[WYC Announce] A tragic loss to our community

[WYC Commodore]

Washington Yacht Club Sailing Community,

It is with a heavy heart that we are writing to inform you that last week,
we lost two beloved members of our community, Tom Schaefer and Evan
Abramson, in a tragic boating accident in Mexico. Tom and Evan contributed
enormously to the organization and to our community through decades of
close involvement, and their warm presence will be sincerely missed.

Tom joined the WYC in 2000, and many of you will know him from being the
organizer of our Snooze n Cruise events since 2012. While Tom originally
gravitated towards sailing dinghies, often choosing to skipper the club’s
470 with a club member hiked out on the trapeze, in recent years his
interest in sailing keelboats grew, and you would often find Tom taking
club members and prospective club members out on Talaria III.

Evan was similarly a constant presence at the waterfront, serving as a WYC
Chief for many years. Many of you would recognize Evan as the skipper of
Frenesi for most of our recent Snooze n Cruise events, similarly mentoring
new student sailors and putting his time, experience, and calm demeanor
into creating positive experiences for those around him. Evan was fond of
sailing Lasers, and he was a frequent Duck Dodge participant.

Tom and Evan both had strong conviction about what they wanted out of life,
and they weren’t afraid to go after it. They were close friends for many
years and particularly enjoyed scuba diving together, making trips to Isla
Mujeres almost every year. As expressed by a fellow club member, some sort
of relief might be felt in knowing that the two of them were together last
in their favorite spot in the world, surrounded by the serenity of the vast
open ocean and the gentle dazzling array of fish that they loved seeing.

The club is working on several ways to memorialize and celebrate the lives
of Tom and Evan, and we will keep the club membership informed about such
efforts.

Tom’s partner has asked for memories and photos of Tom to be shared at
https://www.tomschaefermemorial.com/. Please also share any photos that you
have of Tom and Evan to this Google Drive folder
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aeglwfZGdLztn3_PAeA02ghoF7ppZ9cB>.
You may also wish to join the WYC Chat mailing list
<https://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/wyc> and share your
memories there.

We are unified in our sadness over the loss of these wonderful members of
our community, and our thoughts are with all of Tom and Evan’s friends and
family, and the many others whose lives they have touched.

Warm regards,

Anthony, Sam, William, Salt, and Dylan


---
Anthony Au and Sam Lindsay
Co-Commodores
Washington Yacht Club
commodore at washingtonyachtclub.org

Support us through AmazonSmile <https://bit.ly/366G2zy>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/wyc_info/attachments/20220311/ba6ab2b5/attachment.html>