2 Newport sailors await induction into National Sailing Hall of Fame
Two Newport Beach sailing champions are among nine people who will be inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame this year.
Bill Ficker, 88, and Dave Ullman, 70, will be honored with the rest of the 2016 inductees during a ceremony at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco in October.
Ficker, a Newport Beach architect and former city planning commissioner, sailed Intrepid to an America’s Cup win in Newport, R.I., in 1970, becoming the first West Coast skipper to win the famed race.
He also served as tactician and co-helmsman on Columbia in the 1967 America’s Cup trials and was the Star World Champion in 1958 and a Congressional Cup winner in 1974.
Ullman, founder and president of Ullman Sails International, has won four world titles.
He is a Southern Ocean Racing Conference/Admiral’s Cup class-winning skipper, a U.S. team racing champion, a U.S. Men’s National Champion (Mallory Cup) and a five-time Southern California Lipton Cup champion.
He coached and sailed for the 2000 America’s Cup team and coached the 2003 America’s Cup team. He also has coached for U.S. Olympic sailing teams.
Ullman opened the first location of his sail-making company in Newport Beach in 1967. Ullman Sails now has more than 80 locations worldwide.
Neither Ullman nor Ficker could be reached for comment.
The 2016 class of Sailing Hall of Fame inductees also includes America’s Cup-winning helmsman Ed Baird of St. Petersburg, Fla.; husband-and-wife sail training pioneers, adventurers and authors Irving and Electa “Exy” Johnson of Hadley, Mass.; brothers and J/Boats founders Robert Johnstone of Newport, R.I., and Rodney Johnstone of Stonington, Conn.; America’s Cup sailor and Star World Champion Malin Burnham of San Diego and the innovator behind the modern square-rigged superyacht The Maltese Falcon, Tom Perkins of Belvedere in Marin County.
The nine members of this year’s class will join 48 previous inductees recognized for their impact on the growth and development of sailing in the United States.
“The achievements of this year’s group of inductees — whether on the water, at a drafting table or in teaching and coaching others to succeed in the sport — have at their root a joy of sailing that has inspired and affected countless competitive sailors and recreational boaters,” Gary Jobson, president of the Maryland-based National Sailing Hall of Fame, said in a statement.
Sailors from across the country nominated potential inductees in the spring, and the final selections were made by a committee.
