Record-attempting sailor, 76, has Bermuda at heart

“I’m not giving out my onboard contact details because I don’t want any distractions,” Stanley Paris informs me. “But as you’re from Bermuda…”

It’s clear the island has a special place in the heart of this record-attempting sailor and adventure-addict from New Zealand, who lived here for nearly five years and ran the now defunct Deepdene Manor Hotel in the early 1970s.

On Saturday, 76-year-old Paris will leave his home city of St Augustine, Florida, and bid to become the oldest and fastest person to sail non-stop around the world.

The record attempt, on board his 63-foot multi-million dollar Kiwi Spirit yacht, will actually begin — and hopefully end — east of St David’s Light after Paris has come around Kitchen Shoals. 

His aim is to do it in 120 days and take 30 days off Dodge Morgan’s current Bermuda-to-Bermuda record.

“I think I’ve planned everything, although you never feel totally prepared,” he tells the Bermuda Sun from his office at St Augustine University for Health Sciences — an institution he founded and which now also has campuses in San Marcos, California, and Austin, Texas.

“I feel like I’ve forgotten something – like my toothbrush or something!”

He’s fooling nobody – this is, after all, a man who does nothing half-baked. 

Take, for example, his fond recollection of when he started the Trunk Island Swim, a fixture in the Bermuda sporting calendar that is still going strong more than 40 years later.

“The first year I didn’t swim because I was concerned with the safety aspect of it — but I did the second year. I’m a swimmer, you see. I swam the English channel twice.”

In the life of Stanley Paris, one soon learns, conquering the channel is merely the tip of the iceberg.

He has also: driven a soaped-up VW Beetle from London to India; completed the Ironman Triathlon in Hawai’i in 1985; ridden his BMW motorcycle across the US in less than 50 hours with friends before turning around and doing it again — by himself. That last one was just last year, by the way.

A veteran sailor, he’s gone around the world before in several legs and with friends. He’s now eager to start his latest challenge.

“The boat is ready. You can always spend more time sailing or testing but right now I am relaxed.”

The record bid will add another chapter to his close ties with Bermuda.

“I used to get back a couple of times a year when my son lived there,” he says. “And I used to train at Ferry Reach.

“A lot of my friends there were on the boards of the hotels – they’ve all passed on now, all left the planet. They were older than me and I’m 76, so I don’t have a lot of friends there any more.”

His son, Alan, who sailed around the world solo 11 years ago, is Bermudian and a former student at Saltus. He lived on the island for 26 years, has a wealth of experience in the hotel industry, and helped start up Tucker’s Point Limited and The Residence Club. He’s now heavily involved in the family business as the chief development/business officer at St Augustine University.

So what does he think of his old man taking on the world at an age when most of us would settle for a cup of tea and a comfy chair.

“I think it is a fantastic adventure,” he told the Bermuda Sun. 

“Around 11 years ago I did a similar thing so I’m aligned with the level of adventure that this involves.

“My father,” he adds, “is not your average 76-year-old.”

Having helped his dad on the return leg of this year’s Newport to Bermuda race, the Kiwi Spirit, he adds, is “brilliantly engineered”. “The boat is well equipped to go around the globe but there is a lot of unknowns.”

And the loneliness?

“From my own personal experience, being at sea for 50 days, it’s not something you are really aware of.

"It’s a case of staying aware of what is going on — you are quite busy so it’s about keeping your sense of awareness, not getting lazy.

“You must pace yourself – my father is obviously in his late 70s. You have to keep everything in balance. But physically and mentally he is ready to go.”

Paris will sleep 45 minutes at a time and in the quieter moments plans to continue writing ‘a record of his life’ for his children and grandchildren.

“I also intend to fish,” he says. “That will break the monotony but there will be a lot of weather systems to deal with.”

I ask what drives him to take on these epic challenges and he explains his quest for attention as a child, his innate entrepreneurial spirit and his eagerness  to sample life in different countries.

He then slips in a story that is definitive proof, if any were needed, of his willingness to go one step further than your average person. At just 12 years old, he saved the life of someone who had fallen off a fishing wall.

He says: “There were some older men around but it was a 20ft drop into the water. I saw what was happening and I ran round and I was the one who dived in. I got the wrap around him and pulled him out of the water – he was almost gone.”

A remarkable early chapter in a remarkable life — and he’s far from finished.

Follow Stanley Paris’ progress round the world via the onboard tracker at www.stanleyparis.com