Shanklin Sailing Club

It is a very rare person to be universally respected and liked but Erling was such a man. He was the most fair-minded, level-headed and generous person any of us are likely to meet. This is the place to gloss over a departed friend’s faults but Erling was a man who had very few flaws beyond his inability to tie knots or remember his relatives’ names.

Apart from his family, Erling’s life revolved around sailing. He won a cup at Shanklin in every decade from the 60s onwards including last year when he outwitted everybody to win the Ventnor Race. In all he won 187 cups at Shanklin, a record unlikely to be bettered. He rarely had the most boat speed but he always had the most cunning and would take great pleasure in out-thinking his opponents. He described sailing as physical chess and knew every move he and his fellow sailors made throughout the game. He was then able to tell you in intricate detail how he beat you. He would take much more pleasure in having a good race with somebody and losing than in winning by a distance. He liked the win but he loved the competition.

He raced under his own code of chivalry on the water. The rules were there to be adhered to and he compared people cheating at sailing to those that cheated against themselves at patience. He was far more likely to tell a crossing boat to keep going than shout “starboard”, yet if you sailed to windward of him he would take you to France, all the time chatting politely in his booming voice.

As well as sailing more races at Shanklin than anybody else, he also attended a huge number of Sprint 15 Association events. He would often get the 4 o’clock ferry to get to an event in Yorkshire, build his boat, sail two races and head home in the dark all in one day. He had a reputation for being able to construct a Sprint 15 from scratch in less time than most people put a mast up. He was quick on the roads too and he claimed a top speed of 116 mph with a boat on the roof. Even well into his 60s Erling was at the business end of the fleet and he won several TTs as well as the Summer Series in 2011. He regularly won the Megastar Cup for the top placed heavyweight sailor at the Nationals.
 
I suspect his proudest achievement on the water was winning the Team Trophy at the Nationals at Pentewan in 2009 with Geoff and Keith when all of them were in their 60s. He also contributed to Shanklin winning the prize again in 2016 by giving his boat to Paul when he dismasted his own boat.

Erling enjoyed a cruise as much as a race but it had to have a purpose and it was rarely non-competitive. He had no interest in sailing round Sandown Bay but loved a trip to Ventnor or Bembridge for a fried breakfast at a café. If he wasn’t looking after a novice at the back of the fleet he would be very difficult to beat in waters that he knew like his own back yard.

Occasionally we strayed a bit beyond local beaches. In 2012 Erling and I decided it might be fun to cross the English Channel on a pair of 15 foot boats. Despite my boat sinking a bit we got to Alderney in time for a late lunch, stayed at a B&B and came back the next day after breakfast. The sea was a bit big and full of large ships travelling quickly but Erling was completely unflustered even when he crash-gybed 30 miles from land.

We also made a few trips to Sussex on the boats, planning the trips based on what looked quite nice on the chart and on Google Maps. We got to West Itchenor in Chichester Harbour in an hour and a half one day before dropping our sails and tying our boats up amongst the tenders. On another occasion we found our way to the beautiful village of Bosham and brought Paul along to ferry us from our moorings to the shore.

One of the best trips we did together was when we gave up sailing to Dorset 10 miles past the Needles and decided to go clockwise round the Island instead. We had a fantastic reach down the swell to the café at Totland before carrying on through the Solent back to Shanklin.

Erling was able to carry on sailing until very recently. His last trip was to Bembridge in January. He got there first.