WindCheck Magazine
After a career in healthcare, Captain Brian Murphy plunged back into his love of the wind and sea, chartering his 50-foot William Atkins schooner, the Ginny Marie, out of Port Jefferson, NY to anyone who wants to experience old school sailing.
On any day during the sailing season, pedestrians taking a stroll on a pier jutting out from a park in Port Jefferson will inevitably stop and gaze down at the floating dock where the Ginny Marie has berthed for the past two years.
The gaff topsail schooner demands attention with her cinnamon-hued sails, configuration of wooden blocks, hemp lines running through dead eyes, and halyards secured to belaying pins. At the same time, she looks perfectly at home in the progressive developing harbor that cherishes its shipbuilding history. She’s a piece of the puzzle that fits snugly into the larger picture of Port Jefferson, a working waterfront where the ferries pass by the hour heading to Connecticut and tugs push stone-laden freight ships into port.
Ginny Marie is docked just east of Danfords Hotel & Marina, a mere stone’s throw from the well-worn ways, twin iron beams embedded into the ground of the aptly named Harborfront Park where for generations, shipbuilders launched their newly-built vessels into the harbor with a great splash.
“You like to sail?” Captain Brian Murphy will yell up to the looky loos, smiling and waving them down. “Come, check her out.”