Obituary – Bill Curtis

It is with sadness to announce the passing of Bill Curtis on Friday 25th March.

Bill was well known across the south western district of the UK and was a respected member of the West Cornwall Radio Sailing Club. He always gave his time freely to anyone that needed assistance, demonstrated in 2015 when West Cornwall had a mass influx of members. Bill’s work and influence to get enthusiastic younger members on the water was pivotal to the club in that period of time.

A keen designer and builder of affordable radio controlled yachts for many years, Bill produced many IOM’s such as the ‘Shadow’, but more notably he built the ‘Wotsit’, which was campaigned by Peter Wiles and John Taylor’s ‘Squiggle’.

Between 2005 – 2011 he built over 70 yachts from these designs with exports covering many parts of the world.
A competent sailor and a lovely gentleman at the waterfront, he won numerous club events and remained active across the district. Bill always liked to experiment, tweaking with his yachts and aiming for the absolute standard in performance, whilst freely sharing his reasoning with other skippers.

Not only did Bill contribute to the IOM Class, but his support at club level was superb. He consistently made himself available to serve at open events which were organised at West Cornwall, ensuring the smooth running of the regatta and keeping the public engaged in the racing activities. Due to his health, Bill wasn’t quite so active in recent times, but he remained enthusiastic when being updated by friends, of the activities at West Cornwall Radio Sailing Club.

Privately, Bill was a dedicated husband to Rosemary, and father to his daughters, Joanne and Stephanie, who together with his friends across the ‘Radio Sailing’ community will be sorely missed.

John Taylor (2nd April)