Death of a fine Tasmanian sailor - Bruce Calvert

by Peter Campbell on 27 Nov 2007 On Saturday, 20 October, Tasmanian yachtsman Bruce Calvert, proudly skippered his sports boat ABN AMRO Morgans with its brand new mast for the first time in the Derwent Sailing Squadron’s pennant race on Hobart’s Derwent River.

Just four weeks later, on 20 November Bruce died, six and a half months after being diagnosed with cancer. It was his final sail at the age of 43.

Last Friday, 23 November, more than 500 family and friends gathered in Hobart’s St David’s Cathedral to remember a fine family man, businessman and an outstanding sailor and member of The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania since a lad. He was also a member of the Derwent Sailing Squadron.

Bruce was a son of Don and Jill Calvert, Don a past Commodore of the RYCT, and with his brother David had taken over management of the family plastics packaging business down the d’Entrecastreaux Channel.

He leaves his wife Philippa and three young children, Jock (10), Angus (8) and Abbey (5). Both he and his father Don delighted to see the two boys sailing in Sabots, the class in which Bruce started at the RYCT at about the same age.

'His first Sabot was called Inflation – because you couldn’t keep up to it,' Don Calvert recalled with pride this week.

From Sabots, Bruce went on to sail Cadet dinghies, representing Tasmania in the Stonehaven Cup, then Fireballs and International Dragons in which he sailed Jock Robbie to an outstanding victory in the Prince Philip Cup, the national championship for the class in 1997.

Bruce went with his father to England as a member of the crew of Don’s One Tonner Intrigue, Tasmania’s first member of an Australian Admiral’s Cup in 1985. He also contested a number of Sydney Hobart Races, including the stormswept 1998 race aboard the Tasmanian yacht Computerland.

Bruce was renown for his seamanship and boat handling capability when the going got tough. As John Saul, skipper of Computerland in the ’98 Hobart, said at his funeral, the only time he could sleep was when Bruce was on the helm – and they had a reasonable crew! Such was the trust in his ability to steer a boat.

His brother-in-law, Matthew Knight, who sailed with Bruce a lot, agreed. 'There was no one more controlled on a boat. I never heard him raise his voice in anger,' Matthew said.

'Bruce had the utmost respect for his crew and being able to do every job on the boat himself, he recognised when someone was under the pump or had made an error and never berated them for it or lost his cool. He just got on making the most of the situation. He was like this in life, too.'

In recent seasons, Bruce has campaigned his spectacularly fast sports boat ABN AMRO Morgans with considerable success in RYCT/DSS club pennant racing and in Sailing South Race Week regattas along with traveling to Hogs Breath Race Week in Airlie Beach, and Skandia Geelong Week in recent years.

The yacht broke its mast at the end of last season and Saturday, 20 October was Bruce’s first and last race with the new rig. His health declined rapidly afterwards.

Justly, Don and Jill are very proud of Bruce’s achievements as a sailor, a businessman with a natural bent towards electronics, as a family man and as a friend to many people. As Don said to me, Bruce Calvert will be sadly missed in Hobart.