John Rintoul

Published 17:28 on 29 Nov 2024

Members will be sad to hear that John Rintoul died earlier this week in Harrogate District Hospital. John was a keen Streaker sailors, racing a boat that he built himself andwas a founder member of the Wagalers group that race on a Wednesday afternoons. Towards the end of his long dinghy racing career he decided that it was time that he tried a different class of boat and bought one of the earliest Solution dinghies. He soon discovered that whatever it was the solution to, it wasn't the solution for him and he went back to his Streaker until ill health brought an end to his dinghy racing days. He then spent several years racing DF65 radio controlled model yachts before retiring from sailing altogether.

Club members owe John a great debt of gratitude to this day. It was John who designed first of all a prototype floating pontoon to test construction and buoyancy - it's now the safety boat pontoon near the race hut and using knowledge gained from that went on to design the pontoons that we still use. He produced detailed drawings, sourced materials wrote construction notes, supervised the building and managed the programme to replace the previous wooden pontoons. The pontoons that we still use to this day are his legacy. So when you next tie up alongside one of them think of John and the valuable contribution that he made to the club.

In the photo, John is second left.

We will provide details of John's funeral when we have them.

Last updated 17:30 on 29 November 2024