THE BRILLIANCE OF BRILLIANT

I first met the schooner Brilliant back in 1983 in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, USA. She was 51 years old and was working as a sail-training vessel. The following morning, I was aboard racing round the cans. This was long enough ago for her skipper to have done time as a Grand Banks schoonerman. He was a hard case and we eclipsed the opposition, mainly through the tireless efforts of George Moffett, the skipper’s number two, who had the hands switching fisherman staysails the size of a pub car park at each tack to keep those vital topsails pulling to leeward of the fore gaff. When I stopped sweating after this workout, Moffett and I began one of those saltwater friendships that holds for a lifetime.

In 1931, Olin Stephens, then only 22 years old, was