messing about in boats

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30410, 8 April 1964, Page 13

messing about in boats

Obituary Mr William Proudfoot Begg, who died at Timaru last month after a long illness, made a valuable contribution to the development and progress of yachting both nationally and locally. He was 38. His interest in the sport dated back to the years before World War 11. Many senior members of the Timaru Yacht Club, with which he was associated, served overseas, and during the war he exercised a strong influence in maintaining interest in yachting, acting as “sheetanchor,” crewman, and administrator. After the war he was club secretary and, on his retirement, was elected a life member, the youngest person so honoured by the club. Commodore In recent years, Mr Begg continued his work for the club as officebearer. Nearly two years ago he became commodore. He was the club’s delegate to the New Zealand Yachting Federation, and was a member of several sub-committees. He was acting-commodore of the Timaru Yacht Club at the time of his death, and a representative on the federation in its negotiations with the Government about the registration of boats. Mr Begg crewed with H. H. Klngham in the Gallina in Sanders Cup races, and attended the inaugural meeting of the federation at Lyttelton in 1952. He was an amateur cyclist in his youth, and took a keen interest in harbour development and shipping. He was also a member of the Olympic Tepid Pool Committee. He leaves a wife and six children. Monsters If the adults found it difficult to cope with tidal surges in the Waimakariri regatta’s Echo Trophy fleet the under-lfis in their seven-footers found it impossible. Twentythree of them were racing, and as they finished sailing down-stream they were carried on by the current until they bumped into the north bank or were towed back by a motor-boat.

Logs of wood, part-sub-merged, and some of them seven or eight feet long, added to the confusion. It says something for the eyes and reflexes of all the yachtsmen that there were no serious collisions, although two girls, Misses G. Denvir and J. Willson, had an uncomfortably close encounter with one monster. Dangerous The Waimakariri Sailing Club commodore (Mr H. M. Blanchard) ordered the club rescue boat to put out when it was seen that the bottom marker buoy was being carried away. The boat found conditions on the bar too dangerous to attempt to retrieve the buoy, and let it go, standing by to prevent any yachts following it. The race began on an incoming tide and an (alleged) easterly, but the wind was hardly strong enough to strain the sheets; and it concluded on an ebb tide with an unusually peaceful southerly. In such conditions the race, whose course was shortened partway through, was virtually secondary; although after well over two hours the expertise of the veterans was clearly enough demonstrated by their positions at the head of the fleet.