Peter Charlton - 26th June 1931 – 5th September 2023
Long standing member Peter Charlton (Pete) died peacefully at home on Tuesday 5th September 2023. His funeral took place at St Faiths Crematorium on 27th September 2023.
Pete joined the club in the mid 90’s at the insistence of Betty who felt that they should be more sociable particularly with other sailors. Pete and Betty had a long standing association with the Yare Sailing Club winning many of the club’s trophies over the years in their sailing cruiser Henrietta.
Pete attended Earsham and Bungay schools where he first met his future wife Betty. Upon leaving school he undertook and completed a carpentry apprenticeship where he learned his skills at woodworking. Post apprenticeship he travelled the country as a carpenter undertaking a variety of woodworking contracts. He later joined the Royal Anglian Regiment where he completed his national service.
In late 1952 he married his schoolday’s sweetheart Betty and they went on to bring up two children, Joe and Jane. In 1953 he joined the police force and was posted to a variety of local beats before eventually joining the police diving team. This undoubtedly contributed to his wealth of knowledge of the rivers and broads. He retired from the police force in 1979 at the age of 48 and lived on into retirement for another 44 years achieving his goal of being retired for more years than he had worked. During his retirement he restored a farmhouse where he and Betty lived, renovated a cottage as a holiday let and refurbished another bungalow where he and Betty lived for the rest of their lives.
In the mid to late 1980’s Pete turned his hand to boatbuilding. He built two sailing cruisers. Firstly a Farrington 30 called Windsong, now in hire and the second a Farrington 25 called Henrietta. It was with Henrietta that Pete achieved many successes with the YSC and also won the Sabrina trophy four times. It was while he was building boats the Pete discovered a flare for making masts and spars. Over the years he made a variety of masts, spars and wooden boat accessories for numerous broad’s boats. A visit to Pete’s shed was always an education whether it be gluing, planing, scarphing or even sharpening chisels and plane blades.
After many successful years sailing and racing in Henrietta the time came in 2011 to sell her. But that wasn’t the end of Pete and Betty’s adventures afloat. In 2012 they bought Damsel, a comfortable motor cruiser in which they both enjoyed travelling the extent of all of the navigable Norfolk and Suffolk rivers. Damsel also became a regular attendee at YSC regattas where they both enjoyed dispensing hospitality to all those who called round.
Peter and Betty Charlton. They will be much missed by all.
Bob Branscombe.
