Paul Young, the long-serving managing director of Rondar Raceboats, has died after more than three decades at the head of one of Britain’s best-known specialist racing boatbuilders.
A naval architect, accomplished sailor and boatbuilder, Young took over Rondar in 1991 after earlier crewing in the International 505 class for Peter White, the 1973 505 world champion and then co-owner of the company. He went on to expand Rondar’s reputation in dinghy and keelboat racing, with boats built by the Wiltshire-based business winning world, European and national titles across a range of classes.
Rondar’s history dates back to the mid-1960s, when the company was founded in London’s Radnor Mews, with the name created by rearranging Radnor. It later moved to New Milton, where the boom in fibreglass dinghy sailing helped it grow into a large producer.
“There was a big explosion of dinghy sailing in the late sixties, early seventies, and fibreglass was coming through,” Young recalled in an interview with Yachts and Yachting. “They got up to a point of employing 50-plus people, making seven or eight hundred boats a year.”
Industrial moulding
After recessions hit the dinghy market, Rondar moved into industrial moulding before its name and models were acquired by White and Phil Milanes and relocated to Wiltshire. Young bought the business in 1991.
“I was crewing for Pete in the 80s and bought it in 1991 when Pete wanted to do other things, and I’ve been here ever since, basically,” he said.
Under Young’s ownership, Rondar built and supported more than 30 classes, including the Firefly, Enterprise, International 505, 470, K6, Viper, Sonar, K1, Fireball, Solo, Contender, 420, B14 and National Squib.
The company manufactures high-performance racing dinghies and keelboats, working closely with class associations and sailors to maintain one-design integrity while improving construction, fittings and usability.
Unique fittings
Young placed considerable emphasis on practical boatbuilding knowledge and in-house capability. “We can do pretty much everything in house now and that obviously gives us quite a good ability to either tailor make things to suit particular customer’s needs or we can adapt boats and make unique fittings that make the boat perform better,” he said.
He also argued that sailing needed to adapt to changing patterns of participation, including more club-owned fleets and weekday racing. “I think we urgently need to sit down and reappraise how the world works and try and make sailing fit within the way the world is rather than expecting the world to move where sailing is,” he said.
Young is remembered for championship-winning boats, the development and support of multiple racing classes, and his willingness to share knowledge with sailors at every level.
His work helped sustain Rondar Raceboats as a specialist British builder with an international reach.
