Naming
Ceremony and Service of Dedication
of
the D class Lifeboat, Betty and Thomas Moore.
Saturday 11th
October 2008
Betty and Thomas Moore, the donors who married in 1947, sailed
in Chichester Harbour and nearby waters for more than 50 years,
fortunately never requiring the services of the RNLI.
Thomas had a boyhood ambition to go to sea but circumstances dictated
that he should become a farmer. However he took up sailing immediately
after the war, first in dinghies and subsequently in a succession
of cruising boats, in particular the 9-ton Hillyard Whyoming,
built at Littlehampton.
Betty, a natural sportswoman whose family owned a bungalow on
East Beach, Selsey, learned to sail at an early age. In 1946 she
purchased the Solent Sunbeam with which she continued to race
at Itchenor until the year of her death, 2007. Indeed she entered
and raced in Cowes week for sixty-one successive years, without
a break, and for this achievement was in 2006 voted Skandia Cowes
Yachtswoman of the Year. Always competitive and frequently successful
it was typical of her, and very fitting, that at the age of 88
in her very last race in Cowes Week 2007 she should be the winner,
beating 17 other boats.
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