Page 6 June 17, 1992. Info the Deep Blue, Victoria Weeklies

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Ned Ashe... RVYC’s

‘national treasure’

By SHIRLEY HEWETT
Victoria Weeklies Contributor
ince the beginning of
time, the sea has chal-
lenged and mariners

yachtsmen and women sur-
faced in the 1880s and, in June

1892, they launched the Vic-

toria Yacht Club.

There was J.G. Cox — Lloyd’s Vic-
toria agent; J.G. Elliot — fire in-
surance inspector,and G.A. Kirk —
former Royal Navy officer and B.C.
Board of Trade president.

Operating out of the Canoe Club's '
Wharf Street headquarters, the new
group organized international regat-
tas off Dallas Road for boats from
Anacortes, Whatcom, Fairhaven and
Port Townsend. Fleet names, such as
Thistle, Ada, Teal, Wasp, Bertha,
She, Nancy and Siren, reflect a
gentler era. Early Victoria Yacht
Club members were merchants,
businesspeople, government officials
and professionals. Their boats were
mostly under nine metres (30 feet).

Into this genteel scenario surged a
young man whose background’ was
none of the above. The triumphs of
C.P. “Ned” Ashe were to span seven
decades and his life would become a
metaphor for Victoria Yacht Club
traditions and transitions.

Ashe was born in 1894 at Fort Mac-
Leod, Alberta. His father, Gilbert
Percy, rejected the standard Royal

_- Navy family career in favor of the

North-West Mounted Police life-on-
the-edge, before shifting to a Stettler
ranch with his wife and infant son,
who made the wagon journey

_ wrapped in a buffalo robe. In 1911,

the Ashes fetched up on an 80-hec-:
tare (200-acre) Albert Head farm
with an anchorage for Gilbert’s 16.5-
metre (55-foot) yawl: Natoose was the

first Canadian yacht (1912) to enter

the Los Angeles to Honolulu Trans-
Pac. But it made the journey without
Ned Ashe, who missed his first ocean
race because farm chores — tending
registered Jerseys and helping with
haying season — took priority.

Before the First World War, three
events occurred which significantly
affected the Victoria Yacht Club. In
1911, it obtained the coveted Royal
charter. In 1912, construction started
for a new Cadboro Bay clubhouse.
And in January 1913, Ashe joined.

Perhaps his unorthodox roots
charted Ashe’s course at yachting’s
leading edge. Always, his farm-
hand’s pragmatism prevailed and he
corralled honors with the ease of a
cowboy lassoing errant steers. “In all
his life, Ned never bought a race with
money,” comments Royal Victoria
Yacht Club (RVYC)’s first junior
member, Humphrey Golby.

The move to Cadboro Bay prompted
RVYC to order its first one-design
class — a dozen four-metre (14-foot)
clinker-built dinghies. These were
sold to prominent members Com-
modore Musgrave, A.D. Crease and
H. Hotham. Gilbert bought one for
his teenaged son, who christened it
Vera — the only boat not named for a

bird.

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Canada

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have responded. In -
these waters, the first

them. He passsed on his knowledge and fine mariner
To many local yachtsmen and women.

Following the First World War,
when his father was RVYC’s vice-
commodore and his way with the
animals landed him on a front-line
mule ammunition train, Ashe won -
his first trophy — the Devonian Cup.
Vera also transported him between
Cadboro Bay and Albert Head. He
would sail over a Saturday morning,
race, and sail back that night. 3

Ned Ashe was always experiment-
ing. And when he challenged, the sea
and other mariners responded. Hull
design evolved from rigid strength to
lightweight flexibility, so Ashe
bought a 14-footer from “Daddy”
Gann. Penguin featured double
mahogany skin stitched with copper-
wire. A little grease in the glue acted
as a sealant but prevented harden-
ing. Humphrey Golby remembers
how Ashe chose a slim marconi mast,
which he tuned to perfection with
piano wire. The rigging was set up
with bicycle spoke fittings. “I often
sat on the dock while Ned fiddled
with these minute fittings,” recalls
Golby. “Now and then he would pluck
the taut wires with his powerful
fingers. A finely tuned rig was his
harp. It rang out tunes of victory,
music that Ned appreciated and un-
derstood.”

By the time the Devonian Cup was
rededicated to the legendary David-
son dinghy frostbite fleet, Ashe had
also shifted. In 1956, he bought #42
from Hubie Wallace and converted its

TOP YACHTSMAN RECALLED

Photo by TON

delaminati
nothing c
Humphrey
Blue Chip
never hada

or Cadboro B
Inter-City™
immense strejm
was always te
ships. “A hell @
Davis of Ashe
Bonar has rags
made his first

During the &,
succession of ke
Hour, an eightn
ter built in#'
lieutenant-g4
Ashe intendeg |
the west coast,:|
towing a string};
ghies to Cows
regattas.

“He would %
dance,” remen}}
bought Idle Hey
1938. “Ned ba-A}
routine, stonnp;
cockpit floor
sides.”

Because the
productive, they

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