Ian and I met in a classroom at the College of Air Traffic Control at Bournemouth Airport in 1971 on the first day of our three year course at the end of which we were both posted to Stansted and then eventually both moved on to the London Air Traffic Control Centre, West Drayton. After having sailed with friends for a few years, he bought Silver Cloud, a Westerly Konsort, frequently dragging me along as crew and in doing so, igniting my own boat owning ambitions. Thereafter we would often sail our boats in company.

On one occasion we had set off from Cowes on a short hop to the Hamble. Silver Cloud was about a quarter of a mile ahead of me when one of the Southampton Harbour Master launches that had been loitering in the middle of the Solent, went alongside her and had a short conversation with Ian. Later, in Port Hamble Marina, I asked Ian what it was all about. He laughed and said the skipper wanted to know if Ian and I were "joined at the hip" as he'd noticed us sailing about in formation over the last few days. 

We weren't conjoined but have been friends for over fifty years. Worked together, sailed and flown together, got drunk and had a lot of laughs and now the bugger's left me to sail alone. It just won't be the same without him. Irreplaceable.