Tony Smith
Published 12:36 on 9 Apr 2023
Val and family would like to thank everyone who sent cards, flowers and tributes after Tony's untimely death.
It was so wonderful to see so many of you from HBSC at the funeral and afterwards at the wake.
Val and the family have been overwhelmed by your ongoing love and support and they look forward to seeing you all down at the club in the coming weeks.
As Tony was such a long-standing member of HBSC his family thought you might like to read a few excerpts from his eulogy about HBSC, which was read for them by Darren Moor.
If there's one phrase that sums up Tony perfectly then it's "This is the life!" probably said with an ice-cream or a glass of beer in his hand, whilst standing on the prom and with a big smile on his face. And what a life it was!
He joined Herne Bay Sailing Club as a cadet in 1957, when he was 14, at a time when there were over a hundred cadets at the club and a waiting list of others wanting to join. He always liked to remind me how he had once been Cadet Captain.
Val remembers first meeting Tony on the sundeck of the sailing club. He was 21 and she was 19. He made quite an impression on her, being dressed as he was in bright yellow oilskins, doing his best salty sea-dog impression.
He taught the children to sail and was keen to encourage their confidence on the water and in life generally. Tony would allow Neville when he was older to take the catamaran out on his own including one day when it was blowing a Force 7 or, should I say, perfect cat weather. Being out in a blow like that was putting a lot of responsibility and trust on the shoulders of a fifteen-year old who probably weighed about nine stone at the time a very fast, powerful boat with its fully-battened sails but there was a lot of potential for expensive repairs as demonstrated that day by other sailors who had crashed straight off the slipway onto the beach. Neville got away with only a pair of snapped sail battens. I've no doubt Tony saw this as progressively developing Neville's confidence in more extreme winds but suspect he still sighed relief when he got off the water safely as did his insurance company.
He sailed for 65 years. His good friend, Deric Ingleton, drove him to buy his first dinghy, a Firefly. His favourite, out of all the 16 boats he had, was a Dart 15 Jacuzzi catamaran in fact he had three of them over the years. He was the first at Herne Bay Sailing Club to ever get one.
Val used to crew for him, which was very good of her because, as anyone who sails a Dart will tell you, the crew tends to take the full force of the waves crashing over the skeg bow and so protect the helm from getting wet!
Tony became Vice Commodore at Herne Bay Sailing Club during the 'nineties and then Commodore itself in 1997. His years as Commodore weren't easy as it coincided with our lovely local water company taking it upon itself to do a lot of infrastructure work on the seafront which severely restricted sailing for a long period of time. There was a real danger of the club folding due to this disruption and Tony proved himself a good 'wartime' leader during this period. Under good administration, the crisis times passed and the club got back to the business of sailing. Tony orchestrated the running of many national championships at the club while helping Val run many great social events; their Christmas parties were legendary. Another fun event was sailing down to Hook Sands, off Margate, to play cricket matches on the sandbanks if there was a very low tide.
In later years, Tony moved away from catamaran sailing and explored different ways to get out on the water. For some years, he sailed his yacht Sea Tardis out of Oare Creek and later Hathie's Dream a Cornish Coble which was ideal for him, even if it was a mission to get it up and down the slipway. The name of the boat, as those of you who know your Jungle Book might notice, is quite apt. Hathie was the elephant leader of the herd who always '... proceeded in a dignified and ponderous manner' and, being one of the oldest animals, '... represented order, dignity and obedience to the law of the jungle.'
Tony's - last craft was a small cabin cruisier Puffin Puffin being just a nice name for a boat - which he used for fishing and general pottering with Dave Hogben & Allan McNeil. Tony loved arranging club cruises up and down the coast, east as far as the Hook sandbanks off Margate again when they were exposed on a spring tide west as far as The Shipwrights Arms at Faversham Creek for lunch or even heaven help us Leysdown.
Tony was made an honorary life member of the club in 2017, as a result of his good works over a long period and this honorary life membership has been extended to Val on Tony's passing both in honour of him but also in tribute to her contribution to the club over the years, even stepping in as honorary commodore's wife to those in the role who didn't have one of their own. It meant so much to the family to see the club flag flying at half-mast on the Sunday after Tony died.
But then Tony was adored down at the club. He was encouraging and knowledgeable. He knew about dinghies and rigging, and where the rocks were that might make an appearance at low tide and why a sheet bend knot might be better than a bowline and if Tony thought the sea-breeze was going to make an appearance one afternoon then it generally did. But he wasn't a know-all. He was kind and thoughtful and liked to look after people. If you had a problem, he generally had something in his garage that would resolve it the right tool for the job that garage must be enormous.
I first came to know Tony when I joined Herne Bay Sailing Club as a new sailor around twenty years ago, by which time he had been there a mere forty-five years. He was an ideal mentor at a time when I seemed to spend much of my time upside down in the water even more than I do now.
We had great times on his yacht, Sea Tardis, sailing out of Oare Creek, departure and return times worked out to the minute to avoid getting stuck on the mud as we hurtled past the withy poles and actually getting stuck once, meaning we had to moor up and do a walk of shame, covered in mud, down the rough track to the car. He took it in good heart. The barmaids used to make a fuss of him at the Castle Inn at Oare Creek and he had his own mug there kept up on the shelf.
I loved his youthful enthusiasm for everything, that bubble of fun that was always around him and his 'optimist without illusions' view on life. He was wise and kind. And nothing be it age, health or circumstance - was going to stop him enjoying himself.
At the end of last season, he suggested we go fishing off Herne Bay in Puffin. We arrived to discover a drizzly day with a bit of a lumpy sea but got the boat out for lowering down the long slipway, me standing at the top carefully letting out rope on the wall loop while Tony guided the boat down the slipway. Once the boat was settled, Isuddenly saw that Tony was wading into the water up to his chest fully clothed at the age of 79 and on a grim October morning where he set about trying to free a trailer wheel which had caught on the edge of the slipway an occasional wave lapping over his head. Now, if you're a member down the sailing club long enough, you tend to inherit some job or role; mine that year was Health and Safety Officer so, I tied off and walked off down the slipway to suggest maybe he'd rather I gave it a go. Afterwards, I asked him if he wanted to pop home and get changed into some dry clothes. No, he didn't wanted to delay us, he said, and would get wet anyway because it was raining.
Tony's incredible mind kept going to the very end, so brave and accepting of his circumstance after such a tragic accident. He showed real dignity in the way that only a true gentleman can.
Tony, you really have had the most wonderful life, surrounded by a loving family and amazing friends. As Eddie from the sailing club told Val shortly after you had passed, "Whenever I think of Tony, I will have a smile on my face and joy in my heart."
We're all going to miss your quick wit, cheery charm, intelligence you're an absolute legend who's left us too soon. I hope that your great friend, Martin Mansell, was waiting to greet you in Heaven with that bottle of Champagne. And I suspect that you've already been press-ganged onto some quiz-team!
From Val, Amanda, Neville, your ever-loving family and all of us who were lucky enough to be your friend, God bless you my old mate - and sleep well.
Last updated 07:04 on 19 August 2024