Author: ws lirakis

a sailor who carries a camera

Fastnet 2003



This was my fifth Fastnet Race,(My first was in 1969) I have a fondness for this race; the challenges of the tide gates, the weather, the changes and obstacles.The fireworks the night before, the charm and bustle of Cowes, contribute to this feeling.

We actually led out of the Solent, past Hurst castle, only to anchor at Portland Bill for dinner. The photo of us passing Fastnet Rock continues to be one of my favorite memories. I am at the helm, Dan Cianci on the rail,furthest forward, was lost at sea a year later, only adding to the significance of this photo.
The final photo shows us at Bishop Rock, we missed the tide by a minute or two, in a dying breeze, allowing the boats behind to sail up to us.( also showing just how far ahead we had been.)
We still finished 11th boat for boat, however not achieving silver.


2006 Stamford-Vineyard Race

This race, in stark contrast to the Bermuda race earlier in the year, has become a legend of sorts. 35 knots at the start; 53 boats entered, three boats finished in a race that saw the wind build to 60 plus knots. The wind direction was very steady out of the East, Making the course a windward-leeward race. We hit 26 knots with a storm jib and two reefs.

We finished second to Blue Yankee, our confidence in the boat having received an enormous boost after this thrashing.
the photo shows the crew stacked aft behind Jack Cummiskey, as we surf downwind.

Bermuda Race 2006

2006 was the debut of the new Jason Ker 50 foot ‘Snow Lion”; launched only weeks before the Bermuda Race. We sailed the NYYC spring regatta and then off to Bermuda. It was a slow upwind race. We managed a class win and winning by the greatest margin in any class meant we earned extra silver.

The first evening of the race I hit what expect was a basking shark, quite large, it became wrapped around the keel, we had to stop and sail backward to free it.
I just made my flight home as I never expected the race to take as long as it did.


RIMA Ida Lewis Long Distance Race





I was invited to sail on John Brim’s 55 foot R/P “Rima” for the 177 mile Ida Lewis Yacht Club Long Distance Race over the weekend.As a helmsman,teaming up with my old shipmate Ed Cesare, who Navigated, his brother Ben, Jack Orr from North Sails and a score of other great sailors.

In this first photo showing “Rima” there is also the stern of “Charisma”, the same boat I have written so much about in earlier entries, now belonging to a Spanish owner.

The boat is very nicely set up and well built. a treat to sail. The weather forecast for the weekend was, if you can think of it, it might happen, making any strategy other than staying near the rhumb line impossible to formulate.
The only treat was the last four hours of the race beam reaching from Montauk to Newport at 16 knots. One could not help but smile, the boat is so well behaved.




1973 continued


I eluded to the breath of events for 1973, My wedding was one whose date was a established after consulting the sailing schedule. With Admiral’s Cup and the Fastnet behind me I could concentrate on my future wife. We were married in Aste, a small village in the Pyrenees mountains, which separate France from Spain.

Never has there been such a wonderful event at least as far as I am concerned. Not only was I welcomed into my wife’s family, It was the best party I ever attended. Since then I have come to know this region of France, and it has become part of me.
Although it is not near the sea, I brought the first windsurfer to France, sailing it in the lakes in the Mountains. At the time I was reviled by the fishermen, today the fishermen are gone and there is a fleet of windsurfers.


1973


sometimes it is difficult to find a header that covers the events. 1973 was such a year. I sailed all the spring Long Island Sound races on “Charisma” She then left for England,

I then sailed the Annapolis to Newport race with Ted Turner aboard “Lightnin” probably the last one tonner designed by S&S,  we built it at Minneford’s in City Island. Peter Bowker navigated and cooked.  Rounding out the crew were Ted’s regulars; Richie Boyd, Bunky Helfrich, Max O’Meara . We won our class by a full day, beating many larger boats, boat for boat.Ted took the boat to England to Compete in the Admiral’s cup as well having to find ways to increase her rating to meet the minimum for the series.
I then re-joined “Charisma” who was also part of the American  Admiral’s cup Team, along with “Salty Goose” belonging to Bob Derecktor. In those days the admiral’s cup(three boat teams from one country) was sailed as part of Cowes Week, which meant that you started in your respective class of race week. and were scored both ways. The Channel race, in those days started in Southend, near Portsmouth, usually 220 miles, followed by the day races of cowes week and ending with the Fastnet Race (605 miles) Incidentlt, the cover photo is “Charisma” at the start of the Channel Race.
Bill Ficker skippered the boat, John Marshall was aboard( you want john with you) The real drama of the race was our finish. Anchored within 100 yards, alongside our sistership from Brazil “Saga”. It was a race to see who could get their anchor up first. “Saga” won and we finished second.

St. George’s School

I attended St. George’s School, “the hilltop” in Newport, RI. I played hockey, ran cross country, and sailed.

As in all boarding schools, nicknames were prevalent; our coach was affectionately know as “mad dog”, someone who suffered fools with difficulty and was always eager to challenge you intellectually. He was a good sailor and a smart coach.
During my tenure at SG I had a classmate, Steve Moore, “wonder boy” He was light years ahead of the rest of us as far as sailing was concerned. Interscholastic sailing in this time was primarily team racing. It made sense, more people participated, and acted as a team. There was a problem, “Wonder Boy” was so good, he was simply too fast. the combinations usually depended on a first.
We sailed Fireflies, hot moulded boats, still used in the Wilson Trophy, in the UK. Paul Elvstrom’s first Olympic gold was in a firefly, which was sailed single-handed in the Olympics

my town

Newport, is a tourist town, even the vikings visited;home to the oldest synagogue in America, designed by the same architect as Trinity church. In Newport the Jews and Christians co-existed harmoniously in colonial times as now George Washington even spoke at Touro.

My Newport is a town with many layers. each intriguing in it’s own right; for me, however, I must have somehow been infected with sea water at a young age, as I keep returning to the ocean



Newport


I live in Newport, RI, The bridge completed in 1969, has become an icon of sorts for Narragansett bay. The center span was being lifted into place as I was leaving for the start of the 1969 trans-atlantic race to Cork, Ireland. The photo of the bridge and the ferry must have been taken that fall.

I returned from my summer of sailing in europe having no idea what Woodstock was; one of the defining events of my generation. For me, the event that I remember was the walk on the moon, the BBC, which normally signed off at midnight, stayed on air to transmit the event, we were mid ocean, cold wet, everything was damp, huddled around the Nav station, listening to a static filled broadcast.
The other photographs show the moods of the bridge and the bay.