In Memoriam: Mike Slade OBE

The Royal Ocean Racing Club is deeply saddened by the death of Mike Slade OBE, one of the great characters of British and international yacht racing and a hugely familiar figure in RORC racing for more than three decades and a member of the Club for over 25 years.

For generations of RORC sailors, the name Mike Slade was inseparable from Leopard. His succession of powerful racing yachts—Ocean Leopard, Longobarda, Leopard of London and ultimately Leopard 3—became fixtures of the international offshore racing scene.

Mike raced because he loved it. Competitive, charismatic and enormously enthusiastic, he brought colour, ambition and energy to every campaign. Under long-standing skipper Chris Sherlock, the Leopard programme became synonymous with speed, professionalism and an appetite for taking on the world’s greatest offshore races.

The launch of Leopard 3 in 2007 marked a major step forward in maxi yacht design. Drawing heavily on the thinking behind the new generation of Volvo 70s, the 100ft Farr-designed yacht combined a canting keel and daggerboards with an immensely powerful platform created for high-speed offshore sailing. At the time, Leopard 3 was at the cutting edge of maxi development.

That radical approach was matched by remarkable longevity. While technology and competition continued to evolve around her, Leopard 3 remained at the forefront of international offshore racing throughout Mike’s tenure. Whether racing as ICAP Leopard or Leopard 3, she continued to challenge for Line Honours, overall victories and records. The combination of innovative design, meticulous preparation under Sherlock and Mike’s determination to compete at the highest level made her one of the defining maxi yachts of her generation.

ROLEX /Carlo Borlenghi

RORC races provided the stage for many of the programme’s greatest achievements.

The Rolex Fastnet Race held a special place in Mike’s sailing career. Leopard contested five consecutive editions under his ownership between 2007 and 2015. In 2007, the newly launched ICAP Leopard took Monohull Line Honours in 1d 20h 18m 53s, setting a new race record and becoming the first monohull to complete the course in under 48 hours. Two years later she was again the first monohull to finish. In 2011, ICAP Leopard finished second overall under IRC.

Mike described the Rolex Fastnet Race as “the jewel in the UK’s yacht racing crown”, and five consecutive campaigns demonstrated his wider commitment to RORC’s offshore programme.

That commitment was equally evident in the RORC Caribbean 600. Mike and ICAP Leopard were founding competitors in 2009, taking Monohull Line Honours and establishing the original monohull course record. They returned repeatedly, with Leopard taking Monohull Line Honours again in 2013 and racing the 600-mile course once more in 2015 and 2017. Even a decade after her launch, Leopard 3 remained at the sharp end of the fleet.

After the 2013 finish, Mike summed up his affection for the race: “I absolutely love this race; the course, the weather and the welcome we receive back in Antigua is just the best, anywhere.”

The Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race was another regular fixture in Mike’s RORC campaigns. After many years of competing in the race, ICAP Leopard took both Line Honours and victory overall under IRC in 2013, winning the King Edward VII Cup.

The Leopard yachts were also prolific record breakers. ICAP Leopard broke the Cowes-Dinard-St Malo race record and set records around Ireland, across the Atlantic and on numerous other courses. For a period, she held an extraordinary collection of offshore and passage records, reflecting Mike’s fascination not simply with winning races, but with discovering just how fast a yacht and its crew could go.

That ambition also took Leopard 3 across the Atlantic with RORC in 2016. Racing almost 3,000 miles from Lanzarote to Grenada in the RORC Transatlantic Race, Mike’s maxi took Monohull Line Honours, adding another major RORC success to an already remarkable record.

ROLEX /Carlo Borlenghi

Yet statistics tell only part of the Mike Slade story. Mike was one of the great characters of RORC racing. The sight of one of his yachts powering away from a RORC start line became familiar to generations of Club members, whether heading to St Malo, around the Fastnet Rock, across the Atlantic or through the Caribbean. Just as importantly, the Leopard programme made an enormous contribution to the people within the sport.

Under Chris Sherlock’s leadership, Mike’s boats became an extraordinary training ground for young sailing talent. Young sailors were given opportunities to race offshore alongside some of the very best professionals in the world, learning their craft in demanding conditions and within a highly professional team.

Sherlock looked after Mike and Heather Slade’s yachts for 27 years and a huge number of sailors passed through the programme. Many went on to reach the highest professional ranks, including the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race.

That contribution reflects one of RORC’s enduring strengths: bringing different generations of sailors together and creating an environment in which experience can be shared and talent can develop. For many young sailors, an opportunity aboard one of Mike’s Leopard yachts in a RORC race became an important step towards a professional sailing career.

Mike took immense pleasure not only from competing at the front of the fleet, but from the people around him. The combination of his infectious enthusiasm and Chris Sherlock’s leadership created a programme that developed sailors as well as winning races.

Across more than 30 years of maxi yacht campaigning, Mike’s boats collected Line Honours victories, overall wins and an extraordinary number of race and passage records. Leopard of London, ICAP Leopard and Leopard 3 became some of the most recognisable racing yachts of their era.

Away from sailing, Mike enjoyed a hugely successful career in the property industry and was appointed OBE in 2019 for services to charity.

For RORC, however, he will be remembered above all as a racer. He supported the Club’s great offshore races, raced them hard and returned to them again and again. His contribution also lives on through the many sailors who were given their chance aboard Leopard.

RORC extends its deepest condolences to Mike’s wife Heather, the Slade family and his many friends, as well as to Chris Sherlock and the thousands of sailors whose lives and careers were touched by Mike through the Leopard programme.

ROLEX /Carlo Borlenghi

The Club remembers Mike Slade OBE with enormous affection and respect. Offshore racing has lost one of its greatest characters—a man whose yachts made RORC racing faster and more spectacular, whose enthusiasm was infectious, and whose influence reached far beyond the racecourse to generations of sailors around the world.