An appreciation by Roger Stollery
As some of you know already Don died on 6th November 2015 after a long illness. He joined Guildford Model Yacht Club in 1978 and immediately became involved in its organisation. With his father-in-law George Hull he helped to create a huge amount of enthusiasm for our club and racing at our various lakes in the 1980s and 1990s; Willow Park, Coleford Bridge and finally at Abbey Meads in 1994.
This enthusiasm to improve our club racing led Don to create the club handicap system that we still use today to encourage members to improve their boat and/or their racing performance. As a result the best club trophies go to lots of different homes and give encouragement to those lower down the list. It is a great success and has been adopted by various clubs including Hampton Court and Gosport, which have had the same good experience. Don’s idea is now the basis for the Club Performance Improvement competition, part of a new 2016 MYA National Radio League: a very fitting legacy.
Don was more often than not involved in assisting the organisation and running of the major GMYC events. He held several posts in the club including being the newsletter editor, but what he loved most was being the Sailing Captain – organising the logistics for the event, getting the gear ready, laying the course etc and most importantly recording scores. He was very generous with his time and invited the club committee to his house in South Street, Farnborough for meetings. The club used to have several social events and along with others Don was always doing the cooking. He helped to set up the evening meetings at the Victoria Halls, Ash which had the effect of improving the club’s standard of racing. As well as acting as a guru on radio control equipment, he was very good at creating quizzes for those meetings and for the bimonthly newsletters to which he regularly contributed by reporting on a large number of club races.
Don loved his sailing and whilst trying hard didn’t mind where he finished, often somewhere in the middle of the fleet. Looking back on the records his best result was to finish 2nd in an August club race in 1988 only beaten by a Swedish member, Lars Andren. In one of his last sails at Abbey Meads he finished 9th out of 15 in the 2003 Veteran’s Nationals. However, there was one element of sailing that he was very good at and that was starting; he was always on the line at the gun and argued that this was the only time he could guarantee to be in the lead!
Finally, to sum up Don’s careful approach, his daughter Sarah sent me the following email:
“In tidying up some of Dad’s bits I have found a trophy he must have won with a note on it to “return to GMYC”; now the note on it says it was won in 1996, so twenty years later we were wondering if we could finally return it on his behalf! It is so Dad, nicely boxed up, all clearly labelled, yet still not returned, that it made me laugh out loud when I found it. I feel now it is my duty to finish the task he started all those years ago!”
