Ralph A. Beswick peacefully passed away at St. Peters Hospital on August 29, 2006. A child of the Great Depression, he took control of his life early on, choosing as a teenager to aid his country during WWII through service in the Navy. After the war, he pursued a degree, earned a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and began his long career with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, beginning in fire control and culminating with his ascension to supervisor of the department. After raising four children, Ralph and his wife Faye retired, sold their home, bought a larger sailboat and cruised both coasts of North America for three years, eventually returning to Olympia, from whence they explored the northern waterways up to Alaska, first with Troubadour, then with Blackfish, venturing south in the cooler months by wheeled transport. After returning from a recent two-week trip to Russia, Ralph suffered his final heart attack, passing naturally with dignity and fortitude. Farewell to one who was a role model to all who knew him.
My father’s been on my mind with his recent passing. It seems appropriate as he was a long-time SSSS Member to say a few, quite a few I guess, words about him and his sailing experiences. He never sailed in his youth, but decided from his service in the Navy during WWII that he wanted to spend recreational time on the water. For him, sailing was the way to do it. He first found a reasonably priced waterfront house, a cottage almost, on Cooper Point. Once he got the family situated there comfortably, with some expansion involving lots of shovel work, and when the opportunity arose, he purchased his first sailboat.
It happened to be someone’s uncompleted project, but it was well done up the point at which my father bought it. Despite a complete lack of sailing experience, he managed to successfully finish it off and teach himself how to sail on it, single handed, on what was a high-performance wooden 17-footer called a National One Design. The hull was hard chined, had a high aspect ratio main with overlapping headsail, high-powered enough they were sailed with the crew on a trapeze. Ralph’s boat didn’t have a trapeze. As you would expect, it was a very wet experience. Eventually he managed to gain enough skill that he felt comfortable taking his young sons out with him for day sails on the water. It seemed like an awfully large boat to me at the time, but Ralph soon felt the need to upgrade.
Ralph decided he wanted to have the family more involved in sailing so he traded up to a well-used Columbia 26 named Holiday that was a real recreational work horse for the Beswick family. We raced and cruised the boat for a number of years, every summer spending a month in the San Juans, one time with all six family members. That was a full boat!
After a good six or so years of service, the family traded in the 26. My dad somehow managing to talk mom into buying a new boat, a Ranger 33; a rather unusual decision given my father’s usually frugal nature. It just shows how passionate this sport can make people that get involved in it. The family named the new boat Troubadour, alluding to the family’s ties to music, mother was a music educator and all the kids played instruments, and my father’s wanderlust. This boat was put to the same service, but with the children setting off on their own and with retirement approaching, Ralph began planning for venturing offshore.
Upon retiring, Ralph and Faye sold the Cooper Point house, much to the children’s dismay, and purchased a Hans Christian Pilothouse 39, a stout, traditional-looking, fiberglass blue-water cruiser. Within 6months, they were headed down the coast to San Francisco and parts south. Their path lead them down through the Panama Canal, detouring south briefly on the Atlantic side to visit the San Blas Islands, and then back up to North America, traveling up to Rhode Island via the Intracoastal Waterway. They stayed on the East Coast for a couple of years, exploring the northern environs in the summer and venturing south down to the Caribbean in the winter. When it came time to come back to the Northwest though, Faye decided she’d had enough of long offshore passages and the boat was trucked back to Puget Sound.
Still living aboard, the next few years consisted of venturing further and further north in the warmer months, culminating in more than one trip up to Alaska. During these years Ralph became increasingly aware of the years’ effects, and finally when his sense of balance began to elude him, he and Faye sold Troubadour. Not being ready yet to part with the liveaboard lifestyle, they searched for and found an appropriate motor vessel, the Blackfish. In this vessel they continued their snowbird ways for many years.
Amazing to me is that Blackfish is my favorite boat that my folks ever owned. I don’t think much of most powerboats, but this is a special boat, seaworthy and full of character. I’m pleased to say that after serving my parents faithfully over the years, but not without the full-time attention of a retired tinkerer/handyman, it being a wooden vessel, the Blackfish is still in Olympia and in the good care of Mike and Pattie Owen, also long-time sailors with much the same vision for their retirement as my parents.
Rafe Beswick, Zealot