HaydenM Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 My thoughts are with his family at this horrible time. I'd dealt with him a few times and he was always a pleasure to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kernow Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 I never knew him or had any dealings with him but the sentiments here are a reflection of his character and how much people thought of him. RIP, condolences to his family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmj Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 I am deeply saddened by this news. I've spoken with Alan a couple of times in the past and bought a few things from him. I send my deepest condolences to his family. RIP Alan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Gentlemen, I'm sorry for my brief message this morning announcing this sad news. I'm back now and have a little more time. Here's what our friends next door wrote about Alan... he was a giant walking among men and I'm going to miss him terribly. ------------------- It is my sad duty to inform you we have lost a member, dealer and friend. Alan "Offshore" Day passed away yesterday afternoon in the Gold Coast hospital from complications connected with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and an existing heart condition. Alan has not been well for some time but this still comes as a great shock to many of us. I last saw Alan about a week ago and he looked better than he had in some time and had finished his last round of chemo. On Wednesday he was returned to hospital with a possible heart attack and diagnosed with kidney failure. Due to his heart not being up to it dialysis was not an option. He passed away quietly with his partner of two years by his side. The forum, it's owners and staff pass on their deep condolences to Karen, his partner. For now Watchbitz is closed, Karen will take care of any outstanding orders and the shop will re-open in due course. Alan did well in life, he owned and ran the largest marine dealership in Victoria for many years and was the largest Mercury dealer in Australia. His nick derives from his days racing F1 powerboats, something he did with great success. Before that Alan was co-founder of the first wetsuit maker in Austraila and the owner of one of the first dive tank compressors in the state. Shark Wetsuits provided the tanks and fills used in the search for Harold Holt, the AU Prime Minister who went missing in the Victorian surf. Alan stayed and filled dozens of tanks while his mates accompanied the Federal cops who had called in and told them the news in greatest secrecy to help dive the search area. Alan was diving before PADI existed and helped formulate the dive standards used in AU to this day. He was a pioneering cave diver and was one of those who often conducted searches for the bodies of those lost in caves in Victoria and South Australia. He was one of the divers who recovered the bodies of the divers portrayed in the James Cameron film Sanctum (Sanctum is based on events that took place in Australia in 1963 and 1988). He was the technical adviser on the film and also signed off on the technical correctness of the rushes each day. He also supplied some of the watches used in the film including the watch he wore on the recovery dive. He was the last of the great cave divers (US and Aussie) from the era still alive. All the rest have either died doing what they loved or passed away from diving related illness. After selling the boatyard he set up a business selling wholesale plain box OEM parts for outboards, another success before moving to the Gold Coast and working as a project manager on several super yacht builds which is where I came to know him. After that he managed operations for a jetty and pontoon company before going into semi retirement and starting first watchwerks and then watchbitz. He also became the Australasian distributor for Squale Watches. With that the wheel turned the full circle as Squale is Italian for Shark, his old wetsuit brand. Whilst Alan outlived his family (his mother passed away at Easter) he will be sorely missed by many, many friends. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opti Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 He was a top bloke, always so polite with every dealing I had with him, rest in peace Alan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mendota Explorer Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Wow. What a fascinating write-up. Sounds like he was a really neat and interesting person. RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cc33 Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Sad news, he will be greatly missed My condolences to everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krpster Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Very shocked and sad to hear. He was always great to chat with and very helpful. He was the fuel to my fire when I started out wanting to work on my own watches. In a way, without him, I would not be where I am, horologically speaking. My thoughts and best wishes to his family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Hey krpster, great to see you back again! But so sad under these circumstances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dluddy Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Wow, floored with this news. Rest in peace ole boy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy1880 Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Sad Times, thoughts with his family D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolexman Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 NO WAY!!!?..... RIP brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 This makes me so sad, Alan was a personal friend who I have shared beers and dinner with on a number of occasions, he used to live not far and if fact serviced my fathers boat regularly before moving to the Gold coast. He even took time to do a little tour guiding for my parents when they were up his way years ago. A genuinely nice guy who built his watch parts business the hard way travelling to Gaungzhou. Sadly missed buddy Ken 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Alan was 1 of the guys I kept running into (in a good way) when I 1st found RWG. He was both helpful &, on occasion, a bit confrontational (about watches)......but always a gentleman & someone I learned alot from. As a mod, we did not always see eye-to-eye, but I still respected & missed him when he decided to resign his position. I knew he was dealing with health issues, but had absolutely no idea they were life-threatening. It is very sad when reality makes clear how impermanent & finite we are. But I am happy to hear that he was able to spend his final days with the woman he loved & hope his final thoughts were positive. It is about time we finally won the War On Cancer - a grotesque disease that has claimed far too many good people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Alan was 1 of the guys I kept running into (in a good way) when I 1st found RWG. He was both helpful &, on occasion, a bit confrontational (about watches)......but always a gentleman & someone I learned alot from. As a mod, we did not always see eye-to-eye, but I still respected & missed him when he decided to resign his position. I knew he was dealing with health issues, but had absolutely no idea they were life-threatening. It is very sad when reality makes clear how impermanent & finite we are. But I am happy to hear that he was able to spend his final days with the woman he loved & hope his final thoughts were positive. It is about time we finally won the War On Cancer - a grotesque disease that has claimed far too many good people. I totally agree Freddy, it is a terrible disease, that takes everyone, irregardless of race, color, creed, station in life, etc. it is a cruel and relentless killer. In my almost 40 years of anesthesia, I cannot count how many times I have looked at the total devastation., and the hope that often turns to despair as the disease slowly destroys the body. While there are a few glimmers of hope, they are few and far between. It is a very close adversary to me. I lost my wife of 38 years to Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, and I am a 5 year survivor of Prostate cancer, so it hits very close to home for me. I hate it with a passion. It's really sad that our and other governments fritter away billions of dollars on BS projects, that could well be directed toward finding cures for a lot of different cancers. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornerstone Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Oh no, that's awful news. I remember one drinking session with Alan in particular when we met up. He had lots of great tales from his speedboat and boat buying days. From memory he'd narrowly escaped being in a fatal speedboat crash once, he'd been due in the boat that day or something, it ended up flipping and killing the occupants. He was a man of great integrity. Still processing that news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormTooper4 Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Blimey that's really sad. RIP OS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Wow, that is very sad news Condolences to Alan's family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikki6 Posted May 28, 2015 Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 That's heartbreaking, he is a great guy who will be sorely missed! He helped me out so much when I started on here, purely out of his own generosity! I'll miss you A!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seafoam Posted May 28, 2015 Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 That's very sad to hear. Thoughts go out to his family. RIP Offshore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronin Posted May 28, 2015 Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 Speechless and saddend. After a brief hiatus from the forum I returned to see this. :-( I have a workbench of tool's that Alan helped get me setup with. Everytime I use one these tools I will think of him. RIP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demsey Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 Hello, folk!Haven't logged on here in ages. I had just recently learned of Alan's passing and wanted to extend condolences to the many friends he had here.I know many of you knew him personally, and many more, as I, in the 'virtual' sense. I know you all brought him so much happiness evidenced in how much he enjoyed RWG over years.Many may not know the history of this board, it's first incarnation where many of us first met. Alan included. The situation of the old board's decay in the absence of a web master prompted the Admin. here to build this site. As a lark, and not for anything aside quirky 'gonzo' for the sake of quirky 'gonzo' a few of us held on to that thin raft that was the original RWG and tried to paddle it into an ocean current that would take the rudderless ship somewhere. For two years we drifted along as the bastard ghost ship of the rep forums and the brunt of many deserved jabs and jokes but enjoyed the experiment and had some good fun.Throughout that time, as many here did, or tried to, Alan would make a point to stop by from time to time, to post in a watch thread, extend holiday greetings or make casual comment in 'Off Topic'. Those days he lent the tattered remains of that old bird much legitimacy, class and 'Offshore' style. I was always most grateful for his kind effort. He was a stern and focused and accomplished man but had a wide streak of charitable caring for people. He was a friend to the true definition of the word. The world is much less a place in his absence.Peace Alan.Dems 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted December 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 Well said, old friend. Alan was a gentleman in every way. I was struggling with something a few years back and out of the blue he sent me a set of his ultra high quality screwdrivers, gratis, and I was able to solve the problem. He was a bedrock member of this place we call home, and is still sorely missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seafoam Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 I dealt with OS on one occasion and he was a true gentleman. Rip Offshore and my thoughts go out to the family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hambone Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 Oh my how sad. Offshore was a good man and he certainly was an asset to RWG and no doubt to his lifelong friends and family. Rest in peace Brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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