British Pathe

Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

M/S of rolls of fibreglass hanging in a warehouse. A man dressed in a boiler suit grabs one of the rolls, pulls down a large sheet and begins to cut the sheet with a big pair of scissors. C/U of the man cutting the roll of fibreglass. C/U of man's face. M/S of...

Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

M/S of rolls of fibreglass hanging in a warehouse. A man dressed in a boiler suit grabs one of the rolls, pulls down a large sheet and begins to cut the sheet with a big pair of scissors. C/U of the man cutting the roll of fibreglass. C/U of man's face. M/S of a sheet coming off the roll before being carried away by the man. Narrator asks rhetorically - "who's ever heard of building a boat with what looks like wallpaper?"

M/S of another man, also in a boiler suit, stirring a gloopy blue mixture in a bucket resting on a plank over an upside down and half-constructed fibreglass dinghy on the warehouse floor. Tilt down to the man tipping generous quantities of gloop over the inside of the boat. The narrator reveals that the gloop is in fact "a special mixture of resin and other materials" which when blended together with sheets of fibreglass becomes "four times the strength of steel". M/S of both men carefully lifting a sheet of fibreglass and gently placing it onto the pool of resin covering the inside of the boat. M/S of the men painting more resin over the fibreglass to create a smooth surface inside the boat. The narrator explains that this type of dinghy cannot be mass produced. M/S of another man taking powder from a small wooden vat and blending it in a bucket to create more resin. Various shots of the final layer of resin being applied. The narrator points out that the "remarkable texture" is due to the fact that "each fibre is one fiftieth the size of a human hair". Various shots of a buoyancy tank being fitted inside the bow of the boat.

Exterior. M/S of a yellow fibreglass dinghy being lifted from the roof of a blue car by two men in wellington boots. The narrator explains the dinghy - "aptly named Satellite" - is being taken for a test run at Ruislip Lido. M/S of men lifting the "light as a feather" dingy onto the ground before carrying the boat off to be launched. M/S of boat being taken to the edge of a large man-made pool. The men swing the dinghy with ease. M/S of boat landing in the water with a splash. L/S of several fibreglass dinghies of different colours all fitted with out board motors whizzing around the Lido. According to the narrator as a test of their "toughness and reliability" the boats were used "as dodgems". M/S of dinghies skimming past each other. M/S of blue dinghy still speeding along despite being three-quarters full of water thanks to the "built in buoyancy tanks". M/S of the water in the bottom of the unsinkable dinghy.