Digby Taylor

{{short description|New Zealand sailor}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2017}}

{{Infobox sportsperson

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Digby Taylor

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=100%}}

| image =

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| full_name = Digby Fergusson Taylor

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1941|10|24}}

| birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|04|18|1941|10|24|df=y}}

| death_place = Rotorua, New Zealand

| resting_place =

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| country = New Zealand

| sport = Sailing

| event = Whitbread Round the World
Sydney to Hobart
Whangarei to Noumea
Melbourne to Osaka

}}

Digby Fergusson Taylor {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=85%}} (24 October 1941 – 18 April 2017) was a New Zealand sailor who skippered yachts in both the 1981–82 and 1985–86 Whitbread Round the World Races.

Taylor built and skippered the 51-foot sloop Outward Bound, designed by Laurie Davidson, which competed in the 1981–82 Whitbread Round the World Race.{{cite news | url=http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/Twice-Whitbread-Round-the-World-Race-skipper-Digby-Taylor-dies/153148?source=google.co.nz | title=Twice Whitbread Round the World Race skipper Digby Taylor dies | date=20 April 2017 | work=Sail-World | accessdate=22 April 2017 | first=Richard | last=Gladwell}}{{cite news | date=8 October 1980 | work=Auckland Star | page=3}} In that race, Outward Bound won the trophy for best small yacht, and finished fifth overall.{{cite news | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130839905 | title=Paraplegic archer becomes an MBE | date=31 December 1982 | work=Canberra Times | page=7 | accessdate=22 April 2017}}

In 1982, Taylor sailed in the Whangarei to Nouméa yacht race, winning handicap honours.

Taylor was awarded the Blue Water Medal for outstanding seamanship by the Royal Akarana Yacht Club in 1982.{{cite news | date=10 November 1982 | work=New Zealand Herald | page=10}} In the 1983 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to ocean yacht racing.{{London Gazette |issue=49214 |date=31 December 1982 |page=48 |supp=3}}

For the 1985–86 Whitbread, Taylor built and skippered the 80-foot, Bruce Farr-designed, maxi yacht, NZI Enterprise (originally called Enterprise New Zealand). After finishing fourth and second on the first two legs, NZI Enterprise lost her mast 380 nautical miles south-east of the Chatham Islands, and had to withdraw from the race. Taylor later skippered the renamed Castaway Enterprise in the 1986 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.{{cite news | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130637606 | title=New yachts falter in classic race | date=28 December 1986 | work=Canberra Times | page=23 | accessdate=22 April 2017}}

Taylor skippered the 52-foot Castaway Fiji in the inaugural two-handed Melbourne to Osaka yacht race in 1987, with crewman Colin Akhurst. Taylor and Akhurst were both thrown overboard when their yacht hit a submerged object, lost her keel and overturned. Akhurst drowned, but Taylor was rescued 18 hours later, 750 nautical miles north-east of Sydney.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/121400000/ | title=Skipper of race yacht is rescued | date=3 April 1987 | work=Sydney Morning Herald | accessdate=22 April 2017 | page=2}}{{cite journal |date=January 1988 |title=Final passages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=InheK-WGcAcC&pg=RA1-PA108 |journal=Cruising World |volume=14 |issue=1 |page=108 |accessdate=22 April 2017}}

Taylor died in Rotorua on 18 April 2017.{{cite news | url=http://notices.nzherald.co.nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/obituary.aspx?n=digby-fergusson-taylor&pid=185162596 | title=Digby Taylor death notice | date=22 April 2017 | work=New Zealand Herald | accessdate=22 April 2017}}