Stanley Paris hopes to set records for circling the globe. And last Thursday afternoon he got to see the 63-foot custom-designed cruising yacht he plans to use to do so.
The Kiwi Spirit was christened and launched at the Lyman Morse Boatbuilding yard on the Thomaston, Maine, waterfront.
“For thousands of years, people have gone to sea. Our ships take care of us through perilous seas,” Paris said before Heidi Lyman smashed a bottle of champagne against the bow.
The 75-year-old Paris plans to begin that trip a year from now, but the Kiwi Spirit’s first challenge will be the Atlantic Rally Cruise, a regatta that starts Nov. 25 in the Canary Islands and ends across the Atlantic on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. The 2,700-nautical-mile trip takes two to three weeks.
