The black fleet consisted of ten boats in all (not bad considering that we had five boys). Naturally our 45 ft ketch New Zealand Maid was the moth
ership, looking in her piratical colours and rig rather like a ketch version of Viper from Arthur Ransome’s Peter
Duck. Even when they were very young the boys would love expeditioning , as you can see in the lower left corner of this great photo of the Maid in NZ’s Marlborough Sounds.
She had two black tenders – our 12 ft cutter and the 8 ft gig – which nested together on her cabintop (one inside the other) on our ocean passages. They both could be rowed or ‘jury rigged’, and were regularly used by the boys for expeditions covering dozens of sea miles.
Sam learned to row the ship’s gig when he was three years old.
There were two Optimists, both black with a gold jolly roger on each quarter. Dreadnought had a
red sail and a removable rowing seat (like Jake’s Privateer in Those Shipwreck Kids), and Buccaneer had a gold-yellow sail. Arthur Ransome fans will recognise these evocative names.
The rest of the fleet comprised five P-Class sailing dinghies. These Kiwi 7 footers are notoriously tough to sail and have trained some great Kiwi sailors from a young age. Death ’n Glory and Jolly Roger were the two older heavy ones, great for expeditioning in local lakes and waterways with tents stowed in their lockers.
Ben and Dan rebuilt the more competitive Privateer and Pieces of Eight from 
discarded racing hulls and went on to compete in the Nationals. The fifth P Class, Capt’n Flint, ended up in NZ’s National Museum (Te Papa, in Wellington) in the Kiwiana nostalgia section.
With their black hulls, gold jolly roger logos and the piratical names on their transoms, they were a formidable fleet at Napier Sailing Club regattas.
Since t
hen these five Tucker boys have all grown up to do some amazing sailing all around the world.
And a new fleet of Ransome-inspired pirate fictional dinghies is growing in the ‘Those Kids‘ sailing adventure series (click here) , including Death’n Glory. Redbeard, Jolly Roger and Privateer – a mix of Optimist, Mirror, Seabird and Heron dinghies.