Now here’s an intriguing idea for anyone in the midst of a satisfying career who loves their job—and wants to keep it—but who also cherishes sailing and would greatly relish the opportunity to push pause on the rat race, take time to obtain and prepare an awesome boat, get that work situation in order, lay out a six-month plan to cruise the Caribbean, and enjoy a sabbatical.
All of which is precisely what Brad Read, the executive director of the Sail Newport community sailing center in Newport, Rhode Island, and his wife, Cara, recently did.
The Read family is Rhode Island sailing royalty: Patriarch Bob is a longtime stalwart in Narragansett Bay racing circles; brother Ken is the president of North Sails and a veteran of the America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race; and, like his older sibling, Brad was an all-American college sailor and has won multiple world championships in classes such as the J/24 (where, it must be said, both Reads have kicked my butt).
Aboard their Bruckmann 47 cutter, Althea, Brad and Cara set sail from Newport in fall 2023 and returned—refreshed and rewarded—earlier this year. Afterward, I sat down with Brad to get his views on the voyage, and to seek his counsel for anyone else contemplating such an adventure.
Breaking Away: “Cara and I looked at each other—we’re still in fairly good shape, we’re good at sailing our boat doublehanded. I wrote a letter to the executive board of Sail Newport and asked if they’d back a six-month sabbatical as long as it wasn’t during a year where we have a major event. They were very supportive. I wouldn’t even have thought about it if I didn’t have such strong, dedicated and organized department heads.”
The Secret Weapon: “We got a new mainsail and worked really hard with the North Sails group to see how to make the rig and sail plan more flexible because we really wanted to go with a truly cutter rig. We made the inner forestay permanent, and Kenny was like, ‘You don’t want to do that. What about when you tack?’ I said, ‘We’re not short tacking; we’re not racing.’ And the new staysail was the best. It’s literally the best sail on the boat.”
Changes in Attitude: “We had a wonderful time in the US and British Virgin Islands, as always. But it took me a while to get out of the charter mentality, where I was comfortable just hanging out in a pretty place for five days. At first I was like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go!’ And Cara asked, ‘Can we just stay in one spot for a while?’ It’s not like you’re on a weeklong vacation. It took some time to appreciate that.”
Doublehanding: “Cara and I are good at preventive maintenance, and we had lots of spares. We know when the loads are right and not to overtax things. And we reef early. We got very good at it, just the two of us. It’s actually easier that way, because when you have a lot of hands involved, it gets very distracting.”
The Route: “We left Newport and went to the Caribbean after a stop in Bermuda. I think we got the itinerary just right. You have only six months, you start as far east as you ever want to go. And then work your way downwind through the islands. A lot of people do it the other way, down to Florida, then it’s a beat to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Puerto Rico. We were smart enough not to do that.”
The Advice: “I learned something in college sailing: Your strategy is one thing, but your tactics completely rely on your own assessment of your ability to execute. You have to go out and practice. You’ve got to get ready. So take a safety-at-sea course. Get the professional version of PredictWind, which is fantastic. Get Starlink—it’s a game-changer. Then practice. A friend told us that not everyone is willing to do the work to actually pull the trigger, like we did. It’s hard. In the end, there’s always something else you could do, another upgrade. Then, at some point, you just have to say: ‘Let’s go.’”
