OBITUARIES

The Flag Officers and Committee would like to express their sympathy to the relatives and friends of the following members who are known to have died during the past year: Simon Borrett, Betsey L Chace, Reginald Hill, George A Mandow, Howard M Marler, Sarah H Pinchot, Mrs R H Storm-Clark, Jack Williams.

In recent years the Club has tended to wait until requested before publishing an obituary or appreciation and as a result the passing of members has frequently gone unrecorded. In future it is hoped to include a short notice about each member who passes on though this can, of course, only be done with the help of those who knew them.

Mrs Betsey L Chace

It is with great regret that I must inform you that my wife Betsey L Chace, a proud member of the Ocean Cruising Club and my constant sailing companion, died of cancer after seven months of illness on 10th April 1992.

She had sailed with me in waters from Stornoway to the Cape Verdes, to Grenada and to Labrador, and knew well the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. She was an excellent seaman, had a magic touch on the helm and was a superb cook in all kinds of weather.

Arthur F Chace Jr

Reginald Hill

Reginald Hill died in May 1992 after a long battle against cancer. He joined the OCC in 1982 following a transatlantic passage in the 40ft Keryl and, together with his wife Elizabeth, always planned a retirement of blue water cruising. In 1989 they travelled from California to the UK to purchase Zoom (now renamed Elisabetta), a 1952 classic designed by Charles Nicholson, and felt their ambition was close to coming true. However before the refit was completed she was badly damaged by fire, and soon afterwards Reg was diagnosed as having cancer. At first they hoped that surgery had halted the disease, but sadly it recurred only weeks after Elisabetta's launch and despite a brave and determined fight, Reg and Elizabeth were unable to fulfill their dream.

In her letter, Mrs Elizabeth Hill enclosed the following verse dedicated to her late husband. It was written by Mark S Haunfelner and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Haunfelner family.

Before the wind was born I knew your name

Through your eyes I found the way to my heart

Wherever there is sun, you are there

You are the sweet air of the early spring

You are in the freshening sea, where the wave

leaps in the wind and rejoices

This moment here with you is all I have to give

and all that I cannot live without.

George A Mandow

George Anderson Mandow died on 18th November 1992, aged 85. He became a member of the OCC in 1955 and in due course did his stint as a Flag Officer.

His wide experience of sailing ranged from cruising in his own traditional 10 ton cutter Lady Maud, built by Luke on the Hamble in 1907, to crewing with many of the legendary racing names. In 1963 (at the age of 56) he was foredeck on Clarion the year that Derek Boyer won the Fastnet and swept the board in the Admirals Cup. As a gourmet and a connoisseur he would invariably be invited to victual the ship, and would then produce magnificent meals from the most humble galley. He had never experienced seasickness and didn't wish to know about it.

In 1977 he swallowed the anchor because, he said, he did not feel he could any longer pull his weight. But he spent the evening of his life with his family in Cowes subjecting every yacht that entered the harbour to the closest possible scrutiny.

As a combination of competent doctor, cook and sailor, Geroge was always very welcome aboard the yachts of all those who had the great pleasure of sailing with him.

Peter Corby

Howard M Marler

Howard Marler died in Canada in November 1992 at the age of 82. He joined the Club in 1979, having qualified thirteen years previously with a passage from Las Palmas to Barbados in the 40ft Hypatia. He was still sailing regularly in Floridan waters and the Bahamas in his late seventies, and always derived great pride and pleasure from his membership of the OCC.

Mrs Sarah H Pinchot

Mrs Sarah (Sally) H Pinchot died on 4th February 1993 following a brief illness. She was a Founder Member of the OCC, qualifying with a 1953 passage from Newfoundland to Norway aboard the 38ft yawl Loki with her late husband Gifford, a doctor.

Sally, her brother Frederic M Richards (OCC) and their sister learnt to sail as children with their father, later Commodore of the Cruising Club of America, and both Sally and Giff were accomplished sailors at the time of their marriage in their early twenties. Their first boat was a 30ft S&S sloop named Nanki Poo, their second Loki, which they owned for many years. Neither vessel had an engine and their sailing into dead-end piers in crowded harbours was legendary.

On longer passages Sally was the celestial navigator, largely before the days of electronics, when sextant and wind-up chronometer were the order of the day. They crossed the Atlantic twice, cruised Scotland, Norway and the Baltic Sea, crossed the Pacific to Tahiti and spent many summers along the Maine and Nova Scotia coasts. In addition they took part in a number of ocean races, including the Bermuda Race and the Fastnet.

Their great friendship with Rod Stevens kept them up to the minute with hull and rig design, but in spite of this they only ever owned three yachts in their entire half century of sailing adventures, the last being Loon, also a yawl.

Frederic M Richards

Jack Williams

Jack R H Williams died in June 1992 after ten years' membership, having qualified aboard Rodney Hill's well-known Nicholson 39 Morningtown on a passage from Antigua direct to the Scillies. A dentist by profession, he owned a number of yachts on the British East Coast, including the Rustler 31 Lancet, lost in a petrol explosion and later the Oyster 37 Golden Phoenix.

My sister and I had the good fortune to meet Jack in 1985 in English Harbour, Antigua, where he and his wife had a holiday time-share. Although well past retirement age he commuted around the harbour aboard his windsurfer, sailing neatly alongside to introduce himself as a fellow OCC member and one-time owner of Wrestler's sistership. In addition to cruising Jack raced all his boats hard and successfully, and was also a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

Laurie Le Guay

Although Laurie Le Guay died several years ago in his late seventies, no obituary was published at the time. He joined the OCC in 1973, having qualified in 1971 with a passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas aboard his 42ft steel yawl Eclipse. A professional photographer in his native Australia, he edited a photographic magazine for several years shortly after the Second World War and in 1963 received the Commonwealth Medal for his contributions in that field.

In July 1970 Laurie Le Guay and his crew left Sydney on the first leg of a two year circumnavigation aboard Eclipse which he described in Sailing Free (now sadly out of print). They sailed via the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean to South Africa, crossed the South Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, sailed northwards up the east coast of South America to the Caribbean, and then back across the Pacific back to Australia. Sailing Free gives a glimpse of ocean cruising at a time when yachts were much more of a rarity in many areas, and is illustrated by Laurie's own photographs.