Boating New Zealand was saddened to hear of Jim Young’s final bar crossing on 18th June. One of this country’s most innovative designer/boatbuilders, summarising Young’s career in a few words is a difficult task.

Born in Wellington in 1925, he began his boatbuilding apprenticeship with Shipbuilders Ltd in 1940 and spent the latter part of WWII working at Associated Boatbuilders building Fairmile launches.

After the war he served with the J Force in Japan for 18 months, before going into partnership to build dinghies with the late Jack Taylor.

Young went out on his own in 1949 and within a short time was making a name for designing and building innovative boats. Keelers such as Tango and Fiery Cross had features – a spade rudder and a canting keel respectively – years ahead of their time. A pioneer advocate of multihulls, Young built his first catamaran in 1953. His 1958 3.6m Kitty catamaran was so fast it was banned from the Q Class. Young later designed numerous fast cruising multihulls.

In 1961 he designed and built the 10m planing launch Vindex, which became the archetypal launch of this type. He eventually designed a whole range of launches including GRP production versions based on Vindex.

In the 1970s Young designed, built and skippered the IOR racing keelers Checkmate and Heatwave, the lessons learned being incorporated into hugely successful racing yachts such as Positive Touch, Extreme and Camp Freddy.

He also developed a comprehensive range of stitch-and-tape trailer sailers and dinghies for amateur builders, with many hundreds being built.

His cruiser/racer keelers such as Namu and Jipco were so successful they became stock production boats, while his 8.8m cruiser/racer Tickled Pink became the plug for the GRP production Young 88. Designed in 1980, over 180 Y88s were built and the class remains hugely popular today.

While he officially retired in 1990, he never stopped designing. Sadly, few of his later designs were built.

“Most of my ideas just sail across the drawing board these days,” he wryly told me a few years ago. But he remained keenly interested in boats – from classics to the latest AC creations – right to the end of his life.

Young was highly regarded by his peers, who typically described him as “brilliant”, “genius”, “lateral thinker”, “innovative” and “fearless.” He was awarded an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012.

He’s survived by his wife Anne; children Frank, Adrienne and Wendy; grandchildren Arron, Stephen, Jenni, James, Alix and Kelsey; and 11 grandchildren.

By John Macfarlane