Photos from the '40's--Decades later, family canoe sailing results in a champion!
Dan Tucker, Marblehead, Massachusetts
These are scans of my father & his twin brother's class B sailing canoe. (Bob and John Tucker - Bobbie & Jackie, hence BoJack). All are labeled 1944. Location is City Island New York. They would have been 16 in these photos.
Dad & Uncle John began the sailing tradition in canoes in City Island in the 40's. Their baby brother, Tom Tucker, also got the bug. They would ride their bikes from Mt. Vernon to City Island to sail. The BoJack II was their second canoe, a real sailing canoe. Their first was a regular paddling canoe, which they added a sail to because it looked like less work than paddling.
More follows!
Over the years they kept sailing bigger boats and taught all their kids to sail. There are two of us in the next generation that really kept with it, my cousin John Tucker in FL, oldest son of my Uncle John, who spent a few years cruising, then living aboard. I kept with it on my father's side, racing R19's, J/22's J/24's, Sonars and now Viper 640's. My wife, Maureen, came sailing with my dad & I in about 1984 and realized that she'd better learn to sail if she wanted to stick around. Dad & I taught her to sail, and last September she won a Paralympic gold medal in sailing in China and was nominated for US Sailing Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. We've owned a little C&C 25 for years, which we would live on for up to two weeks at a time while training for the US Paralympic sailing trials in Newport, RI.
(Dan's wife, Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, sailed a 2-person SKUD 18 to win the 2008 Paralympic Gold Medal. Our congratulations to Maureen! Ed.)
We're actively trying to gently engage our 9 year old daughter in sailing. We also have a 3 year old son, who likes the "bouncy boat", the 18' Avon RIB we use as a coach boat for my wife.
So sailing canoes led to the first US Paralympic sailing gold medal!
And more photos follow!
More photos on the following pages!
