Taken from Scuttlebutt, the online newsletter:
* From Dick Enersen It should not go unsaid in this forum that the late Bob Allan (Scuttlebutt 2928) not only contributed to our sport in many, many ways, but also, along with Mrs. Allan, produced two of the finest sailors of my generation, Robert M. III (Skip) and Scott. They also produced a very nice lawyer, (not a misprint) in daughter Marylee. Skip's exploits and observations have been well reported in Scuttlebutt over the years. Scott, a couple of years younger, has been less prominent on the water lately, but was a hell of a good sailor, and sailmaker, in his day. Each of the brothers, for example, won the Congressional Cup, seriatim, in '66 and '67. It has been my pleasure to know the whole famdamily since the early 60s. Bob Allan had a great deal of which to be proud. * From Rich Roberts The passing of Bob Allan this week led me to search for a bit of background info. I was floored by the depth and quality of anecdotes and other information he had provided me over the years on various sailing subjects. First of all, this quote when discussing his organizational efforts and fund-raising role in kick-starting from nothing the highly successful sailing programs at UC Irvine and Orange Coast College: "It's one of the few [activities] in which humans do nothing destructive. A boat leaves no mark in the water, uses only free air and sun and moves without noise. But most important it allows people who are crippled, injured--even blind--to sail and compete." Allan, a Stanford graduate, was later honored for service to the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association. Allan also was among the group that launched the Newport to Ensenada Race (now "the World's Largest International Yacht Race") in 1947. The Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA) had been running some offshore races and met to discuss the idea. Board member George Michaud suggested a race to Ensenada, then just a sleepy little Mexican fishing village on the Baja California peninsula. Allan, who was at the meeting, said later, "The first couple of years weren't meant to be a race as much as it was a diplomatic deal to get us sailors into Mexico for cruising." - Read on: http://tinyurl.com/rc3cts * From Tripp Alyn, SEISA Grad. Secy. 1986-95 (edited to our 250-word limit) With the passing of Bob Allan (Scuttlebutt 2928) we've witnessed the passing of an era. Bob was clearly the "father of west coast collegiate sailing" and now joins Jack Wood and Leonard Fowle (east coast collegiate sailing), and G. Shelby Friedrichs, Sr. (southern collegiate sailing), who all passed on before Bob, in that "Afterguard in the Sky." Bob's dedication to college sailing was tireless and many a battle was fought by this tenacious leader. Over 20 years ago Bob told the story of how the "east coast college sailing establishment" was reluctant to allow west coast schools to sail in the college nationals. When Bob countered with a plan to hold a separate college nationals on the west coast circumstances abruptly changed which resulted in the first truly national championship. Additionally, Bob enlisted the help of such men as Donald Douglas (Douglas Aircraft), Cornelius Shields and Humphrey Bogart to support college sailing. Bob had a serious concern that college sailing was too focused only on the dinghy events which favored smaller, lighter crews. Thus, Bob became an ardent supporter of the singlehanded, sloop and match racing champion- ships which would allow bigger sailors to fairly compete. With the low-point skippers in A & B divisions at college dinghy nationals competing for the Robert Allan, Sr. and Jr. trophies the legacy of Bob will remain forever in the minds of college sailors. Thanks, Bob, for your dedication to college sailing and for promoting great competition across the country. => Curmudgeon's Comment: Tim Martin has provided us with a great story about Bob Allan which we've posted on our forum: http://tinyurl.com/qzuyfl ~~~/)~~~~/)~~/)~~~~~~/)~~~/)~~~~~~~~/)~~~~~ Gail M. Turluck ICSA Afterguard Chair ICSA Afterguard Events Coordinator (Acting) ICSA Hall of Fame Committee Chair 1245 W Gull Lake Dr Richland, MI 49083 (269)629-0425 [email protected] ~~~/)~~~~/)~~/)~~~~~~/)~~~/)~~~~~~~~/)~~~~~ ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa
