Background. My name is Thomas Lee and I am a librarian living in the historic Gorman House in Ontonagon, Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior. For about two years while driving to work at a prison at which I am librarian, I drove past a boat that was stuck out in a field with a "for sale" sign posted on it. One day my driving companion and I stopped to have a look. Immediately, I knew that it was SPECIAL. I called the owner ... asked if the boat was in good shape. He said it was. And without hardly looking at it, the deal was made. (Actually, to be truthful it was my dear wife Margaret, who pulled out her checkbook and got this lovely boat for me.)

The papers indicated that this sailboat was a Ballerina II designed by the english boat designer Robert Tucker.

Thus began my search for information on Mr.Tucker ....

Letter from Mr. Alan Deeley, Sidney, Australia. Including pictures of his boat the Alinga.

 

One of Robert Tucker designs (Caprice Mkl, Sail Number C159) holds the record of the smallest boat to be sailed around the world. All of this is published in Shrimpy :A Record Around the World Voyage in an 18 Foot Yacht by Shane Acton. Shrimpy was published in 1981 by Patrick Stephens Ltd., Bar Hill, Cambridge, UK. The book is out-of-print and hard to get. When available the copies are pricy! A second bok Shrimpy Sails Again was also published and is also out-of-print. The following information is from the inside cover ...

 

A link found on the Ouyang Boat Works of Whitby, Ontario ..... In the late 1990s Tony Tucker, the son of Robert Tucker who died in 1998, designed an updated version of this boat now manufactured in Lincolnshire, England as the Pippin 20. See a Review or the Pippin Yachts website for more details)

 

The PIPPIN 20 designed by Tony Tucker the son of the late Robert Tucker.

 

A GREAT picture of the Fal Estuary in Cornwall. The stomping grounds of Robert Tucker.

 

Comments by Keith Denham from the Miltida Web Forum

 

e-mail from Kieth Denham