generally the maintenance was higher on a wooden boat as it would be on a Tupperware, we called it.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08All the old owners, everybody had lots and lots of time.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10Nobody was rushing anywhere.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13And they could spend times on boats.
0:54:13 > 0:54:19Nowadays people haven't got the time to come down here and sort of look after their boats.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28My boat now it is Tupperware, I'm afraid.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31It is a lot easier and you don't have the maintenance problems.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37In theory, no maintenance.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40No cleaning, polishing, painting or varnish to do.
0:54:40 > 0:54:46You pick it up, put it in the water, you sail it, you bring it out of the water, you put the cover on it.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48And you just walk away and leave it.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55And what followed the fibreglass boat, the boat you could keep in the water for the whole year,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59was the marina, the place you could keep your boat for the whole year.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04The first was built in Lymington in Dorset in 1968 and by the turn of
0:55:04 > 0:55:12the century, marinas were to garland or litter, according to your taste, most of the harbours in Britain.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17Muddy tidal creeks like Porlock Weir gradually emptied,
0:55:17 > 0:55:24not just their water, but apart from a few die hards, most of their boats owners too.
0:55:24 > 0:55:30I categorise people who go yachting into three very broad parts.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35There are what I call the hobbyists, they tend to restore old boats.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39The next group are competitors.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41They just like beating people.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46Then the third category and this is the category in which I put myself,
0:55:46 > 0:55:55so what I call swish of the bow wave men, they just love being afloat.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00I'm a mother, I love playing about with my boat, I'm very competitive when it comes to racing.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03I really do go for it. But I love being alone.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05I love sailing off by myself.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07I'm one of all those three.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32This is just exhilarating. The noise and the smell and the engine.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Sailing I mean, it's watching paint dry most of the time, isn't it?
0:56:39 > 0:56:46No, it's a really challenging sport and power boating is easy. It's too easy.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52I've never got into sailing or power boating.
0:56:52 > 0:56:54They might be very thrilling.
0:56:54 > 0:57:00But I think surfing is more thrilling because I like to be in the sea.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03I don't want to be on top of it, I want to be within the water.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10It becomes like a drug, it's a passion, you wouldn't want to give it up.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14There is a piece of water, I must get afloat on it.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32"I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37"To the gulls way and the whales way where the wind is like a whetted knife.
0:57:37 > 0:57:42"And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44"And quiet sleep and a sweet dream.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46"When the long trek's over."
0:57:46 > 0:57:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:57:52 > 0:57:56E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk