R.I.P. Sailing Friends and Acquaintances
Writing recently about berthing down tide in a tight space reminded me of John Robertson, a Hillhead man who sailed a Clyde 30 in the Solent and across the Channel (carefully - beating hard into a heavy chop risked opening the garboards around the mast step because her full-sectioned bows weren’t designed for that kind of life). I’ve seen John sail into inside berths in several marinas (they had no motor at all), gliding to a halt as the cheerful, diminutive Pauline stepped quietly onto the pontoon with the bow line.
Sadly, John has been gone a few years. I miss the days when I could track him down at the bar in Hillhead and ask him to save me a fresh lobster or two next time he emptied his pots.
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In an effort to get back into the yachting scene after many years’ absence, I bought a Yachting World at the airport and another in Capetown. Both contained obituaries for people who were major figures in my racing days.
During my seasons crewing a Sparkman & Stephens 34 around the cans in the Solent, Owen Parker was a familiar sight, squatting with his back against the pushpit rail on Guy Bowles’ One Tonner Sunmaid. Later, he did the same on all five of Ted Heath’s Morning Cloud boats. Owen died recently, aged 76.
It wasn’t all gloom though. In the same issue of Yachting World, I saw a photograph of Olin Stephens looking a bit thin and wispy-haired but otherwise hale and hearty - at his 100th birthday celebration during the New York Yacht Club’s Race Week in Newport. I never met Olin, but after Carnival (the S&S 34 I was crewing) beat one or two of his One Tonners on the water in a Cowes Week race, his brother Rod came aboard to talk to us. He also showed us ex-dinghy racers the proper way to whip a sheet off a winch when tacking…
In the next issue of Yachting World, there was an obituary for Peter Milne, who died aged 73 after a long illness. Peter was Editor of Yachts & Yachting for several years, and then technical editor of Yachting Monthly from 1983 to 1991. He designed several boats, but I remember meeting him while he was thinking over the concept of his scow-hulled Fireball dinghy class - which I spent a season or two crewing several years later. Great fun, particularly when trapezing on a spinnaker reach.
R.I.P. John, Owen and Peter. You’ll be missed, but we’ll enjoy many a yarn about the things you did and said, and the way you treated people.
A few weeks ago, at the Lee-on-Solent Sailing Club centenary ball, I met John Robertson’s widow Sarah again for the first time in many years. She still owns Corrie, the Clyde 30 I talked about, which is now 100 years old and suffering from rot in a few critical places. She and her son are working hard to fund and carry out the necessary major repairs.