Sailor Profile: Rich du Moulin

Rich du Moulin is not only renowned for his competitive sailing accomplishments but also his many contributions to the sport of sailing and the maritime shipping industry. Buttons Padin provides this profile in WindCheck magazine:

Rich grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s sailing at Knickerbocker Yacht Club in Manhasset, NY. The son of Eleanor and Edward du Moulin, he quickly picked up his father’s passion for sailing. Ed raced his series of boats named Lady Del and Blaze all over the Northeast as well as to Bermuda. Along with his son, the crew also comprised many of Manhasset Bay’s finest young sailors, many of whom are still sailing with Rich.

As a member of New York Yacht Club, Ed became involved with defending the America’s Cup, earning himself a place in the America’s Cup Hall of Fame having managed four Cup syndicates: three for Dennis Conner including bringing the Cup home from Australia in 1987. Rich sailed in campaigns aboard Intrepid/Constellation, Mariner, and Enterprise. With Freedom and Liberty, he was a part-time tactician/navigator.

As a young sailor, Rich sailed Blue Jays and Lightnings and earned Honorable Mention All-American honors as a senior on the Dartmouth Sailing Team. Upon graduation, it was into the Navy as a junior officer. After a sea tour, he was stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy as an ocean racing coach where he and his fellow coaches took USNA teams to Bermuda and the SORC (Southern Ocean Racing Conference) with solid results.

Then, in 1968, when he was 21, he was invited to sail on Larchmont YC member Huey Long’s 72-foot maxi Ondine from Newport to Bermuda and then across the Atlantic. That would be his first of seven transatlantic crossings including skippering the famous racer Charisma from Bermuda to Spain in 1972, and Carina from Newport to England in 2015.

After the Navy, Rich attended Harvard Business School. Upon graduation he began a lifelong career in the shipping industry, first with Ogden Marine, then Chairman/CEO of Marine Transport Corp, and then as a partner in Intrepid Shipping helping build a fleet of modern ocean-going ships.

It was through his professional life that Rich became a trustee, chairman and benefactor of one of his passions: the Seaman’s Church Institute in New York that serves mariners through education, pastoral care, and legal advocacy. – Full report