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
