Obituary: Jeremy Rogers – world class sailor and mastermind behind iconic Contessa yachts

ONE of the leading lights of the Lymington yachting scene, boatbuilder and world class sailor Jeremy Rogers MBE, has died at the age of 85.

As the founder of Jeremy Rogers Ltd and the mastermind behind the iconic Contessa yachts brand, he was never happier than with his team at the yard, who knew him as Jerry.

After serving his apprenticeship under legendary boatbuilder Jack Chippendale MBE, Jeremy set up his own business in 1961.

He was one of the first to appreciate the potential of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) construction and, after a period building dinghies, he moved on to keel boats, and a Folkboat design in GRP.

Named the Contessa 26, it was an instant success and would be the birth of a series of bigger Contessas which Jeremy would go on to race on the international circuit.

Within a few years, production moved to five factories across Lymington with 200 employees, with Jeremy always working alongside staff on the shop floor.

Longstanding employee Clifford Davies remembers “a quiet but really determined man, who would always help you out”.

In 1974 Jeremy won the One Ton Cup in the Contessa 35 Gumboots, famously abandoning the race to rescue the crew of a burning yacht, earning him the title of Yachtsman of the Year.

In 1977 he skippered the Contessa 43, Moonshine, to Admiral’s Cup glory for Britain and later the Contessa 39, Eclipse, to second place in the infamous 1979 Fastnet Race.

By now, Jeremy Rogers was an MBE with his boatyard exporting boats all over the world.

But hard economic times in the 1980s decimated the British boatbuilding industry and the boatyard went into receivership.

Undeterred, Jeremy picked himself up and started building smaller boats in an old cowshed before moving to a premises in Milford and finally to the current site at Lymington Yacht Haven.

In 2012, Jeremy handed over management to his son, Kit, and in recent years enjoyed seeing a resurgence of interest in his Contessa creations, now considered classics.

Born in 1937, Jeremy was one of three brothers born to Group Captain Charles Rogers OBE and his wife Margaret.

The Second World War saw the family evacuated to Canada where childhood days were spent building model boats and playing on the banks of the Ottowa river, forging in Jeremy a lifelong love of the water.

Back in the UK, Jeremy was sent to boarding school where his brother Jonathan remembers him being the only pupil allowed time off lessons and a key to the workshop.

By the end of the first term he had built his own Cadet dinghy to race.

Throughout the ups and downs of his long boatbuilding and yachting career Jeremy’s wife Fiona was always by his side, even as his health declined.

He is survived by Fiona, sons Simon, Kit and David and nine grandchildren.

A private family funeral is planned before a public memorial at a later date.