I have very sad news. Rich Crucet passed away during the night of Friday April 4th.
I met Rich while sailing at a DN World Championship Regatta in 1999, and came to know him as a key representative of the Lake Ronkonkama Ice Boat and Yacht Club on Long Island, NY. Rich was a great Champion of DN Iceboating, and was involved in all aspects of promoting the class. He introduced new sailors to the thrill of sailing on ice, opened his workshop to local iceboaters, held weekly "shop nights" to train and encourage local building, and was himself always open to learning new skills.
Rich understood the need to travel outside the boundaries of the local club to improve skills, and was a frequent competitor at Regional, North American, and World Championship events. At these events I am sure many of you came to know Rich for his unique sense of humor, and willingness to help out at the drop of a hat.
One example of his sense of humor was his reference to his "traveling wife" when he was at a North American Championship. We were quite impressed with his ability to land a young trophy wife for the long iceboat trips. I found out later that his traveling wife was actually his niece, Cathy Firmbach. I later managed to land Cathy as
my trophy wife -
thank you Uncle Rich!
The Lake Ronkonkama Ice Boat and Yacht Club will be honoring Rich at their annual awards banquet. For anyone in the area that would like to participate, the Dinner will be held at "The Oar" in Patchogue, NY on Sunday April 13th from 5-8pm, at a fixed price of $37, cash bar available. If you are interested please RSVP to John Ziermann ASAP as he needs a head count (
jzierman@suffolk.lib.ny.us).
