Eight Bells: John Roy

Aug 23, 2017

October 22, 1955 – August 12, 2017

John Alexander Roy passed away quietly at home on August 12 after a short battle with cancer. He was 61.

Music was in John’s blood, playing both trombone and piano, but it was on the ocean that John found his calling. He first took to the water in the mid-60s aboard his father’s schooner, the Jeto. Soon after he began his 50-year relationship with the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (RNSYS) as a junior sailor, instructor, member and Vice Commodore of Sailing.

Sailing bridged pleasure and business for John, and in 1980 he began working for Ocean Yacht Sales before buying the company in 1990. OYS was a business and a passion that John ran with the honesty and integrity that truly characterized him.

John was an early champion of sailboat racing, helping to inspire a generation of sailors with his enthusiasm and spontaneity to get out on the water and go. This spirit drew him to teaching sailing at the RNSYS and the Waegwoltic Club, becoming an instructor evaluator for the Canadian Yachting Association and the Provincial Sailing Coach for Nova Scotia. His racing career spanned Flying Junior club racing, National and International Laser regattas through to Marblehead-to-Halifax Ocean Racing and more (much more). He had an uncanny ability to remember every race he had ever sailed, and those he sailed with will know that he was always on the lookout for the glisten.

John loved his wife and children, their holidays and ski vacations. And, once the kids started sailboat racing, there was nothing he enjoyed more than poring over sailing instructions with them the night before a regatta, or replaying their days on the water.

John is survived by his wife Tracey (Flinn), children Emily and Alexander, siblings Peter (Jean Kennedy), Red Deer; Barbara (Scott) Aikman, Wolfville; Paul, Seabright; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents Douglas and Jean (Rafuse) Roy.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron Corinthian Fund, the Canadian Cancer Society or to the charity of your choice.

I must down go to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

— John Masefield