National Firefly Class
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4,000th FIREFLY LAUNCHED AT TAMESIS
The 4,000th Firefly was launched at Tamesis on Sunday 6 December by Will Mason, its proud new owner, who had won it in a National Firefly Class Association lottery linked to all Firefly open meetings in 2009. The glass fibre hull boat was kindly donated by Rondar Raceboats, its builder, of Westbury, Wiltshire, the mast and boom by Selden Spars and the sails by Hyde Sails of Cowes. Will, a former chairman of the Firefly Association, had 10 tickets from sailing at 10 open meetings throughout the country and was the holder of the lucky ticket which was drawn out of a bucket by Olympic sailor Steve Mitchell. He plans to name it The Walrus which was the name of the pub in which he was having a drink when he heard the news of his win.
Will's old Firefly, a traditional wooden hull boat called Border Reiver, is number 2282, and his winning ticket - one of more than 700 - came from an open meeting at Upper Thames SC in September. Tickets were presented to both helms and crews.
Will sensibly used his old sails for his first race in the new boat on a very windy day at Tamesis and won his race.
The newly
launched 4,000th Firefly
THE FIREFLY CLASS
The Firefly is a two-man, one-design dinghy that was designed by Uffa Fox in 1946 and used as the single-handed dinghy for the 1948 Olympics in Torbay. There are now more than 3,800 Fireflies with fleets in 30 clubs and universities throughout the UK. It is 12 feet (3.65 metres) long, with a beam of 4ft 6.5 ins (1.4 m), weighs 163 lbs (74 kg) and has a jib and mainsail with a sail area of 8.36 square metres.
The Firefly was adopted by Tamesis soon after its launch in 1947, with Wally Maddison (Commodore of Tamesis from 1965-67) as the first secretary of its class association. Fireflies became the main focus of the club's team racing in the late 1950s and a Tamesis team won the RNVR national team racing championship in 1963, beating Castaways in the final. Tamesis won the Gnurns Trophy for the second successive year at the annual three-boat Firefly team racing contest at the Welsh Harp in October 2004. Another Tamesis team also won the inter-club team race with Thames and Minima in June 2004 for the Burgee Trophy.
There are 12 Fireflies at Tamesis. The pictures below show Fireflies sailing at Tamesis at the Elizabeth Cup open meeting on Sunday 26 April 2009. Entries for the event totalled 20, with 14 visitors from other clubs.
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Start of the first race (Photo: Phil England)
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Middle of the fleet (Photo: Phil England)
Firefly Mug Jeremy Vines and Anne Bayne
Hampton
Trophy
Ken Thatcher
Firefly
Chalice
Sue Harris and Sally Redhead
Knowles
Bowl
Ken Thatcher
For more details please contact Tamesis Firefly Class Captain: Sue Harris (phone 020 8546 7572).
National Firefly Association website: www.fireflysailing.co.uk
Tamesis Firefly points tables: FIREFLY WINTER SERIES 2005-2006
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06.12.09