Disabled Marblehead sailor honored

MARBLEHEAD-A physically disabled Marblehead sailor has been named 2009 Paralympic SportsWoman of the Year by the United States Sailing Association.Maureen McKinnon-Tucker learned of the award Friday. The sailor also won a Gold Medal in last year’s Paralympics in China.According to McKinnon-Tucker, a mother of two, she is planning another campaign for the London games in 2012 and continues to hold fund-raising events to help make that challenge a reality.US Sailing also named Anna Tunnicliffe as Olympic SportsWoman of the Year, Zach Railey as Olympic SportsMan of the Year, George Szabo and Rick Peters as the Olympic Team of the Year, John Ruf as Paralympic SportsMan of the Year, and Scot Whitman and Julia Dorsett as Paralympic Team of the Year.After winning a Paralympic Gold Medal with skipper Nick Scandone in the SKUD-18 in Qingdao, China, McKinnon-Tucker transitioned from a double-handed keelboat to a triple-handed keelboat with ease in 2009. Scandone died of Lou Gehrig’s Disease shortly after the Paralympics.Although they have sailed together for less than a year, McKinnon-Tucker, Rick Doerr of Clifton, N.J. and Hugh Freund of South Freeport, Maine scored a string of bullets and won a Gold Medal in the Sonar class at Sail for Gold in Weymouth, England.The trio also won the bronze at US SAILING’s 2009 Rolex Miami OCR, the first event they sailed together, and finished second in the ISAF Sailing World Cup standings in the Sonar.Last year, McKinnon-Tucker won US SAILING’s 2008 Team of the Year distinction with Scandone.