Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2011 | Page 66

ON THE WATER

As Granny Hood -

Red Riding Hood 20

10

cboat

Woodpecker 2 Nordic Foli

Bernard with wife Wendy

and all the things that went with it.
“Then I stopped the dinghy sailing
and moved on to bigger boats, finally
getting involved with the Royal Solent
Yacht Club. I have subsequently spent
the rest of my life sitting on some
committee somewhere.”
Bernard first became Commodore
of the RSYC for three years to 1995
and then for a year spanning 2002
and 2003, thus becoming the first
person to twice be the Commodore
in the Club’s 133-year history. He has
owned many different types of boats
including a Nordic wooden Folkboat,
a Contessa 32 and 38, and a Yarmouth
23, built in the town.
He later went back to a Folkboat, and
subsequently that particular type has
become a thriving class in Yarmouth,
continuing to grow from strength
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to strength. Bernard and his ‘rivals’
usually race a couple of times a week,
but no handicap involved – in this
class first past the post is the winner.
Bernard worked in insurance for 31
years before redundancy, and said: “It
was perhaps a pretty dull life, but it
allowed me to do the other things I
wanted to do.”
Those ‘other things’ included
amateur dramatics. He smiled: “I
have this reputation for being a panto
Dame. We started a company called
the Strolling Players in 1974, which
was a breakaway from West Wight
Drama, and there are still about half
a dozen of us who have been involved
from the outset. There have been
other productions, but as far as I
am concerned it has been basically
pantomime for me, and it has been a

lot of fun.”
Bernard’s association with acting
came through his mother and father
who were always involved in theatre,
and his mother was in fact one of
the founder members of the Apollo
Theatre in Newport, and was involved
in producing plays into her 90s.
His other stage involvement in
entertainment comes with the Slipshod
Singers, a 30-strong group of guys
who first got together more than 20
years ago, and meet every Tuesday in
the winter months for rehearsal before
going off to do concerts for charity
and to perform in old people’s homes.
When not sailing or performing in
front of an audience, Bernard turns
his attentions towards the Yarmouth
RNLI. He has been secretary for the
past 12 years, and is the person the