VENERABLE SEAMAN, DAG PIKE, DIESHOMENEWSINDUSTRY NEWSVENERABLE SEAMAN, DAG PIKE, DIES07 Jun 2021EmailShareFacebookLinkedInTwitterPrintDag Pike, happy at the helm of a fast boatMaritime expert and prolific author of books on seamanship, Dag Pike, has died on 28 May at the age of 88.Dag’s reputation in the maritime world was peerless, his 65 years at sea resulting in expertise in a huge range of disciplines including navigation, powerboat racing, search and rescue and safety at sea. He was perhaps best known for his work on developing RIBs, devising the concept and building an early prototype whilst he was Inspector of Lifeboats for the RNLI in the early 1960s.Rescued at sea himself 12 times, Dag had considerable personal experience of search and rescue operations which he put to use when writing his Royal Ocean Racing Club Manual of Safety and Survival. He was the author of more than 25 papers and 40 books on topics ranging from electronics and navigation to weather forecasting, surveys and safety at sea.Dag navigated and piloted some of the fastest boats in the world culminating in him winning the World Offshore Powerboat Championship in 1988. He also navigated Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Challenger on its Blue Ribband record-breaking fastest Atlantic crossing by powerboat in 1986.Dag was also a regular expert witness, appearing in both civil and criminal courts advising on subjects such as navigation, assessment of conditions and collisions on cases involving including insurance companies, the Treasury and HM Customs and Excise.Dag was still working at the age of 88, producing copy for Boating Business’s sister magazine Maritime Journal and putting the finishing touches to his latest book ‘Work and Patrol Boats’, due to be published by Mercator Media.

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