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For those who have not already read elsewhere.

Sadly Richard passed away at the weekend, statement below;





It is with great regret that we have to announce the untimely death of Richard Estaugh on Saturday evening. Richard was one of the best known and most successful dinghy sailors this country has seen and he will be sorely missed. As well as being a keen sailor himself he also set up and ran Speed Sails for over 25 years helping thousands of others within the sport.



We have all lost a great friend and our thoughts are especially with his family at this difficult time. Out of respect for Richard’s wishes his family have requested that people don’t send flowers but hope they will consider making a donation to sail4cancer or the RNLI instead.

For anyone wishing to attend his funeral, details will be posted on the Speed Sails website as soon as they are available.

I was very sad to hear this. I was chatting to Richard a couple of weeks ago about the future of the Alb and the new generation of Speed hulls. Always found him helpful and got very prompt service from Richard and the lads in the workshop. Great sailor and advocate of GP14s. Enterprises Fireballs and many other classes.

Back in 1999 Richard was remarkably easy to convince to allow me to take the prototype Speed Albacore to Rehoboth for the Worlds. There were of course lots of issues to resolve (as there would be with any such new project) and he worked hard to make sure that we had the support we needed. The success of that project is self evident given the boats built since and the subsequent continuing development.

I can't claim to have known him well, but I'm not aware of him having raced Albacores seriously himself even though he's obviously been a prolific Championship winner in other classes. Despite this he has obviously put lots of effort into our Class and will be sadly missed.

My sentiments echo the above on the sad news I heard on Monday night.

I first met Richard at the boat show in 2000 and ordered one of the first batch of speed sails new albs, and had the pleasure of enjoying a jar or two with him over the years whenever I dropped along their base.

As far as I know, his son will be taking the reins at Speed sails, so I wish him and the company the best of luck.



Steven Brown

GBR7994 Blue Mist