Jackie (Detsch) Douglas

'WACKY JACKY'

Lady Skipper

Spring 1946 Graduate

        A native San Franciscan, Jacky was Jacqueline Detsch at Lincoln where journalism was her avocation. In 1946, immediately after graduation, Jacky went to work for a fledgling organization known as the San Francisco 49ers, working with Lou Spadia, the legendary general manager of the 49ers when the team was owned by the Morabito family. She was the ‘Queen of the 49ers’ during that inaugural season. After that first season, Jacky began a modeling career with Alice of California, a San Francisco women’s dress maker. While at Alice of California, Jacky modeled with many of the most beautiful women in California, including the likes of actress Janet Leigh.

        Her modeling career was cut short in 1948 when she met and married George Douglas and began raising her four daughters, two of whom attended Lincoln. For a while, all thoughts of a career were put on the back burner as she devoted herself to her family. Always an enthusiastic volunteer, Jacky immersed herself in her daughters’ activities, such as the PTA and Girl Scouts. But Jacky was not to be a stay at home mom for long. Her husband was an avid sport fisherman and in 1955 Jacky started going out on the bay with him.

        In 1960, Jacky and her husband bought a 28 foot Monterey double ender with which they decided to start fishing commercially, selling their catch in Santa Cruz, making just enough, Jacky remembers, to pay for their gasoline. By now, thoroughly in love with fishing and boating, Jacky decided she wanted to become a captain, an unheard of ambition for a woman at the time. There were a lot of shocked instructors when she enrolled in Dovi Navigation School to earn that license. But, despite the naysayers, Jacky earned her ocean operator license in 1972, permitting her to carry passengers for hire.

        With her license in hand, Jacky bought a sport fishing boat, christening it The Wacky Jacky thus beginning her legendary career as the ‘woman skipper’ on the bay. She was the first and is still the only woman to own and skipper her own commercial boat in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1976 she bought a 50 foot Delta which now bears the proud name of The Wacky Jacky and is berthed at #1 at Jones and Jefferson streets. In the meantime, Jacky, continually improving her sailing skills, has now earned her master mariner’s license which permits her to captain boats up to 100 tons.

        Her unique position on the bay has made Jacky a part of the lore that makes San Francisco such a wondrous place. She has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles as well as television spots on CNN, National Geographic and Evening Magazine, to name but a few. During her career, Jacky has won awards, literally too numerous to mention, including honors from the Commonwealth Club and the Golden Gate Fisherman’s Association. She currently serves the latter organization as chairperson.

        In recognition of her many accomplishments, Jacky was inducted into the Abraham Lincoln High School Wall of Fame in May 2002.