About Ben Eriksen
WHAT I DO
I love sailing, exploring and adventure. To support my love, I make things on computers… websites and printed stuffs. I am a freelance graphic/web designer. It affords me great flexibility, pays the bills - most of them at least, and I enjoy it most of the time. Examples of my work can be seen here at my graphic & web design portfolio website.
WHY BRISTOL CHANNEL CUTTER ELIZABETH
Elizabeth is named after my mother Elsa Elizabeth Hess. She suffered a debilitating stroke in 2006. It caught us all by surprise. Her life was never the same. The swiftness with which your dreams and freedom can be taken from you hit home hard. I immediately began looking for a boat that could take me around world. There was no time to waste in living my dreams. It was now or potentially never. My search for a BCC at that time was fruitless, they were priced beyond my means. I settled on a Lyle Hess Nor’sea 27 as a second choice, a good ocean boat as well. My Nor’sea Liveaboard blog can be seen here. I plan to sail the world aboard Elizabeth, starting with Martha’s Vineyard & Maine.
SAILING HISTORY
I was fortunate enough to have grown up on the water in a village called Nissequogue, on the North Shore of Long Island. My father was the headmaster of a private boarding school, and the headmaster’s home just happened to be situated along the shores of beautiful Stony Brook Harbor. I spent every available moment out on that harbor, clamming, fishing, and pirating about in my various boats.
During my years at Connecticut College I took alot of Marine Biology and Environmental Science classes. But I found myself playing music in various punk rock bands more than I found myself doing homework. In 1993, during my junior year, I signed up for Sea Semester. This was really my first experience sailing, and it was aboard the 125′ Schooner, Westward in the Caribbean. It was then that I realized Marine Biology wasn’t my bag, but rather - sailing. As soon as school ended in May I drove to Maine to walk the docks until I found a schooner that would hire me for the summer windjamming season. Here’s the boat that hired me, Schooner Lewis R French:
After 2 summers on the French, I longed to explore farther and longer. I stuck with the schooner & square rigger theme, and worked on various boats during the next 7 years or so. Here are some of the boats I worked on..
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| Tall Ship Rose | J&E Riggin | Spirit Of Massachusetts | Bowdoin |
I also worked on some some sailing yachts, Ocean Navigator Magazine’s schooner, a motor vessel and an open boat - leading Outward Bound style trips in Maine. I worked my way up the ladder from chief bottle washer to deckhand, to mate, and then sat for my 100 Ton Near Coastal license in 1997.
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| Transatlantic 53′ Trintella | Chewonki Wilderness Trips | Billy Joel’s Redhead | Ocean Star |
Taking a look at the map, here’s where I’ve sailed so far. Now, I have the boat I’ve dreamed about for over 14 years, and I plan to sail her far. First stop: France Florida.
