Dave Branch

I’m sorry we can’t be there. It was a sad day when I learned that Bill had up’d anchor. He and Lynn were such a big part of my life for many years. Good times and not so good, they were always there.

I remember the first fleet meeting at their house at the beginning of a 42″ blizzard and us just up from Florida. Warm and toasty and lots of fun.  When I was commuting back and forth to Portland, Bill was always more than happy to let me borrow the Gremlin if I needed it. Show’s you his great sense of humor. He really was a great host and a great competitor in a wily sort of way.  I recall a race at Grand Lake in ‘light’ air where he started, went around the committee boat and headed back the other way. We all thought he quit. He got to shore and followed the thermal all the way around the lake to the weather mark, winning the race… Bill was lake smart.  He taught me a lot about skiing and I tried to keep up at risk of life and limb. One time he went around a corner and took a hard left onto a road. I went around the same corner and ended upside down in a drift on the other side of the road. He did come back and pull me out. On another occasion, they were setting up for a downhill event and Bill and I went to the top and ran the course. I made two gates and took out the fence on the third. Bill was still going. We did the ’89 North Americans up in Vancouver. That was one of the best regattas I ever went to. We ended up near the bottom but had a great time getting there. One year, Lynn and Bill came out and were going up to Barkley Sound with us in the Downeast. They met us in Gray’s Harbor. The next day we went out in a great breeze and 15′ swells. After about one hour we turned back because your Mom had high blood pressure and turned gray. They got on a bus and met us down in Astoria. We spent a really nice week cruising around the river. It was that kind of relationship where we could just do anything and it worked out. No regrets, no hard feelings, always up beat.

I often think about who they were and how they were and try and come close myself.

Losing friends is never easy,

Dave and Sue