Eight Bells: Dennis Toews

Dennis Toews from Gladstone, Manitoba – Canadian sailing team Leader at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games – passed away on November 3, 2024 at the age of 93.

Toews first became interested in boating and rowing, before getting introduced to sailing in 1959 at the Burlington Yacht Club. He enjoyed and developed himself as a sailor and, in 1978, with Hans Fogh and John Kerr, the crew won back-to-back titles in Soling at the Kiel Week event and the European Championships.

After being appointed alternate crew in Soling and Star for the 1984 Olympic Games, Dennis was approached by Sail Canada (which was then called the Canadian Yachting Association) for the position of Vice President of National Sailing Teams, responsible for the development of Canadian Olympic sailors.

In Seoul in 1988, he led the 15 members of the Canadian Olympic Sailing Team to a bronze medal in Flying Dutchman (Frank McLaughlin and John Millen), as well as to three top 10 results: Donald Maconald and Ross Macdonald, 6th in Star; Nigel Cochrane and Gordon McIlquham, 8th in 470; as well as Kevin Smith and Dave Sweeney, 10th in Tornado.

Canada then sent a team of 16 sailors to the 1992 Barcelona Games, where Eric Albert Jesperson and Ross Macdonald won a bronze medal in Star; Kevin Smith and Dave Sweeney took the 5th spot in Tornado; Robert Stuart Flinn, Philip Gow, and Robert Paul Thomson were 7th in Soling; and Frank McLaughlin and John Millen finished 9th in Flying Dutchman.

Toews was appointed “A” Director to the Canadian Olympic Association for 18 years and to the International Yacht Racing Union.

“He was a Mountie, a singer, an insurance man, a world class rower, sailor, and for so many of us, just a tremendous friend with that crippling sense of humour that left most laughing for years still,” shared John Kerr. “He gave back to the sport in so many ways and gave so much to all of us who knew him. Dennis was my mentor, my friend and the reason my career in sailing took off and had the tenure it did. The sport will miss this guy a ton.”

A story about him was published in the May 2015 issue of Canadian Yachting: https://canadianboating.ca/lifestyle/people-profiles/a-prairie-boys-voyage.