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ST EDWARD’S
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V A L E T E
Jay came up with the idea
to sail 90km offshore from
Geraldton, to the Abrolhos
Islands to visit the wreck of
the Batavia. This was a crazy
idea in small Surfcats, before
the days of GPS, radios or
rescue beacons, and with the
low islands only visible for a
few miles. But with careful
navigation we made it ok. In the
Abrolhos one of us would jump
O B I T U A R I E S
skied off the back of one of
his ships, a 10,000 hp ski boat
is pretty good.
He would take time out
from his career on the oceans.
For a couple of years he was in
Kano, Nigeria, managing a tank
farm for ground nut oil. He
enjoyed rallying in the desert
in his dusty old VW. Then
back to sea for a while, then a
year following the hippy trail,
touring Nepal, India and the
Indian Ocean Islands.
In 1967 a mate in Oxford
needed Jay’s help. He
volunteered, before finding
out the challenge was driving
his car to Australia. The two
large men in a very small Mini
drove all the way, having many
adventures through Turkey,
Iran, Afghanistan, then across
the Khyber Pass to Pakistan
and India.
Jay’s career and travels took
him to many remote parts of
the world, his generous and
infectious enthusiasm formed
strong bonds with the people,
and a deeper understanding of
local issues. As history evolved
around the world, Jay had a
more personal view of world
events, not always in synch
with the popular western
perspective.
In 1971, he finished his
Master Mariner's ticket at the
same time as I finished my
engineering degree. Jay decided
that the pair of us should travel
the world, it sounded like a
pretty good idea to me! We
had no specific plans until Jay
called me one evening and told
me we would go to Perth to
build yachts, despite the fact we
knew nothing about it.
The decision to start a
yacht business was Jay’s, and
the name came from the
Windrush River that runs
through our hometown near
Oxford. It sounded like a fun
idea, one small decision which
changed our lives and gave so
much enjoyment to us and to
our many customers. Jay always
had good business sense, vital in
the tricky marine business.
Jay’s favourite sail was to
Rottnest at night, we would rig
up the Surfcats on the beach,
go to the Stoned Crow in
Fremantle until they threw us
out at midnight, then sail to
John (Jay) Macfarlane
Rotto on the easterly. It would
be a magic sail in the moonlight.
One night, Jay jumped across
the trampoline and seemed to
be wrestling with a jellyfish that
was determined to escape. It
turned out that we had a wine
cask lashed to the mast, and the
cardboard had dissolved, Jay’s
quick thinking had averted the
disaster of losing the plastic bag
of wine overboard.