Digby Taylor was one of the great adventurers from the early Whitbread years – a New Zealander who built his own boats for two campaigns and sailed them with courage, passion and unshakeable self-belief.
Taylor, who recently died of a heart attack, skippered Outward Bound to fifth place overall in the third Whitbread Round the World Race in 1981-82, and returned in charge of NZI Enterprise in 1985-86.
The Outward Bound campaign struck a particular chord with sailing fans in New Zealand and beyond.
Taylor had to sell his house and car just to get the project off the ground and he built the 51-foot Laurie Davidson-designed boat in a shed on Auckland’s Herne Bay, with the help of family, friends and his amateur crew.
Instead of shipping the boat, Taylor and his crew sailed it to the start line in England, gaining valuable experience along the way.
The experience would come in extremely useful as they endured a frustrating start in light winds on the first leg to Cape Town, and almost got stuck at 55.22 degrees south as they picked a way through the ice of the Southern Ocean.
Eventually, they battled through to finish fifth overall on handicap and won the trophy for winner on elapsed time in the best small boat division.
© Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race
“Our aim was to put everything we had into winning… Our learning curve was extremely steep, due to the intense, almost fanatical effort that was put into our challenge,” Taylor wrote in a post-script to Alan Parker’s book about the campaign, ‘One Man’s Dream’.
The 1985-85 race was ultimately less successful. Three days after the start of Leg 3 from Auckland, the mast on NZI Enterprise came crashing down, putting an end to Taylor’s campaign.
His death was reported in the New Zealand Herald and brought heartfelt reaction from former members of his crew.
“Digby was a pioneer in NZ ocean racing and a very courageous guy,” Mike Keeton, who sailed with him on both campaigns, wrote on Facebook.
‘His design knowledge and innovative ideas would become standard ocean racing practice a few years later. You gave a lot of people a start in ocean racing. Thanks Digby.”
Richard Mason, who competed in the race four times and is now Volvo Ocean Race COO, said Taylor’s campaign had been an inspiration.
“He was the founder of a whole new generation of Kiwi sailors,” said Mason.
“He was the ultimate adventurous Kiwi who was just always gonna get there. He just seemed to have that unstoppable character, and he was a hugely innovative guy as well.
“I remember following those races as a kid and I read every single page of the Outward Bound book until the pages were worn out.”
Jack Lloyd, Race Management Adviser and another New Zealander, added: “We’ll not get anyone with this drive and determination in our race any time soon.”