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East Coast yachting stalwart and former New Zealand Yachting Federation (now Yachting New Zealand) council member Bob Thomson passed away last weekend.
Bob Thomson (left) with Bob Gunson after a race in 2004. The pair were received a Yachting New Zealand Excellence Award in 2007 for their services to the sport.
Thomson served on the New Zealand Yachting Federation council from 1962-85 as the East Coast councillor and was a long-standing personal member of Yachting New Zealand.
During that time, he had a period on the Standards New Zealand committee that wrote the standard specification for personal flotation devices.
"One day, Bob and I found ourselves in the water in rough conditions, where we were safe in the water in the lightweight, flexible user-friendly buoyancy aids that resulted from his committee’s work, rather than the cumbersome old-style kapok filled lifejackets with their bulky neck rolls and sleeves that were invariably stored somewhere out of reach rather than being worn by sailors," former Yachting New Zealand board and council member Graeme Robinson said. "I have no doubt that he has contributed to many sailors being saved from watery graves, simply because they were wearing the modern style of buoyancy aids that were developed by Bob and the committee that he chaired."
Thomson was also chairman of the Small Boat Racing committee between 1971 and 1973, became a national judge and was chairman of the national appeals panel.
"We all respected him as a fair and just arbiter on racing protests at club, national and international levels," Robinson said. "Bob is one of the first of I think only two people who have been honoured by Yachting New Zealand with the title of judge emeritus."
Thomson and Bob Gunson received a Yachting New Zealand Excellence Award in 2007 in recognition of their contribution to the sport.
Thomson was 87. His funeral was on Tuesday at the Napier Sailing Club, which he served so well for more than 40 years and where he was elected as a life member in 1990.
