Keith
is widely and very well loved by so many…
As
much as I could tell you of his delight for music, and how he has brought music
into this club; as much as I could tell you how he adored his own three children,
and indeed their partners, and how he looked forward to his special chats with
each one of them; as much as he doted on all of his seven grandchildren and was
deeply interested of their progress and welfare; as much as he was in awe of
his wife Ruth's intellect and love, and guarded the special time he had with
her in the years that I have known him; even as much as he loved our club, and
his patronage of it is certainly the stuff of legend, there are many others
here who can tell you of all of these with greater knowledge and deeper
insight, so I will stick to the territory I am charged with in this club,
whether I know anything aboat it or
not.
So…Captain
Harry Dolos and sailing at Royal Cape. If you don’t know the origin of the
name, ask any number of people over a beer here tonight. However, technically
speaking, we believe it may be more correct to refer to Keith as Captain Cubic,
and he was referred to as Captain Chaos when he played with the Royal Cape
Rockers in the last few years.
Keith was first and foremost a participator, and you could expect his entry in
…well everything! This attitude and expectation makes organizing club
sailing so much easier. Look at the results over the years, FTI is typically
always on the water.
Together
with his very loyal crew, there is no doubt they sail to be competitive, but
far greater than that, they just sail. They sail fair, and they
certainly have shown that they can sail competitively, especially in the last
year, after the hull overhaul and the fixing of the crooked rudder.
Keith
introduced so many people to sailing, often combining with family, friends and
colleagues from his other interests in life. I can assure you that you could
assemble a fine marching band or classical music ensemble from the regular crew
of FTI Flyer alone, and on that point, I would like to acknowledge how
beautiful the Jules Massenet meditation piece was at the service on Monday,
played by foredeck Petri Salonen on violin and his wife Bridget on flute, and
William Whittaker on organ. What a beautiful gift to Keith: sailors playing
fine music, or fine musicians indulging in his passion of sailing!?
Keith
introduced many of his crew as members of this club, and literally
home-schooled some of them to their skippers tickets in recent years.
Keith
was also a great contributor to race management, and was happy to act as race
officer or bridge crew whenever his yacht was not sailing, which in fact was not
very often! Examples of this were the youth regattas held at last year and the
year before, and I vividly recall the faces of three cold old men: Keith, Ron
& Ray rocking out on Butt Cat in foul bumpy weather all day long delivering
excellent racing for the kids in the 2012 Youth Regatta. What champions!
While
his yacht was being prepared for the most recent Rio Race, which included an
extensive overhaul of hull, engine and rudder, Keith gave his time generously
to bridgework, and it may have been mentioned that he was a national race
officer, although he was elusive on the finer details here!
Including
Robben Island and Barkers Rock, we typically should have 15 permanent marks to
choose from across Table Bay when setting standard club courses, without laying
any additional temporary inflatable marks.
Anyway,
Keith took delight in setting a course for a club race last year, and with that
hallmark naughty smile and sparkle in his eye, he ran the course past me just
before the race. His course was:
Start:
BH#10s;#4p:#10p;#4p:#10p;#4p:#10p;#4p:#10p...
I
rolled my eyes and said: “Keith! We are going to have to watch you!”
But
you know what? Keith even defended his course, offering two strong attributes:
firstly, it could easily be shortened, and secondly, all yachts in the fleet
should continue sailing the course until a given time, at which point everybody
finishes and you take average speed over the course together with handicap and
establish the placings. There was sound logic, as the whole fleet would have
sailed in the same conditions for the same length of time - time was the
determining factor, not course length and varying weather around the course.
Keith
was always very supportive and had loads of ideas for club sailing and ratings,
and he was good at communicating these regularly, either verbally in the bar,
or in writing to the sailing office. His input to the sailing committee was
always positive, constructive, polite and always with a clear point [needless
to say it was often quite leftfield!]: the sailing committee respected his
voice and intent, and have often incorporated his input. One such input was
abolishing cut off times – maybe that was so that FTI Flyer (and us) could
score finishes for every race they entered! Again there's sound logic: Surely
the point of starting every race is to finish it, and not succumb simply
because the bridge has gone home?
Keith
was also very generous and vocal in supporting me personally - I cannot tell
you how many times he made a point of thanking and congratulating me for
whatever he felt was appropriate...I will remember that well. I felt Keith had
a way of being fatherly, yet still just your friend simultaneously. He made one
feel good. While there was room for difference, there was mostly consensus.
Having
sailed in the same part of the fleet and with similarly handicapped yachts
until relatively recently, I know how much fun it is to sail with and against
Keith. One of the fun ideas we had, but did not yet try out, was to completely
swap crews on both yachts and race against each other on each other’s yachts!
When
his yacht was being redone last year, he asked my advice on the branding and
artwork. I proudly presented a mock up ignoring and omitting all artwork on the
stern or sides of the hull, and rather opted for large signs on the bow, which
I explained was so we could see them better on the race course. Without missing
a beat, Keith responded by saying they would only be placing one sign, and it
would be on the stern, but he said it would not matter the size of the sign,
because it would always look small to us!
And
even since our crew have moved on to the Simonis 35 revival, Keith has often
said to me (even in the last fortnight) "Oh bugger, I wish I'd known you
guys were going to buy that yacht, and I would have done the same and come
sailing with you". We had a great and spirited rivalry, Keith… We were
equally happy to pip you, or to share your joy when positions between us were
reversed. I think the feeling was mutual. I shall miss howling to my
crew..."Oh look they've done 'a
Keith'", whenever we achieved a small and precious advantage over FTI
Flyer - more from their small error rather than our sailing prowess. The crew
aboard FTI will know what I'm talking about, and have assured me that they will
keep Keith's spirit alive as they continue to race her into the future. Talking
revival, it seems FTI Flyer has started a Charger 33 revival, with 3 Chargers
now sailing regularly in our bay. So typical of your generosity and spirit
Keith [and that of your family’s], it is fantastic that your yacht will
continue to sail here into the future…
So
back to the future: we can look forward to the famous FTI Flyer starting on
port routine, to the lone spinnaker hoist at the weather mark in a howling
south easter Twilight, to some of the most memorable spinnaker drops ever, to
tinned Vienna’s [and only tinned Vienna’s] on offshore passages, to wearing red
foul weather jackets no matter the weather, and the inevitable: "oh look,
they [or we] have done a Keith!" But most importantly, we can continue to
enjoy the memory of the fun, fair and spirited presence of Keith through this
yacht and crews' participation in our club's sailing, and also every time we
hear live music on the deck on the first Sunday of each month.
What
a fine legacy for this club.
Above
all of the fun and madness, the revelry, the multiple talents, I would like to
finish by acknowledging the incredible bravery and dignity with which Keith tackled
his fading condition in the last year. The spirited bravery that saw him and
his crew start the Rio Race [incidentally the only yacht to navigate away from
and completely avoid the big storm]. That bravery that saw him achieve a podium
finish in his class at the last Mykonos Offshore, a podium finish in the
Professionals Race, a visit to HBYC for Admirals Sword Regatta just two months
ago, the way he kept coming here to this club to enjoy all of our company, with
never a complaint and always something interesting to say, in the true spirit
of agape.
Keith
even snuck in a sail in his last week...that's
the way to go!
Bravo
Keith! Bravo!
Over
& Oat!