Our crew
The crew are really special and they make the difference between a good experience and a great experience. Between them, they have huge experience both in New Zealand coastal waters as well as offshore; they have sailed with young and old people as well as countless people on day sails.
Sam Meldrum
Sam is one of our two day sail skippers, having joined us in 2004 as a deckhand on our day sail season. He has worked on square rigged tall ships in England, South America, Australia and New Zealand. He was Second Mate on our voyage to Canada and the US in 2005 and First Mate on our trip to Rarotonga and Tonga in 2006. He has skippered a number of youth trips and History trips. A native Australian (but an honorary kiwi) now living in Opua, he is engaged to Margaret and is expecting his first child in December.
Christina (Chris) Gayer
Chris is another former deckhand who has worked hard to achieved her skipper's ticket. This winter she has also completed her Offshore Masters - a huge achievement! She has spent time on commercial fishing vessels and has now owns two fishing boats. Like Sam, she has sailed on a number of other tall ships including the Schooner Appledore, in other countries. She was second Mate on our trip to Rarotonga and Tonga and has skippered a number of youth sail training trips this winter and not surprisingly, her trips always feature lots of kai moana on the menu. Originally from Edinburgh in Scotland, Chris has travelled extensively but now calls Opua home.
Steve Mackay
Steve McKay has been with us throughout the winter on youth trips as well as our other voyages. He is in his second year as a deckhand this summer and is an understudy skipper, as he already holds a skippers certificate. He has fashioned his own pirate sword for use when required and is often seen chasing passengers in a pirate like fashion! He is extremely versatile as he is a trained pastry chef - his danish pastries are to die for! He is originally from Christchurch, although like so many have made the Bay of Islands home. A natural sailor, he lives on his boat in Opua and only needs to row to work in the morning.
Miranda Shackell
Miranda Shackell joined us full time in July 2009 as Youth Development Manager, having done a number of youth development voyages on a part time basis. Her two great passions in life are young people and tall ship sailing so this job is her perfect occupation as it combines these two loves. Miranda is a trained teacher who has taught in a number of places, most recently at Waimakoia school where she worked with youth at risk. She has done a year's sailing on the Soren Larsen in the Pacific as deckhand and has now moved up to the Bay of Islands and made Northland her home. The Youth Development position is part time, so Miranda will also be working on day sails and in our sales office over summer.
Mark Williamson
Mark has been with us since 2004 but left for a break in 2007 year to pursue a desk job in his former profession as a draughstman. We can't quite understand why, but he has given away the lucrative salary to return as a deckhand again this season. Whateer the reason, we are very happy to have Mark back on board. Mark also lives on his boat with Tui (another occasional crew member), both of whom joined us for our 2006 Survivor Cook Islands trip. Mark has has also made a major contribution to our maintenance during our recent refits and knows the ship very well (particularly the black and grey water systems!).
Adam Prendergast
Adam joins us this season from Rotorua, where he had previously been working in the service industry. It is his first time on a sailing vessel but he seems to have taken to it like a duck to water. He enjoys climbing, so furling the tops'ls from the yards present no problem to him - in fact he is happy perched at the top of the mast or on top of a rock! His blond dreadlocks have earned him the nickname of "The Dreaded Adam" but don't let that fool you - he has slotted in perfectly with the rest of the crew. His girlfriend Eleanor has joined him and also regularly joins him on board.
Manton Ngawaka Bauer
Manton has been with us since 2005, for a number of day sail seasons as well as youth development voyage. Veteran of our offshore Survivor Cook Islands trip, he will be taking summer off and returning for our winter youth trips in 2010. Manton's speciality is diving for kai moana during the lunchtime stopover, and those passengers fortunate enough to be on board on these occasions get treated to fresh mussels on the BBQ. Manton is a local lad from Kawakawa, with tribal affiliations to Ngati Wai and Ngapuhi. His mother Bronwyn Hunt joined us on the Board of Trustees in 2007.
Rachel Kennedy
Rachel joined the Tucker as Sales and Operations manager at the start of the 2006 season and has been with the ship for three years now. She has been the driving force involved with creating the youth sail training programmes, making sure that lesson plans and course material is available for the 7-day trips. Despite being land based, Rachel, in fact has more sea time than both of our skippers as she holds her Offshore Masters ticket and has spent time as Captain of a fishing vessel in Alaska amongst other places. She is now happy on land runs the ship from the shore side. She is also a trained florist and highly creative, listing "inventing" as one of her hobbies. She lives in Opua with partner Kim and is a keen gardner.
Jane Hindle
Jane is the Executive Trustee of the R.Tucker Thompson. Her real background is telecommunications but finds running a tall ship provides some sanity away from the technical detail involved with that environment. She is the "shore crew" minding the place while the rest head off on their adventures (actually she heaves a sigh of relief when they disappear!). She and her husband Geoff have now spent time on board during the 2002 West Coast Challenge, eight weeks down the coast of Canada and the USA during the 2005 West Coast Challenge Festivals as well as sailing from Rarotonga to Tonga in 2006. She has also done galley duty on a couple of trips. They live in Russell, a piece of paradise in the Bay of Islands.
Employment mission:
Our goal is to provide employment to Northlanders and we therefore specifically seek to hire crew members from this region wherever possible. If you are a young Northlander seeking work experience or considering tourism as a potential career, please contact us.
