Ice Cream and Dreams

by Molly Winans, SpinSheet
It wasn’t that bad. My fellow Annapolis Sailing School instructors had warned me that Jerry Wood’s homemade ice cream, which he brought down to the docks once every summer, would be disgusting. I thought it was pretty good.

Looking back on it now, what a nice guy Jerry was! To bring homemade ice cream to a few dozen (ungrateful) teenage and 20-something employees on a muggy July day. To care enough to spend some time with us, get to know us, if even for a day. Here he was close to retirement age as the founder (1959) of what was considered the oldest and largest sailing school in America with schools in various locations (at the time) in Annapolis, Florida, and the US Virgin Islands; the founder of the Annapolis Sailboat Show (1970); and owner of a yacht he actively sailed along the East Coast, yet he still found time to make that ice cream, shake our hands, and talk about sailing.

In June, when I learned about the late Franklin “Jerry” Wood’s induction to the National Sailing Hall of Fame, my first thought was how thrilled he would have been by the honor. He’d earned it. – Full report