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.
Steve Mackay
Steve McKay has been with us for a number of years having started on day sails originally and is now our skipper on youth trips. "Known as Captain Uncle Steve" he is a veteran of dozens youth trips. He has fashioned his own pirate sword for use when required, particularly for parties and day sails 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.
Sophie Camplin
Sophie joined the Tucker three years ago for a couple of youth trips, and survived to join us again as regular crew. Following on from two summers as deckhand and two winters on youth sail training voyages, Sophie is now skipper on our day sails. She hails from the UK and is a pharmacy technician by trade but a sailor by passion. This probably explains her great organisational skills and attention to detail. She is now a resident of New Zealand and enjoys the relaxed lifestyle over here. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening and babysitting the various dogs that belong to the rest of the crew.
Sam Meldrum
Sam is one of our core crew having joined us in 2004 as a deckhand on our day sail season. He has been skippering on the Tucker since 2008 and is now our Bosun, making sure the ship is in good condition and that our maintenance programme is kept up. 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 and his partner Margaret manage Saltwater Lodge in Paihia and they are proud parents of Henry.
Kylie Fawcett
Kylie Fawcett joined us in January 2010 and has completed her first youth sail training season on board. Kylie is Te Ati Awa Iwi and although her home base is Mount Maunganui, she is now resident in the Bay of Islands. She has tried her hand at a number of things but has decided she has a passion for sailing and has so has been working on vessels in the Whitsundays as well as carrying out a number of yacht deliveries in the Pacific. Kylie is also a talented Harakeke (flax) artist and and shares her skills with the youngsters on board. Her knotted ankle bracelets have become a badge of honour for many sail trainees.
Rob Alger
Rob joins us this year as deckhand and brings years of on water experience. He has been involved in the marine environment for over 25 years and has been a commercial fisherman, skippering his own vessel as well involved with tourism in Australia. He has had first had experience of the positive benefits of outdoor pursuits programme having experienced the Sir Edmond Hillary programme as a youngster. Married with four children he also has first hand experience of dealing with youngsters.
Marsha Baker
Marsha rejoins us again on a part time basis this summer. Marsha has been involved with the Tucker for some 5 years and has cooked up a storm on many youth development voyages as well as performed the role of deckhand during day sails.
Mariji Baker
Marsha's sister Mariji joins us this summer on a part time basis at our sales outlet in the Maritime Building in Paihia as the friendly face behind the counter and answering the phone.
Rachel Kennedy
Rachel joined the Tucker as Sales and Operations manager at the start of the 2006 season and has been with the ship since then. 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 a professional florist 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 Kororareka, 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.
