Mark Branse

Mark Branse is an attorney and former town planner living in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He bought a wooden rowboat when he was 12 and he learned to sail on a friend's Sunfish when he was 23. In 1976 he bought a Rhodes 22 and sailed her to the Tall Ships Festival in Newport. Eleven years later, while dating his future wife, they bought a 32-foot steel double-ender, believed to be an S&S design. They worked and worked on her to put her in Bristol shape, but only a few years after they finished, she was destroyed by hurricane Gloria. After a respite of a few years, the couple bought their current boat, Rigoler, a 1967 Morgan 34, in 1988. Last year, they held a party at Mason's Island Marina for Rigoler's 50th birthday and Mark's 70th!