An Inspiration To All
The world of sailing has two faces. One is the face known to the non-sailing public: it is patterned with images like the uber-rich quibbling over America’s Cup trivialities. The other face is more private. Only the people who have experienced the joys of sailing know this face, and putting it into words is a monumental task. But this face hangs around in daydreams; it has the ability to inspire and empower. In some cases, it can even be a reason for living.
One sailor familiar with the power of sailing’s more personal face is Maureen McKinnon-Tucker. Her story is one of perseverance; it speaks to the enduring power of the human spirit. Even after confronting hardships that might leech another person of his or her willpower, Maureen manages to keep a brilliant smile on her face. She knows that sailing is about sailing – for all its nourishing qualities – rather than the banalities that distract so many.
Maureen was the first woman to become a member of the US Disabled Sailing Team, as well as the first woman to represent the United States in Paralympic sailing. Among other events, she won Paralympic Gold in Beijing and Rolex Miami OCR in 2008. She was also nominated for an ESPY and Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year.
Maureen, the self-described “most unlikely gold medalist in any sport, ever,” started sailing nearly 25 years ago when she met her husband, Dan Tucker. Her early experiences were in a J/24, but she didn’t take racing very seriously at the time. “Honest to god I was like the cabana girl,” she told 35 Knots. “I just went down to the cabin and got everybody their beers. And I trimmed the spinnaker twings. I was never the brains of the boat, I was never the muscle on the boat, I was never any of that. I just loved the whole social scene of sailing.”
It wasn’t until I lost it – I lost a thing that I thought didn’t really matter – that I realized it really did matter.
J/24 sailing came to an end for Maureen 15 years ago when she fell 13 feet down a seawall and broke her back. She tried the J/24 again but found that it was nearly impossible. “My body just dangled inside the boat,” she said. “I’m holding on with one elbow up on the boat stanchion, and the rest of my body is dangling in the cockpit while I’m trying to trim. I’m like, ‘This just isn’t working. I’m working harder to just stay actually on the boat than I am to trim this genoa.’ I was toast by the end of the race.”
Sailing seemed to McKinnon-Tucker a pastime that she could no longer enjoy. She purchased a kayak and used it to paddle out to racecourses and watch her friends round the marks. “And that was so sad,” said Maureen. “Because I couldn’t go out sailing. I was like ‘this is not right.’ It wasn’t until I lost it – I lost a thing that I thought didn’t really matter – that I realized it really did matter.”
Maureen got back into sailing after a chance meeting with Rick Doerr, who challenged her to try out the Sonar. At first, Maureen was apprehensive: “I said ‘look, thanks for your advice, but I tried the J/24 again, and it doesn’t work out. I’ve tried those therapeutic programs where they take people out for a boat ride, but those boats are pigs: they don’t tack, they don’t jibe, they’re slow.”
At Rick’s insistence, McKinnon-Tucker got on a Sonar a few days later. “That was when the ‘ah-hah!’ moment occurred,” said Maureen. “I realized I can be a participating member of the team. I can do just as much as the two or three able-bodied people that are sailing with me. And that was when it all changed.”
Later that summer, McKinnon-Tucker answered an email seeking crew for the Sonar Worlds. After 9/11, international teams were having difficulty getting into the States, and Maureen thought she might be able to fill in for a day or two. When she showed up at the dock, the skipper with whom she’d coordinated turned out to be Rick Doerr himself.
About her experience at the Sonar Worlds, McKinnon-Tucker said, “You know, we were doing kind of mediocre, but I had a great time. I’m trimming the jib and getting across the boat and I’m at the Sonar Worlds.”
Maureen’s mettle was tested in a 35-knot gale. Doerr attested that he’d seen more experienced, able-bodied sailors lose their cool under similar conditions, but praised McKinnon-Tucker on her collectedness. After the Worlds, Doerr invited her to join his 2004 Athens Paralympic team. Doerr and crew took third at Trials, but a new tack was effectively set for McKinnon-Tucker.
Less than a year before the 2008 US Trials, Maureen met skipper Nick Scandone, with whom she would go on to win a Paralympic gold medal. Scandone suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – before his passing in January. “We clicked immediately,” said McKinnon-Tucker. “He was 42 and I was 43 at the time. We just got each other. We didn’t even have to talk, which was a good thing because with ALS talking and breathing tends to become very difficult. We just sailed fast, and by June we won our first event. I mean smoked ‘em. Seriously, seriously smoked ‘em.”
