Olympic Games Gold Medalist Athlete. He teamed with his brother-in-law John Osborne to capture top honors in Tornado-class yachting at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Raised on the Coline estuary, he got early sailing experience by helping his father bring the day's oyster harvest to shore; following school, he took a boat-building apprenticeship, and soon constructed two Hornet-class catamarans for himself. A meeting with John Bacon led to the founding of his own company, Sailcraft, and eventually to Essex becoming the centre of multi-hull sailing in England. White won the Little America's Cup five times between 1963 and 1968. Approached in 1967 to build a Tornado-class-B catamaran, he used the resulting boat to take second place in three World Championships between 1969 and 1972. After he and Osborne took Gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics (the boat races were held at Kingston, Ontario), he won the Tornado World Championship in 1976 and 1979, then lost out on a second Olympic opportunity when England withdrew from the 1980 Moscow Games in protest of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. When Sailcraft folded in the economic down-turn of the 1990s, he started White Formula to build boats for other firms. White died of a myocardial infarction shortly after completing a race in his Brightlingsea-One.
Olympic Games Gold Medalist Athlete. He teamed with his brother-in-law John Osborne to capture top honors in Tornado-class yachting at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Raised on the Coline estuary, he got early sailing experience by helping his father bring the day's oyster harvest to shore; following school, he took a boat-building apprenticeship, and soon constructed two Hornet-class catamarans for himself. A meeting with John Bacon led to the founding of his own company, Sailcraft, and eventually to Essex becoming the centre of multi-hull sailing in England. White won the Little America's Cup five times between 1963 and 1968. Approached in 1967 to build a Tornado-class-B catamaran, he used the resulting boat to take second place in three World Championships between 1969 and 1972. After he and Osborne took Gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics (the boat races were held at Kingston, Ontario), he won the Tornado World Championship in 1976 and 1979, then lost out on a second Olympic opportunity when England withdrew from the 1980 Moscow Games in protest of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. When Sailcraft folded in the economic down-turn of the 1990s, he started White Formula to build boats for other firms. White died of a myocardial infarction shortly after completing a race in his Brightlingsea-One.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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