Yachting journalist Dennis Skillicorn dies
A yachting journalist and broadcaster who helped shape media coverage of the sport has died. Dennis Skillicorn, 85, passed away on December 21, 2017. He is remembered for reporting from Creighton’s Naturally in the 1985/6 Whitbread Round the World Race and later aboard the 1992/3 British Steel Challenge yacht, Commercial Union Assurance.
The chairman of the Yachting Journalists’ Association, Barry Pickthall, said Skillicorn’s assignments helped shape ‘the video feeds that now reach our computers every day from the current Volvo Ocean Race yachts.’
Skillicorn volunteered on local hospital radio before starting on BBC Radio Solent. He then featured regularly on BBC Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and BBC South TV. In the 1960s and ’70s, Skillicorn was the voice of Cowes Week, reporting directly from the deck of the 1930s J-class yacht Velsheda. His first regular slot on BBC TV was Country Diary, followed by the sailing programme Open Waters.
British Steel Challenge Ali Mckichan said Skillicorn was kindhearted and ‘always had an amusing story to get us through the long night watches’.
Skillicorn’s library of radio interviews and broadcasts are to be saved at the Wessex Film and Sound Archive.