Tony Brett-Jones

Tony Brett-Jones is one of the CAs greatest navigators with a great eye for detail and accuracy. Part of this he was born with and it was completed when the RAF sent him off to Canada for two years training in astronavigation so that with his bubble sextant he could navigate Halifax bombers onto their targets. He used this training on 33 operations between June 1944 and Feb 1945 (the war ended in May). He hardly used his navigation for 20 years while he carved out a career in quantity surveying and raising his artistic and musical family. He specialized in social housing and prison building, became President of the Quantity Surveyors division of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and later was awarded the CBE. He used his ability as project manager for CA House.

He took up sailing at about 40 and bought his beloved Monearn, a long-keeled, heavily built wooden boat designed by D Munro. Tony kept her in Milford Haven as he took long, regular family holidays in an ancient farmhouse at Dale but spent a large proportion of this in the Western Isles particularly the Outer Hebrides. He ventured as far as the Faroes and had an ambition to go to St Kilda which remains unfulfilled. When he and I went to Spain he produced some old charts with the original sun sights on them from about 1994 when he led a President's cruise to Coruña. As Monearn had a draught of over 6 feet, he was not very familiar with the East Coast and the Baltic.

Since he sold Monearn about 6 years ago, he has enjoyed some warm water cruises in Greece with his friend Lord Taverne with whom he shares many principles of social justice and 3 years ago he sailed with me from Dale to Mallaig on the Victory rally. He is an ascetic man in his sailing and enjoys long, hard, cold night passages and tricky challenges.

He was the Editor of the Handbook for 4 editions (and one reprint) and followed this on with two editions of the Cruising Almanac. During this period page size was increased to A4 and coloured printing gradually improved. His close friendship with Willie Wilson ensured that we had accurate plans and good marketing so that the Almanac produces a reasonable income for the CA.

He was a Captain Bligh to the Regional Editors whose scripts were always returned dripping with red ink from the many corrections due to his high and uncompromising standards but he was basically a humane man who was President for 3 years from 1994-97 and remains a passionate supporter of the objectives of the CA.

I think he has reluctantly swallowed the anchor though only yesterday I did have a report of his day out on the Crouch last summer. This gives him more time for his passion for opera, the Royal Society of Arts and a campaign for young people to train older ones in the new technology.

A treasured friend to the CA and to me.

Barry Smith