
About Us
The R. Tucker Thompson is operated by a not-for-profit charitable Trust on behalf of the people of Taitokerau Northland. All income derived from our commercial activities is used for her maintenance as well as providing a contribution to help our taitamariki teenagers access our youth development voyages. This allows the ship to create lifelong memories for people of all ages; young and old, Māori and Pākehā, visitors and Northlanders alike.
The ship was originally owned in partnership by Tod Thompson, Greta Simmonds and Russell Harris until 1992, when Russell purchased Tod and Greta’s shares in the ship. On reaching retirement, Russell wanted to protect the future of this iconic ship. He transferred her into a Trust on 6 June 2006, for the benefit of the people of Te Taitokerau Northland. He still remains involved on the Board of Trustees along with 7 others who contribute their time willingly to support the Trust.
Visit the STQRY app to find out more about the work we do.
Our Mission
The mission of the R. Tucker Thompson Sail Training Trust is:
Learning for Life through the Sea
Through embracing the values of Kaitiakitanga – GuardianShip, we wish to:
Our Vision






Our Values

We are a values driven organisation, one that operates under the principles of whanaungatanga, bringing people together as a family. The things which are important to us are:
- Kaitiakitanga or guardianship
- Manaakitanga or looking after others
- Trust in each other
- A can-do attitude
- Acceptance of others
- Having respect
- Organic and natural
- The value of relationships and whanaungatanga
Our Philosophy

We are a learning organisation and over the past three decades, we have trained many crew in the “Tucker way”. A large number of our former crew have gone on to be Masters in their own right and had or have full time careers in the Maritime industry. Some have worked all-round the world on super yachts, others are tourism boats masters and a number of them are running their own Charter business.