Roger joined the Small Craft Group Committee of Royal Institute of Navigation in 2008 and enthusiastically embarked upon his initiative to represent RIN interests at the annual RYA shore-based Instructor conferences. In particular this included his great enthusiasm for the astro-navigation part of the Yachtmaster Ocean syllabus.
Roger had attended the Board of Trade Yachtmaster Courses at the College of Navigation in the Minories, City of London, receiving both Coastal and Ocean certificates, as they were then known. At that time the courses were hardly different from those taught for decades to merchant navy officers and fishing boat skippers; indeed, the Yachtmaster scheme, founded in 1873 to enable “gentlemen” to command their own large yachts, had been revived in the late 1930’s, basically to train prospective RNVR officers in the art of navigation (no sea time being required before the difficult oral exams). I always suspected that Roger felt that any change must involve a “dumbing down” of the syllabus for us amateurs when he referred to the quality of teaching in the College of Navigation! He was, of course, an instructor himself for the RYA Yachtmaster shore-based navigation courses, where he must have been an inspirational teacher, not just for those students who shared his enthusiasm, especially when explaining the Marc St Hilaire method of sight reduction!
He led on the RIN SCG proposals when the RYA decided to update the Ocean Course, which had not changed since the RYA took over responsibility for the qualification from the DoT in 1973, when the whole Yachtmaster scheme was in danger of being closed. More recently he reviewed the different Astro procedures used by the Royal Navy, the MCA and the RYA with articles on “The Astro Debate” in the RIN magazine “Navigation News” and in the SCG publication, “Fairway”. He was very pleased to be appointed an FRIN in 2015 for his skills and service.
Advancing years caused Roger to step down from the SCG committee in early 2017 but he remained in contact as a “corresponding member” monitoring progress on the Guide to Electronic Navigation Systems which he had so enthusiastically supported. He is missed by all of us at RIN.
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