We have a sad note from Don Casey’s wife, Olga, that Don, one of SAIL magazine’s most popular and prolific writers, died suddenly of a heart attack in his backyard in Miami Springs, Florida, on January 25. He was 77 years old. His very first book, Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, published in 1987, quickly established him as a leading voice in the Keep It Simple Stupid school of cruising under sail. Over the following decades he published 10 more books that became technical bibles of boat maintenance and the cruising lifestyle. One of his more popular works, Dragged Aboard, offered trenchant advice on making reluctant spouses comfortable and happy while afloat. His most popular book, This Old Boat, is still in print. His very last book, Marjoram & Mace, published just last year, was a tightly plotted mystery novel.

Don always practiced what he preached. Born in Dallas, Texas, he originally was obsessed with motorcycles and sports cars as a young man. He fell into sailing and cruising after coming across a National Geographic article by Robin Lee Graham in 1970. It wasn’t long before he moved to Miami and took a job with the Federal Reserve to finance the purchase of his first boat, a Bristol 27. He soon exchanged this for a simple 1969 Allied Seawind 30 he named Richard Cory and quit his Federal Reserve job as chief operating officer in 1983 so he could spend more time sailing. With Olga he explored Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean and meticulously maintained Richard Cory for 44 years before he finally swallowed the anchor and sold her in 2018.

One of the very first books that both inspired and informed me at the beginning of my own cruising career in the early ’90s was Don’s Sensible Cruising. And I certainly wasn’t the only one. To this day I consider it a classic of cruising literature. I was both thrilled and honored when I became Don’s editor at SAIL and had a chance to work with him for over a decade, preparing many of the countless pieces he wrote for the magazine. His copy was always carefully crafted and accessible, and his facts were always right. His attitude was always upbeat, he was unfailingly kind, and had a fine sense of humor. He will be missed, and our hearts go out to Olga.

February 2025