Paul Gelder remembered
Paul Gelder, former editor of Yachting Monthly and author of nautical books, has died aged 71, writes former PBO and Yachting Monthly editor Sarah Norbury.
Paul Gelder’s articles and books – The Loneliest Race, Total Loss, and Gipsy Moth IV – to name but three – informed a generation of sailors.
He joined Yachting Monthly as features editor aged 43 after a career in newspapers. With freedom to write and commission articles about sailing it was, he said, his dream job. A gifted journalist, his stories were beautifully crafted with a dash of wit and a tone perfectly attuned to his readership.
Thinking that readers would love to know what it was like to sail with their yachting heroes, Paul decided to find out for them. One memorable voyage was with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston from the Azores to Plymouth in Suhaili, recounted in his article The Sea God and The Scribe.
Promoted to editor in 2002, Paul had a stroke of editorial genius. This was the rescue of Gipsy Moth IV. The yacht in which Sir Francis Chichester circled the globe was in a sorry state. Paul had the vision to assemble a group that would buy her, repair her, and attempt to sail her round the world again.
In another coup, Paul created The Crash Test series that took a modern yacht (an insurance write off but in most respects intact) and, month by month, destroyed her, testing safety procedures and kit in the process.
After retiring in 2012, Paul enjoyed sailing his trimaran and, of course, writing. Besides his journalism Paul leaves another legacy, bringing in new, younger journalists into the marine industry through the Geoff Pack Scholarship, named after former Yachting Monthly editor Geoff Pack.
Sadly Paul was diagnosed with cancer last year.
He leaves his wife Anne and daughter Laura, who to Paul’s delight followed in his footsteps and is also a journalist. He will be much missed by his many friends and colleagues.
A Cancer Research donation page in Paul’s memory can be found at fundraise. cancerresearchuk.org/page/ in-loving-memory-of-paulgelder