A Bit of News

[K38Bob]

Fair winds Bill, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/cla...38#fbLoggedOut

[pogen]

Although I did not know Bill personally, I knew the role he played in SSS and am very sad to hear of his passing.

Maybe one or two people could say a few words on Wednesday.

[Jonathan Gutoff]

A great sailor and the embodiment of the SSS spirit.

[BobJ]

When Bill was Commodore he usually ended each meeting with the question "Is there anything else for the good of the order?" While the phrase was probably borrowed from his past service in a fraternal organization, I believe Bill was indeed most concerned for "the good of the order."

He was a good leader, a good sailor and a good friend, and he will be missed.

[sleddog]

Bill embodied what is good about SSS and the essence of its members: Tough. Sensitive. A caring member of our extended family. Bill defined the expression "Comrade-In-Arms."
Good sailing, my friend.

We were cutter-rigged and rakish,
With long and lissome hulls,
And we flew the pretty colors of asymmetricals.
With staysails pulling mighty in the fore,
We sailed the Single Handed Transpac in alternate years of yore.

With a boom preventer amidships, like a well-conducted ship,
We'd each a brace of feather jigs and a tether at the hip;
It's a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored,
But we chased the golden mahi, and laid their fins aboard.

And flying fish filled the scuppers and squid dried beneath the pole,
And the varnish was all splattered with scales on the sole.
But we soon were washed and rinsed, as the squalls marched slowly by.
And tradewinds blew us foaming westward under popcorn in the sky.

O! Then it was while lying beneath the myriad night time stars,
We could hear the dolphins squeaking as they swam in from afar.
Then having trimmed the boat asleep, with little else to do,
We danced a quiet hornpipe as the old salts taught us to.

O! The slack key on the stereo and our slapping naked soles,
We danced a little jig and curtsied as she rolled!
Ah! the thirsty solo sailors and the radio pranks we played,
Would be told beneath the Tree at the ending of the day.

With the silver seas around us and the full moon overhead,
And the look-out gazing westward as his cigar was glowing red.
The cutters and their merry crews will be anchored not far away,
A little south of sunset in the Bay of Hanalei.

~sleddog _______/)___/)_____

[AlanH]

I'm just really sad to hear of this, even though we all knew it was coming. It's making me think.

[Eyrie]

When I'd heard that Bill was planning on coming out to race the Vallejo opener on Green Buffalo, I was so optimistic that the treatments he was getting were doing the trick.

I'm so honored that I was able to help with some of the loose ends that made the inevitable a bit easier on Sara. Ergo is in a new happy home and back playing on the race course again.

Fair winds Bill.

PS. some photos that I found of Bill from the 2006 SHTP

[Travieso]

It is sad. I got to know Bill and his family as we were both Transpac rookies in 2004. Fair winds my friend.

[Travieso]

I plan to fly the burgee in my avatar during the Vallejo Race. We had talked in the past about gathering with Bill during this Vallejo race, so instead I will remember and celebrate his life this way. Some rum will be had as well.

[solosailor]

I just caught this. Bill was an honest competitor, a friend, a staunch defender of the spirit of the SSS, a mentor to many..... sad days.