Jim Lincoln, UK Sailmakers’ representative in Long Beach, California, passed away in his sleep at the age of 61 in Hawaii after finishing the 2019 Transpac race first in class on the classic wooden ketch CHUBASCO. Jim was the manager of CHUBASCO for the last year and enlisted several top marine professionals to get the boat into top racing form. For the last nine years, Jim represented UK Sailmakers in the Long Beach area selling and servicing sails.
John Bennett, President of UK Sailmakers International and good friend of Jim’s said, “Jim always took care of customers well. He was very conscientious and always took care of all the small details right away.” John did two Pacific Cups (San Francisco to Hawaii) and several 800-mile Cabo San Lucas races with Jim. “He always had a smile on his face and his sarcastic humor kept us all in good spirits and he was a great sailor to boot.”
Oliver McCann, owner of UK Sailmakers Marina del Rey, who Jim worked with said, “Jim was an affable, capable, steadfast and reliable sailmaking colleague. We will very much miss him. It’s a shock that he’ll no longer be a part of our community.”
Jim was born June 3, 1958, in Detroit, Mich., and grew up in Glendora, Calif. In the late 1980s, he lived in Huntington Beach where he met the love of his life, Janet. Jim and Janet were married on July 26, 1998, and two years later left to sail their 33-foot sloop, Summer Wind, down through Baja California, the Sea of Cortez and much of mainland Mexico.
Sailing was Jim’s passion. For someone who started sailing as an adult, there wasn’t a Southern California regatta that he didn’t compete in and very few seasoned sailors that he hadn’t crewed with. He raced in club races, inshore races and offshore. Jim’s passing will be a huge loss to UK Sailmakers as well as to many sailors in Southern California.
