Allan Rice
Allan Roger Rice
Oct. 7th. 1944 – March 1st. 2006
Allan Rice was a long time member of our Club and introduced many new members who have become dedicated members of the Seven Seas Club of Australia.
His boat ‘Tarooki’ was always available on Club picnic days at the Squadron.
He was President, Commodore and Honorary Life Member of the Port Adelaide Sailing Club. He was also a member of Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron. He was a shipwright by trade and worked both ashore and at sea. The following is just one of the many obituaries which were written after his passing and appeared in the PASC magazine called ‘River Ramblings’:-
Allan Roger Rice
“In February 2005, I had the wonderful experience of spending time with Allan at the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. Among the many memories I have and cherish of that time I recall particularly the two below.
‘JUST A FEW TRINKETS’
Allan had driven over via Hobart a week or so earlier and had, as he put it, ‘collected a few trinkets’, by the time he reached Hobart. Allan had unloaded these few trinkets and stowed them in his rented cabin before he drove to the airport to pick up a group of us who had arrived by plane.
Back at the cabin we learned that those ‘few trinkets’ were in fact a considerable car load…the boot had been filled, the back seat had been filled. and there had been no room left in the front passenger position. For the duration of our visit to the Festival that rivaled the Hobart Maritime Museum for variety of nautical memorabilia, and little bits were added from time to time.
At the end of our stay Allan delivered us back to the airport and was then to reload his car for the return journey. That load would for most of us have been the limit for a Holden sedan, but we came to learn in due course that we had not taken into account the car’s roof racks. Some lengths of seasoned timber (huon pine), came Allan’s way before he left Tasmania and these were duly tied to the roof racks… creating a new level upon which more ‘trinkets’ could be laid, including a large office chair, once the property of a shipping company. Some of us are hunters and others are collectors.
‘IS THERE ANYONE HERE THAT YOU DON’T KNOW?’
Moving about the displays at the Wooden Boat Festival is a truly remarkable experience, made even better if you are accompanied by Allan, whose knowledge and willingness to share that knowledge puts another dimension on the whole affair. However you did need a degree of patience because progress with Allan through the displays and around the boats, was often very slow. If you are with Allan then you would constantly be meeting new people and chatting for a while. And I mean constantly… at times moving no more than a couple of paces to be greeted once more by a friend or acquaintance of Allan. Invariably the question was asked of Allan… ‘Is the anyone here who you do not know?’… and the answer… ‘Yes… not sure about that person over there, but let’s go and say hello in case’.
Most of us have a few friends and several acquaintances, but Allan had many friends and endless acquaintances… and we all miss him dearly!.”
Rob Golding
(then Rear Commodore of the Port Adelaide Sailing Club and past President of the Seven Seas Club of Australia. He passed away whilst in Office in 2008)