7 Replies to “Martyn Bridgman”

  1. Dear Friends & Family,

    With regret we inform you that husband, father, grandfather, Henry Martyn Bridgman passed away Sunday afternoon, March 20th surrounded by his family in Richmond (Canada) after his battle with cancer.

    We will dearly miss Martyn, he was certainly one of a kind!! With his wife and kids he lived happily on the blueberry farm in Richmond which he bought with his dad in May 1966. As a family we had good times sailing the Nandi trimaran and we all enjoyed with him, his creation the lovely house in Oliver.

    His celebration of life will be held on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 from 2pm-4pm at Richmond Nature Park (Kinsmen Pavilion) 11851 Westminster Hwy, Richmond, B.C.

    Thank you for being an important part of Martyn’s life and your support during Martyn’s illness.

    Love from,

    His Wife, Marian Bridgman
    His Children, Linda (Daniel), Margaret (Joseph), Midge (Lorne) & Donnie (Sue)
    His Grandchildren, Cheryl, Amanda, Libby & Benjamin

  2. I shall miss Martyn in more ways than one. Nandi was the first local multihull I ever sailed on, a race out of Blaine, which we won. I remember his pride in the lightness of Nandi and how well it moved with a 3 hp outboard. I also remember he had two pretty little girls, about the same age as my eldest grand daughter was and, to my surprise probably just as pretty as her, which I had not thought possible. I used to see he and Marian in Comox about once a year when he came to give Nandi the once over, she was moored next to Gilbert and Sullivan. I would try out my very rudimentary Swahili on him and he would reply with a stream of great fluency. Then we would chat in English for a while. I liked Martyn a lot, I shall miss those little meetings we had, I regret his untoward passing.

  3. I am sorry I can’t attend the memorial. Martyn was a larger-than-life character to me. I remember going out to the farm to see Nandi in its construction stages, but it wasn’t until my first sail that I got what was going on. From then on he was an avatar to me, someone who saw what a beautiful multihull was all about and just went out and did it. I celebrate especially that he always had his wife and kids with him until they grew up, and can clearly see them piling out of that tiny interior with all their lifejackets, rowing ashore in a tiny dinghy, taking walks as a family. His laconic way of speaking and that beautiful African accent made him a treat to converse with, and he always had something uplifting to say, full of humour and wisdom and respect. I had a Brown Searunner 37 at the time I met Martyn, but almost immediately after my sail on Nandi, I sold it in order to get on the water in something that moved properly, which was Karl Uthoff’s Buccaneer 24 TWIXT, and thereafter spent quite a few happy hours in the apparent wind zone above 10 knots. All my boats since then have been fast, so Martyn’s influence was a game-changer for me. I wish I had the occasion to know him more, and my condolences to Marian and the children. He had an amazing spirit and I have known very few people in my life anything like him.

  4. It has been years since we have mingled with Nandi. But in the 80’s they were always there for the regattas. Nandi was a wonderful boat. Little and fast. Martyn was always a happy and gracious sailor.

    My favourite memory was me looking after the girls for a Cowichan Bay Regatta while the boats raced. Manitou was at the government dock, but did race. Manitou was my home; Oh! gone! Racing!

    I had these two little lovely gals to look after and to keep safe. They were wonderful about having their life jackets on.

    It was extremely hot that weekend in Cowichan Bay. The pilings at the government dock had just had a new coat of creosote. These two lovely little gals with their white blonde hair got it covered in it.

    I was freaked that Marion would be really unhappy after the races. But Phew!
    We fixed it all up with a lot of butter.

    I will always remember Martyn, Marion and their girls with great love… Good memories !!!
    I am sorry for their loss…and to be greedy…our loss. Margaret from Manitou MM

  5. I would like to pass on my condolences to Marion and the rest of the family. I had known Martyn for quite a while and enjoyed racing against him. His creation Nandi was an awesome boat, very simply, sturdy and fast. Martyn and his family used it alot. I have very good memories of Martyn and am very sad about his passing. We are sorry but are unable to attend the memorial service but our thoughts will bee with the family. Pierre and Julie from Santispac

  6. Martyn was a remarkable person and will be missed by all. His Nandi was as much a work of art as it was a beautiful and fast multihull. I have to admit that I did do a double take when I first saw his new spinnaker flying high over Nandi some decades ago. As I think Martyn was from Rhodesia, he had a huge silhouette of a native bushman on that big sail. And since Martyn was a perfectionist about detail, the bushman was there in all his glory, which must have intimidated many monohullers. Some time later, a change was made to the image on the sail to the relief of many. The photo of Martyn on the previous page was taken at Karl’s memorial. I noticed Martyn reach down, pick up a feather, study it and then put it in his shirt pocket. I did not know at the time that he was ill but it is so like Martyn to have a keen interest in all things. And when Martyn did start a project, you could be sure that it was done to perfection. We will miss you Martyn and will think of you when we are skiing on mountain trails.

  7. Thank you so much for all your comments. We are looking forward to seeing some of you tommorrow at Martyn\’s memorial. We had a great time reading the comments and reliving the tales. They made us both laugh and cry, or laugh so hard we cried. Thank you BCMS we had a great time being a part of your community for so many years.
    Love Marian, Margaret and Linda Bridgman

Leave a Reply