OBITUARIES

The Flag Officers and Committee would like to express their sympathy to the relatives and friends of members who have died during the past year. As Editor I would also like to thank those who have contributed the following appreciations, since Club records are seldom full enough for these to be compiled without additional information.

James Griffin

James Griffin who, with his wife Ann, raised four daughters afloat, died peacefully in hospital on 11 February after a long illness.

Jim joined the Navy in 1938 as an engineering officer and served in Russian convoys, followed by submarines, before being invalided out of the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in 1946 with cardiac problems. He was given just six months to live.

In love with the sea since the age of eight, Jim Griffin chose to spend those last months with his wife aboard their Thames sailing barge, Atlas. He thrived on the lifestyle and soon recovered so successfully that he and Ann produced four daughters over the next several years, bringing them up on sixteen traditional gaff ketches, most notably the Colin Archer, Northern Light. Sailing further afield during school holidays they encouraged the girls to become fully competent members of the crew with varying specialisations from engine maintenance to celestial navigation.

Jim joined the OCC in 1966, having qualified in a fully crewed Northern Light the previous year on a passage from Gran Canaria to Barbados. Seven years later he and Ann made the same crossing on their own, four marriages having deprived them of their crew. In the intervening years Jim undertook teaching posts in places to which they could sail and where the family could live on board their sailing home. In so doing they inspired many others to enjoy cruising and exploring new waters in much the same way.

From 1970 to 1973 Jim taught engineering, navigation and seamanship at the Dockyard Technical College, Gibraltar and will be remembered by many members as an active Port Officer, always available and helpful. In 1971 he organised one of the earlier OCC rallies, for the yachts taking part in the Falmouth--Rock Race and then sailing on to Malta for the Middle Sea Race. Much of the success and enjoyment of this event was due to his meticulous planning and to the cooperation of the Minister for Tourism, the Port Captain and many more of his Gibraltarian friends, in whom he had inspired interest in the Club.

This colourful, enterprising and companionable character will be much missed in the cruising world, and our great sympathy goes to Ann, her daughters and their families.

MHB

Denzil O'Hanlon

Denzil O'Hanlon, who died in Dublin in May 1993 in his late thirties, was the third son of Dr Barbara and the late Dr Rory O'Hanlon, whose sailing exploits were well known to OCC members.

Boating was a way of life to the O'Hanlon boys who, as they grew up, frequently joined their father on offshore trips. Denzil qualified for the OCC in 1984 aboard Peter Mullins' Charisma of Sark, sailing from the Mediterranean to Antigua.

Denzil was well known in antiques circles in Dublin and is greatly missed by all his many friends.

`And all I ask is a merry yarn

from a laughing fellow rover

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream

when the long trick's over.'

RPL

Mrs Salley Norwood

Salley Norwood died suddenly on 3 April 1993 at her home in Georgetown, South Carolina. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she was the daughter of the late Colonel John C MacKeen, a prominent businessman and yachtsman. Starting at a young age she had a lifelong interest in sailing that lead to many accomplishments. From racing small sloops in Halifax Harbour to crewing on some of the world's finest ocean-going yachts she seldom turned down an opportunity to sail. She was a member of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron and the Ocean Cruising Club, which she joined in 1968, later becoming Port Officer for Nova Scotia. In World War II her sailing was interrupted while she served in Europe as an ambulance driver for St John Ambulance.

She became very interested in ocean navigation, at which she became so proficient that she was often sought out by racing skippers. Her first transatlantic passage was made in her father's yacht from Gibraltar to Halifax and the second was from Iceland to Nova Scotia by way of Greenland. A few years ago she was navigator of the first all-female crew to enter the biennial race from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Halifax, Nova Scotia. To these accomplishments can be added countless coastal voyages and several passages to Bermuda and the West Indies. In latter years she owned a small sloop that she raced and cruised enthusiastically from Chester, Nova Scotia.

Salley is much missed by her many friends, particularly those who had the pleasure of sailing with her.

JMD

Mike Styles

Those of you who knew Mike Styles will have been shocked and saddened to learn of his sudden death last October. I only became aware that he had left us when his wife, Vlasta, wrote in reply to a Christmas card sent in ignorance of his passing.

Having been asked to write a few words about him I realise, with regret, that I know very little about Mike other than that he seemed the sort of companion I would have enjoyed sailing with. We first met on the 1987 Azores and Back Race, in which he and Vlasta competed aboard Waki, their 36ft Centurion. I remember going on board in Ponta Delgada and receiving a warm and congenial welcome. Later on we met occasionally at OCC events where, much as we all do, we exchanged news and discussed plans for the following season.

What is particularly poignant about Mike's death is that he was of an age when he ought to have been looking forward to many more years in which to enjoy his sailing. As with ships, one half expects the demise of rust buckets and worm-ridden, weed-infested hulks, yet when a fine vessel, which to all appearances is in pristine condition, founders there is a sense of injustice, of shock and of sadness. I, and I am sure those members who knew Mike, will feel all these emotions and will, like myself, pay him the compliment of missing him.

On behalf of us all, I should like to express our sympathy to Vlasta in her loss.

MdP