Bert Minshall affectionately recalls having fun with Wayne’s three young children on board the Wild Goose, like “water skiing and jumping off John Wayne’s cabin, about 25 feet in the air. And then, about 4 o’clock each day, the kids would get tired and we would play a game or watch TV or just relax with a soda and watch the sun go down.” In fact, the Wild Goose was the prime reason why Wayne eventually moved his family in 1965 from Encino, in the heart of San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, to Newport Beach, where he docked the boat.

Wild Goose

“Duke did use the boat until late in life, but never so much as when his kids were little. He loved taking them out on that boat.”

-Bert Minshall, Captain of the Wild Goose