John Roome
Commodore of two renowned yacht clubs who was involved in the disastrous 1979 Fastnet Race
JOHN ROOME, who has died aged 90, made a distinguished contribution to international ocean yacht racing. In the summer of 1979, during the biennial Fastnet Race, Roome was the owner and skipper of the Class 3 yacht Flycatcher, crewed by his family and friends. More than 300 yachts started from Cowes on August 11 and, in a rising gale, the faster vessels completed the 600-mile course via the Fastnet Rock, off Ireland, to Plymouth in record times.
On the third day, however, the smaller, slower competitors were overtaken by a sudden, deepening depression that rapidly reached Force 11, a “violent storm” on the Beaufort scale, in the relatively shallow waters off Cape Clear, building a tumultuous and confused sea.
Coming on deck after a brief respite in his bunk, Roome at once appreciated the deterioration in the weather, ordered everyone into their foul-weather gear and life jackets, took down sail and prepared to ride out the storm, when he heard another yacht put out a distress message and turned back to effect a rescue.
Only after realising that he might add to the rescue problem rather than aid it did Roome resume course for Plymouth. Meanwhile, ships and helicopters of the British, Irish and Dutch navies began an operation that soon grew to be one of the largest peacetime rescue missions.
Some 100 yachts suffered knock-downs, many rolled over in the high winds, and five were sunk in the mountainous seas. Some 125 yachtsmen and women were plucked from the seas. Five boats sank, and 15 sailors and three rescuers were lost. Thanks, however, to Roome’s seamanship, Flycatcher did not capsize or suffer serious damage and finished the race fifth and last in her class out of the 80 Class 3 boats that had started.
The 1979 Fastnet disaster led to a major rethink of racing and risk reduction, and Roome brought his sailing skills and his keen lawyer’s mind to bear on the problem of making ocean racing safer without losing its competitive element.
John Walford Roome was born in Southampton on February 19 1928, the youngest child of Major-general Sir Horace Roome, KCIE, CB, CBE, MC, a military engineer in the Indian Army, and Helen Walford. Every year his mother would take the three-week passage to India, leaving Roome and his three elder siblings in the care of their aunts for six months
Young John was brought up near Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, where he learnt to sail in a Yarmouth scow, a small single-sail dinghy. When war broke out recreational sailing was banned, but his mother obtained a fishing licence and painted the official numbers on the bow of Roome’s dinghy so that he could continue sailing.
He was educated at Wellington College and undertook National Service in the Royal Navy, 1946-48, before reading History at Clare College, Cambridge. In his third year he changed to Law, and was articled at Field Roscoe solicitors before joining Nicholls Manisty, where he specialised in trust and estate law. After a merger with Withers, he was senior partner from 1986 to 1990.
Roome joined the Royal Ocean Racing Club in 1949 where, at only 25, he was elected to the committee. In 1955 he was invited to helm the RORC’S yacht, Griffin, and over the next 30 years he was a regular participant in the Fastnet Race, the Admiral’s Cup, and transatlantic races including the Bermuda-gothenburg race, during which he was dismasted in mid-atlantic.
In 1976 he was made Commodore of the RORC and two years later elected chairman of the Offshore Racing Council; it was an interesting time, when the Americans and Europeans were coming to an agreement on common handicap rules that would make yacht racing properly international. Also in 1976, Roome helped to introduce the Round Britain Race; he took part himself twice.
A member of the Royal Yacht Squadron since 1965, Roome served four years as Rear Commodore, Yachting; when, in 1986, Roome was elected as Commodore of the RYS, he was the first person without a rank or title to hold the post.
He gave kind, wise advice to those starting to race, and much of his success was attributed to support given by his wife Kate (née Douglas), whom he married in 1955. She died in January and he is survived by their four children.
John Roome, born February 19 1928, died June 8 2018