Reader Mail
Editors Note: We were sorry to learn author and long- time contributor to SCA, Philip Teece, died on October 23rd at his residence in Victoria, B.C.
The news came through our mutual friend (and also SCA contributor) Mi- chael Blades, who said Philip’s health had deteriorated markedly over the past two years, and substantially over the last few months.
Although he’d published a number of books, including A Dream of Islands and A Shimmer on the Horizon (both quiet classics of small-boat non-fiction), Teece had decided, over the objections of his friends, to stop writing several years ago. In a 2014 email to us he wrote:
“Yes; your email did find me hale and hearty. In fact, today as usual I’ve just returned, drenched and shivering, from a rather violent (but exhilarating) thrash through the standing waves of big tidal rapids. As for writing about sailing—or anything else—I made a decision on my 74th birthday to ‘retire’ from that. All I seem to do nowadays, in my dotage, is sail all day, every day.”
It was always a special treat to open our mailbox and find one of Philip’s distinc- tive submission envelopes, plastered with individual postage stamps. Inside, inev- itably, was another fantastic story and several of his pen-and-ink illustrations.
When he was asked once about his writ- ing and inspiration Teece replied: “Much of my writing, both in the books that I’ve done and in a wide variety of magazine pieces, has been motivated by my desire to share wonderful experiences, places, and relationships with other people. I’ve done forty years of largely solo sailing and have spent a lifetime of solitary nights under starry skies with an astro- nomical telescope. It has always seemed a shame to let these adventures at sea and in deep space remain unshared.”
He will be missed. —Eds
ON NAMING A SAILBOAT Once in a while a boat owner has the opportunity to name a new boat. Bobby Chilek, the new owner of Pilgrim, the
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Travis Votaw’s new Bay River Skiff
22-foot Princess 22 cat ketch, has de- livered to me a newly constructed Bay River Skiff 15 mk2. Tis is a redesign by Graham Byrnes, B and B Yacht Designs, of his Bay River Skiff 15. Slightly wider and deeper with offset centerboard and added side decks. His intent was to make the original a little beefier for sailing in the Texas bays and Laguna Madre. Te new boat hull is reminiscent Pilgrim’s.
Pilgrim was a special name for me. I read Two Years Before Te Mast by R.H. Dana in Classic Comics and also the real book when I was a kid. Te square-sailed brig in the story was named Pilgrim. I was quite taken by the book; even saw the movie in the late ‘40s. Then in 1952, I saw the movie, Te World in His Arms, with Gregory Peck as the captain of a big schooner involved in poaching seals in Russian Alaska. Great race scenes between two big schooners. And you guessed it, Peck’s schooner was named Pilgrim. Further, I have considered my- self a pilgrim traveling through life.
So, thinking along these lines, I wanted to make a decision on what would con- tinue to be a meaningful name for the new boat, but just didn’t feel right about using Pilgrim again or any iterations of that name. Believing that things come to those who wait, I decided to just chill for a while and see what might show up for a name. Sure enough, as I was reading some material of a spiritual nature from a friend of mine, the name appeared. In the Mirror Bible, book of Philippians, in Chapter 1, verse 22, the Apostle states
that he “cannot not tell when he shall liſt up the anchor of flesh and sail away”. Te verb used here comes from the root word, airo, for which one of the mean- ings is to “weigh anchor and sail away”. This word jumped out to me, as you might imagine. Te perfect name for my new sailboat.
And, just as the Apostle Paul did not know when he would weigh the anchor of flesh and sail away, at 82 years old, neither do I know. And when the event inevitably happens, you can look where I had been and say, “Airo”.
W. Travis Votaw Edmond, Oklahoma
FRANKLY HE UNDERSTANDS B. Frank Franklin’s essays are about as near perfect as the whole writing thing goes. As is “Rain Delay,” from No. 114.
It gets to be, when opening up a new edition, I figure life’s short, so might as well read B. Frank first. In this latest, he makes it “the anywhere, anytime” story. No specific location, no specific time of year, no specific season, no age. It could be the year 1440 out in the middle of the Mediterranean for all we know. It could happen to anyone, in most any kind of boat. But yet, he still manages to convey a most endearing message, I believe, to small boat cruisers everywhere: “I hear you, I know what you’ve gone through, and I understand. Yes, for me too, there’s no other way I’d rather get there, than in my boat, even if it means rain and fog and
SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR
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