Athletic Lives of Distinction - M - Z
S - Z
Watlington, Hubert '73 - Sailing
Hubert has enjoyed international success as a member of several Royal Bermuda Yacht Club sailing teams. He sailed for Bermuda—winning a bronze medal—at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cuba in 1982. In 1984, he was the sole windsurfer to represent Bermuda at the Olympics.
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for this Ridley athlete. His most vivid sports memory, though not his happiest, takes him back to his days as a coxswain with the Senior Heavy 8. The crew won the American high school championships, came second at Canadian Schoolboy and earned a coveted berth in the Royal Henley Regatta in England—where they made it to the semi-final heat and were favoured to win. “When we came out of the gates, it was like a bullet,” Hubert recalls. Their commanding lead promised a chance at the finals, but fate stepped in when a member of the Ridley crew suddenly fainted. Watlington watched, horrified, as his crewmate’s oar skidded. The blade dug into the water, catching the oarsman in the stomach and hauling him overboard. Ridley was disqualified because they finished the race without all crew-members on board. “I still get very upset when I think about losing that,” he admits.
Nonetheless, Hubert's belief in the power of sport to overcome obstacles remains unwavering. “The most important thing I learned from sport,” he shares, “is that as a team or as an individual, we all can achieve amazing feats with discipline, perseverance, and dedication.”
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for this Ridley athlete. His most vivid sports memory, though not his happiest, takes him back to his days as a coxswain with the Senior Heavy 8. The crew won the American high school championships, came second at Canadian Schoolboy and earned a coveted berth in the Royal Henley Regatta in England—where they made it to the semi-final heat and were favoured to win. “When we came out of the gates, it was like a bullet,” Hubert recalls. Their commanding lead promised a chance at the finals, but fate stepped in when a member of the Ridley crew suddenly fainted. Watlington watched, horrified, as his crewmate’s oar skidded. The blade dug into the water, catching the oarsman in the stomach and hauling him overboard. Ridley was disqualified because they finished the race without all crew-members on board. “I still get very upset when I think about losing that,” he admits.
Nonetheless, Hubert's belief in the power of sport to overcome obstacles remains unwavering. “The most important thing I learned from sport,” he shares, “is that as a team or as an individual, we all can achieve amazing feats with discipline, perseverance, and dedication.”
P.O. Box 3013, 2 Ridley Road St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 7C3 Canada 905 684 1889
With more than 700 students from 60 countries, the largest boarding programme in Ontario and the third largest in Canada, Ridley College is a truly international, co-educational, day and boarding school of the world that prepares students for the world. It has provided enriching learning and life-shaping experiences focused on the arts, academics, and athletics since 1889. Ridley’s Lower School offers JK-Grade 8, its Upper School consists of Grade 9-PG, and Ridley graduates attend some of the top universities and colleges around the world. Ridley is the only co-ed independent boarding school in Canada and one of only three in North America authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum programme.
