> US SAILING Media > Sailor of the Week > 2011 > Sailor of the Week - January, 2011 > Bill Fredericks
Bill Fredericks
Sailor of the Week: January 20-26
Marine Corps First Lieutenant Bill Fredericks has taken a little piece of his passion for sailing with him to Afghanistan. Just prior to his big send-off on January 9, Bill’s parents, Bill and Am, noticed their son had put a US SAILING sticker on his water bottle that was attached to his backpack and could not resist the photo op.
Bill is an avid Laser, J/24, and offshore sailor. He started sailing on his own on a Sunfish at the age of 10 on Silver Lake in Madison, N.H. His parents are members of the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, Mass. where Bill was formerly employed as a sailing instructor for their junior program. Bill skippered the family J/24 Miss America during the 2010 Buzzards Bay Regatta and hopes to get some races in before the season ends this coming summer, when his unit returns home in late August.
He is also an accomplished tall ship sailor. Bill logged 32,000 miles in ten months on the S.V. Concordia, a 188 foot long steel-hulled barquentine. This included three Atlantic crossings, a traverse of the Panama Canal and a rounding of Cape Horn in some heavy weather. He was awarded the Seamanship Medal twice for his efforts on the craft.
Sailing is important to the Fredericks family. Bill’s sister Kate is a teacher and varsity sailing coach at Culver Academy in Culver, Ind. Am was the first sailing coach and executive director of Nantucket Community Sailing. Bill and Am have chartered many bareboats in the British Virgin Islands.
Aside from being an officer with the US Marine Corps, Bill is an aeronautical & astronautical engineer with NASA at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.