Remembering David Chaplin 1938-2018
Posted by on 27 December 2018
It only seems like yesterday when David walked into the Saracen's Head pub and enquired about joining HOEOCA, as a new member myself I pointed him in the right direction and he soon became integrated into the club.
That was 20 years ago, Dave was at a loose end after loosing his beloved 'Rose' a couple of years before. He threw himself into the clubs activities and was a strong supporter of all events.
Personally I have fond memories and will always be grateful to him for holidaying with myself and my two young sons, helping to teach them to sail and keeping them safe on the water.
I am not sure there was any aspect of club life Dave didn't involve himself in, he loved all the rallies from the wintery sails in the Solent to the cross channel adventures and the Hot Hot Hot rallies overseas. He became a Coastal Skipper with the Go Sailing Association and loved his time in charge of Solent Flame 2. He tried his hand at racing round the cans with Sunsail and took part in the Round the Island Yacht Race. However his favourite part was perhaps as the clubs 'meeter and greeter', this gave him the chance to kiss the ladies often embarrasing their partners by asking 'if this was their daughter'.
As well as being known as the Silver Fox, he was also known as Young Dave and Radio Dave. The latter due to his exploits in France where if the French lock keepers didn't understand English he would just shout louder...it usually worked!
Only this year, as pictured above, Dave was presented with an award and life membership for his contributions to the club, something sadly he won't be benefitting from, but it did make him very proud. One of his main activities had been to travel round the various night schools annually promoting the activities of the club to prospective members.
He would have been very happy to know over 20 of his sailing friends turned out for his funeral and stayed long into the afternoon swapping stories with his family, they made us very welcome.
I am sure like me there will be many of you missing the Christmas card this year that simply said 'Fair Winds and Good Tides'. For those of you that would like to reflect on Happy memories, the first bench on Victoria Quay in Salcombe is Dave's bench. He dedicated it to Rose and visted every Easter without fail. You would all be welcome to stop and rest a while when passing.
