Eight bells: Bob Lush
Mar 14, 2019
Bob on SixPac the day it was launched in May 86 at Andy Wiggers’ shop in Bowmanville, ON. He went on to do 12+ laps between the Hudson River and USVI on her, mostly solo.
Our friend Bob Lush was a sailing dilettante but also an adventurer who will be remembered as an interesting and witty guy. He passed away last Wednesday at 80 in Montreal after a decade battling cancer.
Bob went from renting an Albacore at the Toronto Island Marina in 1970 to the OSTAR, solo transatlantic in 39 days (on a Shark!)
Here is an incomplete list of his sailing accomplishments.
Between two solo transatlantic trips, he did 1977 Bermuda 1/2 on the Shark; the 1978 Round Britain on a British 32; the 1979 Bermuda 1/2, leg 1 on the Shark 25 and the 1979 Bermuda/Azores/Plymouth Race.
In 1978 the Shark was lengthened to meet the 25′ LOA minimum for the 1980 race. This modification was completed at George Thompson Custom Yachts in Oakville. The boat was measured by Mark Ellis and found to be 25′ 1/64″ long.
In addition Bob complete innumerable trips down to the Virgin Islands. In the end, he sailed single-handed almost 300,000 miles.
As a writer and editor and ad rep, he contributed to many publications and spent many years at the long gone magazine Sailing Canada when it was an aggressive competitor for our publication, Canadian Yachting
In his retirement, he wrote romance novels from his boat, often in the Caribbean, until his illness forced him to trade the cockpit for the armchair where he was a faithful fan of the Blue Jays, hot summers, and cold beverages. He recently said that he’d done everything in his life that he wanted to.
