It’s with great sadness we have to report the sudden death of Newcastle-based boatbuilder Dave Ovington. Dave, 50, was with his family on Lake Windermere when he died suddenly on Easter Sunday afternoon, doing what he loved best – messing around on the water.

Not only was Dave a highly respected boat builder with his successful business Ovington Boats producing some of the world’s fastest dinghies including 29ers, 49ers, Musto Skiffs, Flying 15s, B14s and 18ft Skiffs, but was a great sailor too. One of his most significant sailing achievements was winning the International 14 Prince of Wales Cup in 1987 in a boat he’d built himself.

As a perfectionist in the boatbuilding industry Ovington believed that one of the keys to success of a company was to “deliver on time.” Admitting a few years ago in an interview: “If you don’t care about delivering on time then you probably don’t care about the boat.” Another key to success was, of course, producing fast boats. His first break came in 1987 when Lawrie Smith bought one of his Enterprises. “I was made,” he said, “he bought one of my boats and won the championship. From then on I had plenty of orders and had a two-year waiting list!”

In addition to his highly successful dinghy building business Dave progressed into the big boat industry and in 1997 started the successful production of Mumm 30s at the company’s Tanners Bank yard also based in Newcastle. The most recent project – also currently in build – is the production of Backman 21s for Hans Backman.

Dave is survived by his wife Glynis and sons Adam and Matthew aged 20 and 18-years-old respectively.