Top: David Thomas (left) and Hugh Welbourn racing at the 1976 Half Ton Cup in Trieste. Welbourn went on to design Peter Whipp’s first Admiral’s Cup contender Panda (above) in 1983, which with her large trim tab was a ‘devil’ upwind in flat water… Panda was also the first build for the nascent Green Marine with its co-founder, former One Ton Cup winner and US Navy jet jockey Bill Green (right)
into reality; an enormous fund based upon Bill’s extraordinary practical knowledge of raceboats, Ian’s technical brilliance and sheer competence of execution at all levels. And then Bill came sailing with us… and the dictionary acquired some new words and essentials for racing offshore. Along came his pillow (no argument allowed on that particular item) and then a huge bottle of ‘Gorp’ – dig into that and find nuts, Smarties, coffee beans and who knows what else to keep things buzzing along.
And of course the stories… he was only 10 years older maybe, but what he had packed into those 10 years!
Most of all, though, it was the sheer sense of fun that Bill brought to everything
he was involved in… you could get a fair old roasting from him for some dumbass move and still have a smile on your face at the end of it. But you’d never dare make the same mistake again!
Early in 1984 the Panda crew were having a crew party – some way into the evening and Peter Whipp casually said, ‘How about doing a Half Tonner for the Worlds in Scotland this year?’
Good idea, we said… then next it was ‘but we’d need to do the Scottish series immediately beforehand… and that’s in two months’ time’. Oh, ****! Errrr… Bill? ‘Sure, no problem!’ And it wasn’t – about four rough drawings from me in total, sketches on the floor, late nights and long days, and
Chia-Chia got launched, measured, trailed up to Scotland, and for her maiden sail went straight into a bumpy overnight offshore feeder race for the series. And despite the frankly ridiculous time pressures, it was still fun, with never a problem that couldn’t be sorted. And that has to be the measure of the team spirit that Bill could bring into any situation. At the end of the day Bill Green always took enormous pride in the creation of a yacht, while fully recognising the contribu- tions of everyone else. There was no better moment than when he’d finally step back and quietly say, ‘We built that.’ So to David Thomas and Bill Green, thanks for everything.
Hugh Welbourn, Totnes, Devon q SEAHORSE 25
LIN PARDEY
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