8 Bells: Bill Abbott Sr – Boatbuilder, Olympian
Nov 21, 2024
The country lost one of its most important boating figures, William Alexander Abbott, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, Sarnia ON boat builder on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2024, at the age of 98.
In 1991, at the second annual CYA Sail Training Symposium, the Sarnia Yacht Club donated a trophy in honour of William Abbott Senior, who as well as being one of Canada’s best known yacht builders, has contributed significantly to sail training at Sarnia Yacht Club.
Around 1940, Bill’s family moved to Sarnia, where he completed his high school education at SCITS. Upon his graduation in 1944, Bill immediately enlisted in the navy to serve in WWII. He sailed on the Atlantic, until the last run to Murmansk, Russia, and finished his naval career on the Pacific in 1946. He was a proud veteran.
Bill returned to Sarnia where, with the help of his father, he opened Abbott Boat Works. On August 12, 1950, he married Ruth Anne Jamieson McCracken and with the prophetic sign, “Watch Canada Grow” affixed to the bumper, headed off for their honeymoon. In the mid 1950’s they moved their family and the company to 1458 London Road where Bill and Ruth raised their eight children. In 1990 he built a custom home in Wyoming, Ontario, affectionately known as the “Shack In The Bush”, while the business continued to thrive in Sarnia.
Bill’s personal competitive drive played an integral part in the success of his boat business and his later entry into racing sailboats. In the first decade of Abbott Boat Works, Bill built and raced wooden power boats, then over the years transitioned into building many classes of sailboat. He built boats that included the Dragon, Folk Boat, Soling, Finn, Wayfarer and Banshee, but also an Abbott Line of boats: the Abbott 22, 27, 28, 33, 36, and Waverbreaker, Fisherman 22 fishing boats and canoes.
Bill’s boats were constructed to high standards, and he achieved world-wide recognition as a skilled builder. This provided an entry into the world of competitive sailing, in which he excelled over the next two decades. Some of his proud accomplishments were being named to the 1980 Canadian Olympic Team, 1983 Canadian Pan-Am Team, and winning gold in a Soling North American Championship. Besides other victories and placements in Mackinac races, a special achievement was winning both 1st in class and 1st in Division, sailing an Abbott 33 in the 1991 Bayview Mackinac race.
Bill was always an avid competitor in local Sarnia Yacht Club races. Bill’s established international reputation in the sailing world was recognized in various ways: he was as a Life-Time member of the Sarnia Yacht Club, which donated the William Abbott Senior Trophy to the CYA, to be awarded yearly to the best sail training program in Canada; the Film Board of Canada included Abbott Boats in the travelog series, “About Town”; a 90th birthday sail past at the Sarnia Yacht Club; and many articles were written about him. Bill was also included as a ‘Legend of Sailing’ by Ontario Sailing in 2017.
