Jump to content

Vale - Jay McFarlane


Prince Planet

Recommended Posts

Unfortunately, a legend of the WA sailing community has passed away over the weekend; Jay McFarlane.
With his brother Richard, he invented the iconic WA surfcat catamaran, (the Windrush 12 - which was much copied - and then the still popular and 'unique' Windrush 14) - as well as a range of windsurfing boards. The Windrush 14 was recognised as being ahead of its time by the Americans too - who produced it as the Trac 14.
Jay was 75 and windsurfing off Shoalwater last season but died suddenly Friday night.
He was (reportedly) saying on Thursday afternoon that he was keen to get back out onto the water this season once the weather warmed up a bit, but confided that he might need to cut back on the 4 nautical mile tacks out to Coventry reef off Shoalwater this year.
(lifted from a thread on seabreeze.com.au)

I met Jay and Richard back in the 70's - while working at my first job after school - selling the Windrush 14 Catamaran and other dinghies from Tradewind Sailboats - which was located in Warringah Mall at Brookvale, Sydney. They were both nice guys... and it was the 'boom' time for the off-the-beach catamaran scene...

I remember those times as the best and most exciting times to be involved in the sailing scene...

Farewell Jay, we Windrush sailors - and many others who respect innovative, fresh design - will miss you…
Rohan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...