If David Young is the oldest “rookie” we’ve ever had on avalanche, then Brian Barer is probably the most professionally qualified!   He graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and spent 5 years in the merchant marine as a licensed engineer, and as an officer in the U.S. Navy aboard a Minesweeper.  I suspect that if we have a mechanical problem of any sort, Brian will be able to solve it.

He has been sailing since he was a kid, racing Lasers and Sunfish.  He considers himself lucky to have been instrumental in resurrecting both brands from bankruptcy in the late 80’s and then to have served as general manager for the company responsible for building them.  He worked in the boatbuilding industry for 20 years or so in almost every capacity and at this point in his life says he feels that he knows enough about boats to respect their (and his own) limitations always!

He built his first boat out of plywood from plans that he got through the mail from a magazine when he was in high school–unfortunately it sank shortly after launch!  Someday he plans to build another boat from those same plans for his grandson, which we all hope will stay afloat!  Currently Brian owns an Irwin 31 that he keeps in Wareham and cruises between Maine and NY.

Brian has done several offshore trips, most recently just a year ago when he helped a prominent sailor deliver a Beneteau 41 from Tortola to Newport.  He reports that it was a hair raising experience.  I expect that Brian will be entertaining the rest of us with tales of that trip as we make our way home!  He says “I bet you will all find my stories very entertaining, I warn you though I have a lot of them and I think some of them are even true!!!!”

This entry was posted on Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 6:45 pm and is filed under 2010 Trip North, Crew Biographies, News!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.