OBITUARIES

Geoff Pack, UK Rear Commodore

Geoff died in May aged only thirty-nine, after a short but fierce battle against cancer. Many of us knew him through his years with Yachting Monthly magazine, latterly as Editor, or his work on the OCC Committee. Others will have met him during the 1980s when he and Lou Lou ran charter yachts in the Caribbean, or sailing his Valiant Esprit 37 Kiskadee in both British and American waters. In the short time granted him, Geoff led an awful lot of lives.

I first met Geoff soon after he joined Yachting Monthly in 1978 at the age of nineteen. Even then he was a large, hairy, bear of a man, always cheerful and positive and with an amazing breadth of sailing knowledge. Within a year or two he and Lou Lou were preparing their 35ft Wharram catamaran Foreigner for an Atlantic crossing -- Geoff had grown up sailing catamarans out of Shoreham harbour -- though it was hard to believe that they would be very comfortable in Foreigner's slender hulls. By all accounts they weren't, and soon after their arrival found employment with Stevens Yachts working charter boats out of St Lucia. Within a year Geoff was skippering the 60ft Third Mate with Lou Lou as cook/crew -- responsible and demanding work for a couple still in their early twenties, but the basis for a whole fund of very funny stories.

By 1983 they were back in England, but not for long. I saw Geoff for the first time in several years when he brought their newly acquired Rival 34 Euge into the Shoreham marina where Wrestler was berthed. I remember sitting in the sunshine, listening to plans for another Atlantic passage that autumn (Liz and I planned to be off the following year), and telling him that he really ought to join the Ocean Cruising Club. I was delighted when he did, though cannot with certainty claim to have signed the proposal form.

Euge's Atlantic circuit was (so far as Geoff ever let on) almost without incident and certainly without major drama. He was too modest to admit that this was at least in part due to their meticulous planning, though this fact came through clearly in Ocean Cruising Countdown (later updated under the title Blue Water Countdown), still essential reading for anyone planning a first-time Atlantic passage. But it was only ever intended to be a one-year trip and by 1985 Geoff was back with Yachting Monthly, first as Projects and then as Assistant Editor. The following year their eldest son, Oliver, was born, soon followed by Claudia and then Theo.

However the urge to sail long distances can only have been dormant, as 1991 saw the whole family set off again, this time aboard a relatively spacious 40ft Apache catamaran. The plan was to circumnavigate, during which Geoff would send regular contributions back to Yachting Monthly -- the Blue Water Letter. (If backed into a corner Geoff did admit that creative concentration can be a real problem with three small children underfoot, and that too much Lego can seriously damage your strum box, but always pointed out that in Lou Lou he had the most marvellously supportive partner.)

In Trinidad the following autumn he and Lou Lou were faced with a dilemma. Andrew Bray was moving from Yachting Monthly to Yachting World -- should they give up their dream so that Geoff could take over the editorship? Sadly, in retrospect, I remember Geoff saying that an opportunity like that only came your way once and that they could always go cruising again after the children were grown.

Geoff's four full years as Editor, during which their last child, Tilly, was born, saw the magazine go from strength to strength under his leadership. Very few people combine the authority, modesty, enthusiasm and sense of humour which Geoff could bring to apparently any subject associated with boats and the sea. One of my real regrets is that I never actually sailed with him. In spite of a demanding full-time job and the growing family, Geoff found time to serve on the OCC Committee and became a Rear Commodore in 1994.

He learned that he had cancer in October last year, and almost immediately began a succession of exhausting treatments. We spoke quite often on the phone -- Geoff was still Chairman of the Awards Sub-Committee, determined as always to see something through once he had started it -- and I could only marvel at the cheerfulness and determination with which he fought his battle. Even when we last spoke in April there was still the old familiar twinkle in his voice. Libby Purves, who wrote a moving obituary in The Times yet had us laughing unashamedly at her reminiscences during Geoff's Memorial service in September, wrote: `in May's editorial about avoiding big ship collisions at sea he wrote with his usual blitheness: `Always be prepared to make a move, but don't start worrying until they get close.' He faced his own death with the same courage.' Andrew, his predecessor at Yachting Monthly, added: `He leaves a huge gap in all our lives.' It's very hard to believe he's really gone, and it will be a very, very long time before he's forgotten.

