During the 2022-2023 season, Australian and New Zealand lost three greats of FD sailing. Vale Carl Ryves in October 2022, Ralph Roberts in March 2023, and Sir James Hardy in June 2023. 

Ralph represented NZ in the 1964 Olympics as reserve for gold medal FD team of Helmer Pederson & Earle Wells, and in 1968 in the FD Class finishing eighth. He was 1984 NZ Olympic Sailing team manager (yielding 2x Gold & 1x Bronze) and was Yachting NZ President in 1986-89. He was an international jury member for the 2004 Melbourne Worlds.