Died January 2000

John was our second president, taking over from our founder, Eric Coleman. My earliest recollections of him are of articles about his singlehanded cruises along the south coast in 14 foot Jady Lane. A memory of those times is of a rally at Glasson. We arrived to see a dinghy on a trailer looking like a covered wagon, in which John sat at his breakfast table in civilised comfort. “I haven’t brought my mainsail,” he said. This was not an accidental omission. We sailed down the Lune and up the Wyre channel to Knot End with Jady Lane sailing happily under two jibs and a mizzen. This was typical of John’s unpretentious, unhurried competence, and of the kind of sailing he liked best. When ill health threatened, he planned carefully, and successfully carried out his trip alone in Jady Lane across the Channel to Boulogne and back, while he was still fit for it.

He went on sailing for many years after that. In more recent times he and Babs have welcomed DCA members to Cornish waters. Those of us who went to the rally sailing from St Just last summer are grateful for a last meeting with him when he joined us at the camp site. He typified for us so much that is best about the comradeship of the DCA. Joan Abrams