Obituary for Gary Clapham- 1st mate, Bosun and friend

by Ken Simpson on 13 Oct 2003 I sat down to try to identify what it was that Gary had that made most people he met love and respect him. I think part of the answer is that he was a do-er and a giver. He led by example and gave much of himself to friends and people in less fortunate circumstances. He was a man of integrity, understanding, but most of all he had a wonderful free spirit.

He packed many life times of experiences into his short 51 years; this will give you some idea of his accomplishments

· 25 years in the Victorian police 4th November 1974 until 19th December 1999.

· During this time whilst in the water police, he was awarded the National Medal for rescuing two sailors and their yacht near point Cook in Port Phillip.

· CMF he served with the Prince of Wales Light Horse and retired as a Major.

· He was accredited with over 100 parachute jumps.

· Whilst in the motorcycle police in 1980 he delivered a baby at the side of the road.

· He was a member of the police precision motorcycle riding team.

· He was a police bodyguard to; The Pope, Princess Diane and Prince Charles, and a number of many other dignitaries visiting Australia. (He told the Pope he was a catholic to Pam the complimentary rosary beads)

· He was a partner in the successful around Australia motorcycle speed attempt, 8 days and 17 hours. Brian Armstrong his partner was reported as saying, “the first three days everything went wrong, and I wanted to call it off, but Gary had a word to me, he got me going again.

· Commodore of the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria. He always told me not to become Commodore then he jumped in at ORCV, I asked him why? He said that we could go to the monthly Commodores Dinners together, he could have a drink and I could drive home. He was always looking out for me.

· Served on numerous committees at Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron and Yachting Victoria.

· Of recent times he served as master on the sailing ships Endeavor, Alma Dopel, One and all. The latter re tracing the Mathew Flinders Australian exploratory expedition.

I’m sure Gary would say that the marriage to Pam and births of his two wonderful sons, Andrew and Bradley were his life’s proudest moments and overshadowed other achievements,

What a full life he had.

I started sailing with Gary about 20 years ago, our races, yacht deliveries, and just fun cruises covering thousands of nautical miles are too numerous to mention today, and my memory (senior moments) would make this impossible. However, I would like to recall some special moments that we shared over the years.

I remember talking to my wife Heather about meeting Gary and how he wanted to go Ocean racing with me, and her comments that I must have taken leave of my senses, sailing with that Afro haired, bearded, tattooed covered, biker. I was quick to inform her that Gary was actually a policeman. A likely story!

We did a number of Sydney Hobarts’ together, one in particular on Harry Leggett’s yacht AVENGER.

Gary and I were not part of the regular crew so the only bunk available was to lower the galley table, two big guys in such a small space! We broke the table and we never told Harry. Harry was a bit concerned about putting up spinnakers at night especially if he was not on the wheel.

So early one morning as we rounded Tasman Island, out of frustration Gary put up the masthead Kite.

Away we went, almost out of control. Gary’s face was gleaming, as we rolled around the corner into Storm Bay, he was in his element. Harry was soon on deck, politely asking for the spinnaker to be removed, he was correct, as a large black wind filled cloud was looming up behind our stern.

The 25th Melbourne Hobart on Ocean Road, We were under spinnaker as we rounded Matsuyker Island and surfed down the big Southern ocean rollers, Ocean road started to vibrate, the vibration turned into a hum as we clocked 20 knots. There was some apprehension as to how much the yacht could take. So to ease the tension and the noise,

Gary turned up the stereo and got the crew line dancing on deck to the beach boys 'surfin USA'
I stayed on the wheel!

The tragic 1998 Sydney Hobart, I think I could write a short book on our experiences on 'Ocean Road' during and after the race. During the first part of the race, we saw the yacht 'Amborne Banking' loose her mast. We came about (turned around) and went back, standing by to lend support should they need assistance. This put us back in the field, and as time progressed we could hear on the HF radio the trouble in front of us.

The yacht Winston Churchill lost, crew in the water, many yachts dismasted.

Late afternoon on the second day as we passed Gabo Island and entered Bass Straight the conditions became appalling.

I was on the wheel as we sailed up a large (Monster) 80 to 90 foot wave, as we reached the top I was confronted with an 8ft wall of white surf.

We were knocked down and fell sideways down the face of the wave mast first, and hit the bottom of the trough with a bone shattering crash.

This caused me some concern, I called for Gary to come on deck and have a steer so I could get a second opinion. After a few minutes a similar knock down occurred, Gary and I spoke about our chances of getting through the night, in the dark we would not be able to see the rogue waves coming at us. We agreed that we would suffer many more knockdowns before dawn and perhaps not survive them all, so I called a crew meeting.

Very quickly the unanimous decision was taken to turn around and try to make it back to shelter at Eden then continue the race to Hobart the next day. Bringing the yacht about is another story.

Suffice to say, we finished the race and Gary’s name together with all the crew went into the history books as finishers and survivors of the worst Sydney Hobart on record.

Gazza, we will all miss you.

Farewell, good friend.

Ken.