Monday, June 18, 2018

Sad Day for the Crusty Cruise Blog site


From: Captain Penn Burke ,  ComCrusCru IV

I am saddened to pass along the news about the death of Tom Dreelin.   Tom had to give up sailing recently due to a decline in health but he thoroughly enjoyed his many years of sailing on Crusty Cruises.

Crusty History with respect to Skipper Tom Dreelin  - Tommy’s oldest brother Donnie Dreelin was a good friend of Norwood Richardson and may have sailed on the first Crusty Cruise but certainly was sailing with Norwood and the gang down in Norfolk in the early 1970’s.  As such Tommy was introduced to sailing with his brother and George Snavely (who was a good friend of Donnie).  George and Tommy got me to venture out in mono hull sailing as I was hooked on Hobie Cat sailing and the fever took hold and I started sailing the Crusty cruise in the mid 1980’s.  At this time period, the Crusty was in March and in November and we were sailing on a 32’ Islander named Summerwind.  On every trip, we had 6 crewmen on board with enough clothes for cold weather and occasionally warm days.  In addition to all the clothes, food, alcohol and other stuff, Tommy would also have a guitar, a fiddle, and a bag full of kazoos for those of us that could not play music but wanted to join in the noise of a good ol songfest and hootenanny.  This of course interrupted a lot of peaceful nights at anchor in a small cove somewhere but everyone had a blast.  Often times in a marina, we would have folks from other boats come over to join us and make the evening even more entertaining.  The Dreelin Clan could always throw a good party and Tom will be missed.  

I attached a few pics from my archives….. 

Here are the links to Tom's obituary in the Gordonsville paper and in the RTD:




 











Captain Penn Burke  (See you on the Water)
"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane"      J. Buffett