Thursday, November 29, 2018
I met Bob many years ago, I believe it was when I was a junior sailor at the Santa Cruz Yacht Club and was spending many hours sailing up and down the channel of the harbor. He owned, or part owned a boat named 'Catchit', and later found out that he was very involved with the harbor scene, being that he worked at the O'Neill Yacht Center. Even though I was only ten, or eleven years old at the time, he still made a point to make me feel right at home.
This would've been around the late seventies.
Around the late eighties I was working at a local marine store and he came in as a customer., asked how I was doing and told me that Larsen Sails needed a helper and wanted to know if I'd be interested in learning a new skill. Being that I had been at the marine store for five years, I was ready.
We worked for many years together at the sail loft, and have many fond memories of him. He always greeted me in the morning with a smile and a 'go get em' attitude. At the time, and for many years after we started working together, I didn't fully appreciated how much he had helped me, and gave me a sense that things were going to be ok. When he left Larsen's for other opportunities, then I realized how much he had helped me. I never got a chance to say "thank you" after that, and I regret that. Thank you Bob!