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Robert Cotter “RC” Keefe passed through the Golden Gate for the last time on December 4th, 2022. Bob was 90 years old and the Senior Staff Commodore of the St Francis Yacht Club where he was a member since 1950.
His life was dedicated to the St. Francis and sailing, he lived and breathed everything that ever floated. He was the Club Historian for over 30 years, writing monthly articles in the Club’s Mainsheet magazine.
Bob joined the Barient Winch Company in the 1960s where he grew the company to the most prominent winch company in the world. While at Barient, he oversaw the development of the “self-tailing winch” which is the same basic design we used today.
After Barient, he founded the Keefe Pacific Company where he developed and built anchor windlasses. Not surprisingly, the license plate on his car was “Winch”.
Bob was part of the golden years of sailboat racing on San Francisco Bay. He raced aboard Bolero with Denny Jordan and then on Baruna with Jim Michael. It was during this time that he had the idea to have a large sailboat racing event on the Bay. The idea of the “Big Boat Series” was started with the first event in 1964.
He is credited as the father of Big Boat Series, and as the boats traveled up from Southern California, they would call him at home via the ship-to-shore radio. He would meet them at the St. Francis Yacht Club guest docks and welcome them into the Club for a drink in the Grill room, no matter the hour! In 1966, he was awarded the “Yachtsmen of the Year” award for his efforts with the Big Boat Series…
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