Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame

Jeff Boyd

Birth: August 08, 1955
Home Town: Fort William
Inducted as: Athlete
Inducted for: Sailing,
Inducted in: 2024

Biography:

Jeff started sailing at the age of 12 in the Junior Sailing Program at the Kingston Yacht Club. From there, Jeff went on to have a competitive and diverse sailing career for over 50 years.

Much of Jeff’s initial successes came in the Laser Class (now called ILCA 7), in which he was runner up at both the Canadian Nationals (1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978) and US Nationals (1984). He won the North American Championships (1988). Simultaneously, Jeff sailed other classes of boats including Lightings which he earned a Pan Am berth in 1979. In 1983, Jeff was tactician on the Canada One boat for the America’s Cup competition held in Newport, Rhode Island. Jeff also co-authored a book, with Doug Hunter, about Canada’s challenge for the Cup. He was also skipper/tactician on True North, another Canadian Challenger for the 1987 America’s Cup.

Jeff has raced with crew, Martin ten Hove consistently for the past 33 years in the competitive 505 class, with great success at the North American and World level.

Jeff coached the Canadian 1982 Women’s National Team at the World Championship in Italy and coached the Korean National Sailing Team in 1987. Jeff also coached Terry McLaughlin and Evert Bastet, helping them to a silver medal in the Flying Dutchman class at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He has mentored young sailors and organized youth regattas for future sailors which also included his daughter, Danielle, who represented Canada in sailing, at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016.

Over the course of some fifty years, Jeff has sailed and raced with a multitude of different people. Among those many supportive crew members are his wife, Florence and daughters, Danielle and Rachael.