Bio for David Read Barker -- co-owner of s/v Gyatso

A web log of the sailing vessel "Gyatso"

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Bio for David Read Barker

David retired in 2005 after a 40-year career in international development, most recently as the president and co-founder of LakeNet, a world lakes network. Prior to that, he was also the co-founder of Management Systems International, a management consulting firm, worked for the United Nations during the 1980's and founded one of the largest recycling companies in Maryland in the early 1990's. Educated as a medical anthropologist, he holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. degree from the New School for Social Research. He has lived and worked in more than 100 countries.

David began sailing at the age of eight in his grandfather's SS, a 16' gaff-rigged sloop, on Quantuck Bay, Long Island, New York. Today the SS is the oldest continuous sailing fleet in the U.S. As a teenager, he graduated to a 13.5' catboat-rigged dinghy known as a woodpussy, designed by the great naval architect, Philip Rhodes. While growing up, his family spent the summer on Martha's Vineyard and belonged to the Edgartown Yacht Club. He learned to sail from his father who used to remark, "Your course would break a snake's back!" During these memorable summers, David began coastal cruising on Vineyard Sound with his father in Ataraxy, their 24' catboat built in 1905 by Manuel Schwartz Roberts.

David purchased his first cruising sailboat in 1991, a 28' Coronado sloop. First Draft was aptly named -- it served just that purpose in launching his dreams of long-term cruising. The father of two grown daughters from a previous marriage, David sailed on weekends with his family on the Chesapeake Bay. In 1993, he found his next boat, a 32' Endeavour shoal-draft sloop, abandoned under the trees in a boatyard in Mayo, Maryland. After a major refit, including a new engine and sails, he sailed About Time on the Chesapeake Bay for one season before moving overseas. While living and working as a consultant in Indonesia from 1994-1996, David joined the Jakarta Offshore Sailing Club and served as its commodore for a year.

David met Lisa Borre while they were working together in Indonesia in 1996, and they were married in 1998. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1997, he moved to Annapolis, Maryland with Lisa. Aboard About Time they explored the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic coast from New England to Georgia, and a two-year trip to all five of the Great Lakes via the Hudson River and Erie Canal. "I wanted to go as far as we could with coastal sailing, so we picked the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior as our goal," remarked David. On the trip which became known as "Apostles or Bust!" David and Lisa completed the 2,000 mile voyage in one- to two-week segments over two years, arriving in Bayfield, Wisconsin in August 2005. On the long drive back to Annapolis, the couple decided they were ready for more. They purchased Gyatso one month after completing their voyage to the Great Lakes. Their previous boat was purchased the following year by a couple who retraced their steps by sailing it to Florida, stopping at the Annapolis Boat show en route.

David and Lisa's sailing adventures continue as co-owners of Gyatso, a 37' Tayana cutter. To learn more about their current voyage, browse this website.

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