Commodore” Tompkins | WYL Ep. 204
St. Francis Yacht Club
Speaker: Warwick “Commodore” Tompkins, Skipper, Designer, Rigger, Racing & Cruising Sailor
Born in 1932 in Boston and brought aboard the schooner Wander Bird at the age of two weeks, Commodore was imprinted with the sea and seafaring during that schooner’s voyages. When he was four, Wander Bird departed Gloucester, doubled Cape Horn and ended up in San Francisco Bay. There he began a lifelong involvement with sailboat racing, design, building, rigging and management. Through practice, persistence and dedication, he became a successful and sought-after crewman on some of the worlds’ most advanced yachts. He stopped counting the miles of racing and delivering at 500,000. Finally, he finished a Wylie-designed cutter for his own use, and completed a 10-year sojourn in the Pacific, mainly south of the equator.