Anne Hammick

Clive Stevenson

Clive Stevenson, a member of the Ocean Cruising Club since 1955 and for many years Port Officer St Vincent, has died in France at the age of seventy-eight. He was a talented artist and sculptor, founder of the Caribee Studio in St Vincent, and a builder of boats and (more unusually) bamboo houses. He had a great sense of humour, a fund of inventive ideas and a strong sense of comradeship. He will be greatly missed. His widow Eileen writes:

My late husband and I had a great deal of wonderful sailing together, despite the usual mishaps such as being dismasted (twice), rudders giving way (repaired under water), and of course sails blowing out. But we were together, as off the Portuguese coast when we were caught by undercurrents and heavy seas. Rocks and reefs, we were together, heavy weather and calm. This last time I could not help my husband in hospital.®LM20¯

Trust the past to the mercy of God,

The present to His love,

And the future to His providence.

Eileen Stevenson

Alan Logan

Alan Logan, a Foreign Service Officer of the United States and frequent contributor to Flying Fish, `sailed away' at Yale New Haven Hospital in April at the age of seventy-one, surrounded by his family.

He was born in Nantes, France, and raised in Arizona and California. After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Redlands and USC in California, he received his Master's degree in Economics from Stanford University. His total fluency in French and knowledge of Russian were a great asset during his thirty-one year diplomatic career, which included fourteen postings in Asia, Africa, the USSR, the Middle East and Europe, as well as with the State Department in Washington DC. His last assignment was as Acting Ambassador in the Gambia from 1983 to 1984.

His numerous assignments took him to the hot spots of the world. In 1955 he was caught in the midst of the Lebanese war and witnessed the landing of the US Marines in Beirut. In 1965 his dedication as a specialist in African affairs attracted excessive `interest' from the Soviet authorities and the following year, in a Guinea run by a dictatorial government, he was placed under house arrest with his family. From 1979 to 1982 he utilized his position as Consul General in Durban, Natal to help pave the way for the improvement of inter-racial relations on the eve of the end of South Africa's apartheid.

His passion for the sea, which began as serious dinghy sailing and racing in Nigeria and summer cruising in the Mediterranean, developed into a full-fledged occupation after his retirement in 1982. Between 1983 and 1996 he sailed more than 70,000 miles aboard Katy II, his French NS 44 (Nautique Saintonge) ketch. He explored every island of the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, circumnavigated the Atlantic Ocean and sailed the North, Baltic and White Seas. His was the first foreign yacht to sail completely around the Black Sea. He joined the Ocean Cruising Club in 1987.

Alan's last ten years were dedicated to opening Russian inland waterways to foreign yachts, a cause which started as a lonely crusade but finally gained momentum in 1996. During that summer, a large flotilla of boats from Holland, England, and America sailed from the White Sea to St Petersburg during the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Russian fleet under Czar Peter the Great (see Sailing through Russia in '96, FF97/1). The President of Karelia presented Alan with a special award in gratitude for his achievements.

Let me quote the conclusion of Alan's last report, written in September 1996:

`Russia's internal waters are the largest cruising grounds in the world that have not been explored by the international cruising community....As conditions improve, Russia could provide a pleasant and safe nautical highway from northern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean....This could result in significant economic benefits to Russia's scattered communities as they respond to the market demand of passing foreign yachts for supplies and facilities'.

Nicole Logan

POSTSCRIPT: It would have been Alan's wish to have others continue his efforts where he left off. As his wife, I would be glad to share the enormous amount of material he produced on this topic with whomever would be interested in pursuing his non-commercial and totally unselfish quest.

Robert Forbes Perkins

R Forbes Perkins died at Beverly Hospital, Massachusetts in January at the age of eighty. He was born in Framingham, MA, and attended the Fay School, Milton Academy and Harvard University, receiving his MBA from Rutgers University.

