John McNamara was the skipper of Bingo in the 5.5m class at the 1964 Olympics, aided by a crew of Joe Batchelder and Frank Scully. He won national sailing titles in 1951 and 1955 in the 210 Class. He raced the 54-foot aluminum yawl “Tara” extensively in ocean races, including the Southern Ocean Racing Conference. After graduating from Harvard in 1953, McNamara worked in counter-intelligence with the US Army from 1953-57 but then became an investment broker. He then decided to merge business and pleasure as a ship broker, and later as a writer, turning to writing in 1970. He was the author of three books, White Sails, Black Clouds, The Billion Dollar Ketch, and The Money Maker.