“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. 1976 – Biggest Fleet Ever & Massive Coverage

by Richard Crockett

It always amazes me when looking back through my archives of the Cape to Rio Race as to how seriously the newspapers took the race, and how much coverage they provided. This obviously has to be tempered with the knowledge that this was in the “pre-computer” age when there was no internet nor social media. We all had to rely on newspapers and the “wireless” (remember those?).

And just to prove this point, The Argus ran Rio Race news on 14 pages of its Friday 9 January 1976 issue. Newspaper men back in the day used to say that an event had come of age when it appeared on the front page, news pages, editorial page or op-ed pages, and sports pages, especially the back sports page. Well the 1976 Rio Race had all this and had truly come of age with its 128 starters.

Included in these 14 pages was the Argus Supplement on the race.

The Cape Times were not far behind in their coverage, running an 8-page supplement on the day of the start.

Both the above are shared today, and both are crammed with more info on the Rio Race than I imagine anyone would need.

READ THE ARGUS PAGES HERE:  1976 01 09 – 1976 Rio – ARGUS – 14 pages REDUCED

READ THE CAPE TIMES PAGES HERE:  1976 01 10 – 1976 Rio – Cape Times Supplement – Stitched 8 pages FINAL REDUCED – OCR

 

Check Also

“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Playstation’s Round Britain and Ireland Record

By Nick Leggatt The last few sailing record features I have shared have been well …