In June 1940 Forbes entered the US Naval Reserve, and on 7 December 1941 was serving as a Lieutenant aboard USS Pennsylvania at Pearl Harbor. Writing about the attack, Forbes recalled that during the assault he had rushed back to his ship from shore leave, proceeding to his battle station at the port anti-aircraft gun. `I still had on my seersucker suit and thought it would improve the situation if I also had my Colt 45 and an officer's cap.' Running out of ammunition on deck, he commandeered the captain's gig with five sailors to get more shells from the depot. `We were all armed to the teeth -- I had drawn a Browning automatic rifle and looked like Pancho Villa in a seersucker suit.' Navigating across the harbour through flaming water, debris, and explosions they got more shells. `As a matter of real worth of the trip, I guess it was more of a morale builder for us and for the AA crews than for any effective war effort.'

He later became a naval aviator and joined Carrier Air Group 80 on board USS Ticonderoga piloting dive bombers. In 1944 he received the DFC for taking part in a successful attack on a Japanese cruiser in the Philippines. He was wounded in 1945 during a kamikaze attack off Formosa and later discharged with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

In 1946 he started work at the Second National Bank in Boston, and left twenty-six years later as Senior Vice President at State Street Bank and Trust Co. He then joined the investment firm of JM Forbes and Company as a partner, working there until retirement in 1989. He was active in many community services and was Trustee of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Chapter Chairman of the greater Boston Red Cross and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Museum of China Trade in Milton, MA.

In 1959 Forbes and his family moved to Manchester, Massachusetts and the following year he took delivery of a new Concordia 39, Goldeneye, and began a twenty-nine year love affair with sailing in that boat.

Every summer Forbes, his family and friends cruised from Manchester, exploring the New England coast. In 1957 he bought Campbell Island, off the Eggomoggin Reach, and it became a favourite stop for camping, clamming and shooting during his summer cruises. Each summer he delighted in picking up notes left in a tobacco can by visitors to the island. Five years ago he donated the 100 acre island to the Island Institute to be preserved in its wild state, and today it is included in the Maine Island Trail.

In 1977 Forbes sailed Goldeneye, with a crew including his two sons, from Manchester to Plymouth, England as part of a fleet cruise sponsored by the MYC, CCA and Royal Western Yacht Club of England. During the summers of 1978 and 1979 Forbes cruised around Ireland and along the west coast of Scotland. In 1990 he switched to powerboat cruising with a lovely 42ft Joel White-built lobster boat yacht. He was a great skipper, who knew how to run a yacht and have fun doing it -- when he said with a smile `my only concern is for the comfort and contentment of the crew' he meant it. He sold Goldeneye II in 1994.

Through sailing, Forbes combined his love of adventure with his love of his family and friends. He thoroughly enjoyed the larger fraternity of yachting and, during his travels, not only enjoyed the company of others he met but also supported their clubs. Besides the Ocean Cruising Club Forbes also belonged to the Cruising Club of America (Rear Commodore, 1981-1982), the Manchester Yacht Club (Commodore, 1977-1978), the Royal Cruising Club, the Irish Cruising Club, the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the Clyde Cruising Club and the Center Harbor Yacht Club.

He is survived by Florence, his wife and `go-along-girl' for fifty-five years, three daughters, two sons and four grandchildren.

Thomas H Perkins

Franklin J Dickman

Franklin Dickman passed away on his ninetieth birthday, 18 April 1993. He was an avid sailor and bonafide `old salt', who sailed on the Great Lakes as a boy. As an adult, Long Island Sound and Fisher's Island Sound

became his home waters. In the sailing seasons, however, he also ventured to Block Island, Montauk, Shelter Island, Narragansett Bay, Buzzard's Bay, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Maine, the Maritime provinces of Canada, Bermuda and just about any place that had enough water to float a sailboat. He made three sailing trips across the Atlantic Ocean, the last at the age of eighty-three.

Blessed generally by good health, except for the last months of his life, he sailed his own beloved and classic little Menemsha 24 sloop Seven Bells around Fisher's Island Sound, often alone, through the sailing season of his eighty-ninth year. He had extraordinary mental and physical sharpness and agility. To watch my father move about his boat was like watching a cat manoeuvre along a backyard fence. You first wondered how he could do it, and then you wondered how he could do it with so much grace and efficiency. It seemed that he had a special relationship with his boat and the waters she sailed on -- a type of symbiotic relationship bred by a love of the sea, amazing agility, and years of joyful and loving sailing experiences.

We, of course, miss him very much, but we are grateful for the long time that we were able to share our lives with him.

R Neil Dickman