It is with great sadness that we heard yesterday of the death of past UKFA Chairman, Dave Festing. Anyone who met Dave will remember his larger-than-life personality and the fun he added everywhere he went.
Dave’s first Fireball competition (having not sailed since he was a teenager) were the Worlds at Bracciano, Italy in 2001. He’d borrowed an old wooden boat and persuaded his friend Judith from work, who had the grand experience of RYA level 1, to crew for him. He consulted fellow Fireballer, Phil Popple, on how to do the race and was given simple advice “go out of the start, stay to the left of the course and see where you finish.”. For the first few races he didn’t finish within the time limit. In the penultimate race, Dave had progressed to finishing inside the time limit. Then in the final race, there was a huge shift on the first beat and Dave rounded in the top 20 out of an 86-boat fleet and didn’t finish last, proving that perseverance pays!
This tenacity continued with Dave and his wife Karen winning the Perseverance Trophy at the Nationals on more than one occasion. One such occasion was the brutally windy Abersoch Nationals in 2006 where only 14 of the 56-boat fleet managed to complete all 10 races.
These words, taken from his obituary, sum Dave up perfectly, “As a character he drove and enriched any event or gathering and made everything memorable”.
The funeral is on 11th February at 1.15pm at Hastings crematorium. Afterwards there will be a celebration of David's life at St. Mary's Centre, Lion Street, Rye TN31 7LB. There is no parking at the centre but plenty in and around Rye. There is a request that people don’t bring flowers, but people might make a donation to the Royal British Legion. Here is the link to the donation page with the full obituary: https://neverforget.tributefunds.com/In-Memory/David-Festing
Read the eulogy from Dave's service: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FYTwKJC_NEArgWT8haU-2ONi9SklIEty/view?usp=sharing
