A LONG-STANDING member of East Cowes Sailing Club, Eric Arthur Caws, has died, aged 88.
He was born in East Cowes in 1928 and attended Osborne Road Infants, Clarence Road Junior and Grange Road Senior schools.
He left the latter, aged 14, to take up an apprenticeship at Groves and Guttridge Ltd at the firm’s East Cowes boatyard.
His apprenticeship was interrupted by a call-up to do his National Service, which he served as a sapper in the Royal Engineers. He later returned to complete the apprenticeship.
He worked as a marine fitter for Saunders Roe, Husbands, J. S. White’s and eventually went back to Saunders Roe. He worked there as a maintenance fitter for 27 years before taking early retirement.
Mr Caws was an early member of the IW Motor Cycle Club and was in the Civil Defence Corps for many years.
After his retirement, his hobbies included racing model yachts on Ryde Canoe Lake and making model boats.
However, his main interest was East Cowes Sailing Club, which he joined in 1972 when he and his sons had a Mirror dinghy.
As the club had a strong fleet of them at the time, he soon took on the roles of class measurer and became the buoyancy officer. He was on the main committee for 40 years and served as vice-president.
Mr Caws married Pamela White in 1954. She died in 1998.
He is survived by his two sons.
A date for the funeral has yet to be arranged.