Newport Bermuda Race: Shared passion to celebrate Father’s Day

(June 15, 2014) – Years from now, when the ebb and flow of memories wash together, Brendan Faria knows he’ll still remember those nights on the open ocean with his father, together on deck trimming sail, keeping watch, as the hull beneath them hissed toward Bermuda.

For the moment, though, he’s hoping he doesn’t bark too much at him. When your dad is also a crew member, it’s hard not to take certain liberties: “I might be a little more short-tempered with him than I would with anyone else because I know I can get away with it.”

On this Father’s Day (June 15), Brendan Faria, 23, and Dan Faria, 53, have their shared passion aligned, their boat shoes pointed toward the same destination, as they prepare to join a fleet of more than 150 vessels Friday (June 20) in the 635-mile, biennial race from Newport to Bermuda.

The Farias, of Middletown (RI), will be part of a seven-member crew aboard the 38-foot sailboat Selkie, owned by friends. It will be the pair’s second time in the endurance race, which dates to 1906 and is considered one of the top ocean races for amateur sailors.

To sail with his son “reminds me of when my father took me sailing,” said Dan Faria last week as he stood with Brendan, both wearing sandals and shorts, beside the docked Selkie. “It gives us a chance to catch up and bond and be outdoors and get away from the hustle and bustle of life and spend time together. It’s special.”

Dan Faria, the national sales manager for Oracle, the software company, grew up in Jamestown sailing with his father, Anthony. He remembers Sunday cruises through Block Island and Nantucket sounds, afternoons learning the mechanics of sailing from someone who loved boating and who passed that love down to him.

“There is something about being on the water,” he said. “It’s always changing. It’s never the same.”

Brendan was also a young boy when Dan Faria first took him sailing. Brendan went on to sail through high school and then at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, where he graduated from last year. Like his father, he enjoys the competition sailing provides and being afloat.

“It’s great being out there in the middle of the night and seeing the stars,” said Brendan. “It’s a little bit different from what most people experience and are used do. And it’s definitely cool doing it with him because I don’t think a lot of people get that kind of opportunity.” – Providence Journal, read on