18 Jan 24:
From Doug: Pat, now sadly departed this mortal coil, was one of the original owners of Kelly and Halls boatyard at in the UK. He was a highly skilled craftsman and an excellent competitive sailor. He designed and built his beautiful small keelboat named "Gossamer". The boat was a pure sailing boat, fully decked apart from the cockpit and performed really well.
Every year there was a race from the River Yealm in Devon to Mevagissey in Cornwall, Pat Hall was a regular competitor in the race. One year, he set off as usual in "Gossamer" but there was hardly a breath of wind, so he used his skill and experience to make his way slowly a few miles out into the English Channel, searching for a steady breeze to take him to Mevagissey and the race finish line. He succeeded in finding a breeze and eventually crossed the finish line. He moored up outside of the yacht club and went inside, asking if anyone else had arrived before him. He was told "The race was cancelled because there was no wind!" His response was "No wind, how do you think I got here, I have a sailing boat with no engine and just a small single paddle, so I want the winners trophy." They refused to give him the trophy telling him again that the race was cancelled. His response "If I can sail here, so can anyone else, nobody told me the race was cancelled, I'm taking the trophy." They refused to give it to him, so he took the trophy from the cabinet, marched back to his boat, cast off and sailed back to the Yealm.
Upon his arrival at the Yealm Yacht Club, the Commodore told him they'd received a telephone call from the Mevagissey Yacht Club asking for the trophy back. He said "If they want it back, tell them to come and get it." They never did and he never returned the trophy.
Perhaps I should have mentioned, Pat was quite a character, a big very strong man, 48 inch chest, 32 inch waist, a hair trigger temper, fiercely competitive and didn't suffer fools at all.
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