'Humble' 'Sincere' 'Intellectual' 'Pleasant' are words frequently used as I went around scouting from the staff in the club to describe former SAF Yacht Club Commodore, Brigadier General(Ret.) Tan Huck Gim.

Being new in the club, I was a bit hesitant when tasked to interview the former Commodore. All I knew was, Mr Tan is a man of great stature with numerous great achievements that I can be easily intimidated.

A former Force Commander in East Timor and presently the Director of Administration at NUS, Mr Tan, a happy father of three young girls - a twin aged 17 and a younger daughter aged 13 is consistently in his top form.

During our meet up at the Water Edge Restaurant in Changi Clubhouse, Mr Tan shared and explained that he invested a large part of his life with the SAF which started over 30 years ago. Finally, in 2000 and 2001, he was appointed as Commodore of the SAF Yacht Club where he shared many ideas on how to elevate the standards of the Club and played a vital role in the concept of constructing the Changi Clubhouse.

In 2002, he was given a great responsibility and that is to travel to East Timor and serve as a peacekeeper and head 3600 soldiers from 26 different UN member countries. His mission and main responsibility was to maintain peace which he successfully did. In his own words, Mr Tan admitted that the East Timor experience was both enriching and life changing for him.

He also explained that due to his serving the Club as a Commodore for only a short period, he had some unfulfilled goals when he left. First, was that he wished he could have stabilised the manpower of the club at that time, and secondly, he wanted the Club to be more self sufficient finance-wise. He however quipped positively " I’m glad that all has been done under the good management.”

When asked to share about his view about the sailing trends in Singapore in recent years, he stated three aspects he noticed.
“Firstly, the members of the club are better service by the staff than before as they are better trained. There is a higher level of trust in the management from the members and lastly, the standard of crafts of boats are better than before indicating that people are investing more money in the quality of owning and maintaining a good boat. All these factors deeply signify the positive trend of sailing locally.”

Mr Tan also believes that SAF Yacht Club is more than just a recreational club for the members. he believes that it is a place to cultivate the younger generation. “Sailing builds character. It is not just a hobby but it is a healthy sport where kids can engage in to learn values as they learn to sail. Starting from learning how to sail, techniques of sailing, taking care for their sail equipments, participating in races and interactions with others… all these are learning process to build good characters.”

Ultimately, I realised that I can spend the rest of the day hearing countless stories about his amazing life experiences, but there is always an end to all interviews and I am honored to have met an ex- Commodore like him who has a big heart for the interest of the members.

If you ask me what words best describe Mr Tan, I would say ‘Humble’ ‘Sincere’ ‘Intellectual’ ‘Pleasant’ are indeed the perfect words.