In memoriam Frank Webb

It is with great sadness that we advise that Frank Webb passed away peacefully on 16th February at the age of 93.

Frank was a member of PSC for many years, up until the sale of his last boat, Troubadour a Saddler 29 in 2012, which interestingly had previously been owned by Claire Francis.

Amongst his many attributes Frank was an accomplished artist and could often be seen quietly sitting sketching in his book, even during club events.

Some years back Frank produced a number of drawings to illustrate a book of poetry, entitled Di-vers-ion published in 1992 by a former Porthmadog Harbourmaster, Mike Bicks.

Below is a contribution from his great friend Frank Clark.

Frank and I met in September 1965 at the Mid Warwickshire College of Further Education, where we were lecturers in Engineering to Craft and Technician students.

It wasn’t long before Frank invited me to go weekend walking in North Wales with him. Soon the walking became mountain climbing as Snowdon came into view. As the winter breaks came, the tops of the mountains turned white with a good coating of snow. The mountain climbing became a real challenge. Over the years Frank and I continued our North Wales adventures right past our retirements even though we had both developed challenges in other activities.

Frank took mountaineering quite seriously with a climb on the Matterhorn accompanied by Frank Thompson, another past PSC member, and it much more rigorous neighbour Monte Rosa.

Frank’s interest in sailing developed around the same time I was building Shala.

His first boat called Bobowler a 17ft Newbridge boat. This he and Margaret fully tested by sailing from the Rye to cruise Normandy coast and back, a great adventure sailing such a small yacht.

24ft Polly another Newbridge boat was the one he really loved. He and Margaret sailed to every place of interest of Cardigan Bay, up to Scotland and back via Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man and France during the holiday period.

Frank liked the out of the way places where he could anchor and dry out, such as Scommer, Jack and Ramsey sound. He enjoyed sailing in company with others and did so on a number of occasions to cruise the North Brittany coast from Roscoff to St Malo. Not forgetting the long haul back to Porthmadog.

In Troubadour Frank and Valerie sailed to many ports both close to home and the full length of the Brittany coast, not forgetting Southern Ireland, the southern England coast and Isle of Man.

I think of Frank’s sporting activities, his early years of cycling he loved the most. Many thousands of miles covered cycling country roads with cycling club friends, many hundreds of miles cycle racing, including racing on the Isle of Man circuit.

In retirement Frank loved to cycle to some distant spot where he would buy a cup of tea and a bacon butty then wait for Val to come and pick him up and take him back home.

Frank was a great mate

Wonderfull times together

A close colleague

A lifetime friend

Frank Shala