Asked about Scandone, McKinnon-Tucker’s ever-present smile softens. Her eyes well up. “Nick was a one of a kind kind of guy. I miss him more and more every day. When he first passed away, it wasn’t that much of a shock. It was Lou Gehrig’s Disease. When you get diagnosed they tell you that you have two years. He lasted six.
“He was an incredible testament to how someone can really live for something. People very casually use that term: ‘I live for ice cream. I live for car racing. I live for this or that.’ You don’t know what living for something is until you meet someone like Nick. Living for a gold medal was what he did. He forced himself to eat, to breath, to drink, to sleep, to rest, to do everything so he could save his body just enough for Beijing.”
Scandone made it through the 2008 Paralympics, and took home a gold medal. He also survived long enough to “enjoy the limelight for a while” before his death.
McKinnon-Tucker mentioned that this weekend was particularly difficult because the SKUD 18 she and Scandone drove to victory in China had been sold and renamed “Nick’s Karma.” McKinnon-Tucker admitted, “it was nice and it was honorable that they named the boat after Nick, but it’s hard to be on the transom of a boat you used to kick ass on.”
While Scandone and McKinnon-Tucker were in Miami for the Olympic Class Regatta, the Tucker family faced another challenge, this one with much more at stake than a medal. “My husband Dan and I were sipping coffee at eight o’clock in the morning looking out at palm trees. It was a beautiful day in Miami and the kids were with my parents. My son had been experiencing some flu-like symptoms so we decided to bring him to a hospital just to see if he was all right. They kept him overnight for observation thinking that the flu was going around and that was what he had.
Sailing is the most universal and empowering sport for people of all ages and all abilities
“It all seemed kind of routine: he was dehydrated and they needed to re-hydrate him. They were going to have him out by noon that day. My mom and dad had everything under control.
“Fifteen minutes later, I called back for some stupid reason like the laundry, and my mom said, ‘Maureen, everything has changed. Since I last talked to you, Trent stopped breathing.’ He had a blown-out pupil and they thought something was wrong with his brain. The doctor got on the phone and said that if I ever wanted to see my son alive again I had better get on a flight really quick.”
Maureen’s coach made it to the condo where she and her husband were staying in a few minutes, directed them to pack their bags, and they headed to the airport. “My eyes were glazed over and I was just following whatever my coach told me to do,” said Maureen. “We got back to Boston at 2:30 and were in the hospital by 3:00. They were drilling a hole in my son’s head trying to relieve the pressure.”
A long series of treatments followed as 2-year-old son Trent fought brain cancer. Dan Tucker said, “After we figured out what we were doing treatment-wise, the question was what we were doing sailing-wise. If Maureen quit, Nick would not have gone to China. So we were dealing with the treatment of a child with cancer versus a teammate who is going to be dead before 2012, zero question about that.
“As much for Nick, we also decided we were not going to let cancer run our lives. We were going to kick its ass. It wasn’t going to kick ours. It was also an example to our son and daughter that life goes on. You deal with adversity and keep going.”
Life was difficult for the Tucker family as Trent underwent treatment for weeks at a time, while Maureen was flying to southern California to train every three weeks. “It was tough,” agreed Maureen and Dan. “But we had incredible help from the sailing community, incredible help from our neighbors, our church. Everybody came out to make this happen.
About the outpouring of support for Maureen, her family, and Nick Scandone, McKinnon-Tucker spoke a phrase that sums up her humility and generous spirit:
“There’s one thing people need to realize: a gold medal doesn’t happen in a static environment – in a vacuum – it happens with the help of a lot of people. In this case, there were hundreds and hundreds of people on two sides of the country.
Their son having convalesced – “He’s the most charming, loving, happy little boy you’ll ever meet in your life” – the Tuckers are working to give back to the community. They are the founders of a foundation called Sail Challenge Inspire, a name chosen because it shares an acronym with Spinal Cord Injury. SCI works to expose people with spinal cord injuries to the sport of sailing by hosting clinics and chartering boats that are friendly to people with disabilities.
“Sailing is the most universal and empowering sport for people of all ages and all abilities,” said McKinnon-Tucker. “I just wanted to share it with more disabled people.
“Sailing is one of those miraculous sports that allows us as people with disabilities to be on a level playing field, to be equal. We jump out of our wheelchairs and leave them at the dock. You don’t know that I’m paralyzed when I’m on the boat because I’m kicking butt just as much as able-bodied people are kicking butt.”
SCI’s vision is to expand up and down the East Coast in its effort to share sailing with the disabled. In August, they will be hosting clinics for children with both physical and mental disabilities. Learn more about Sail Challenge Inspire and make donations at sailchallengeinspire.org.
