Manos Castrinakis, class of 2007

A few weeks after his birth in Athens, Greece, at the beginning of the 1945 civil war, Manos (short for Emmanuel) smelled the Sea surrounding the naval base his grandfather was responsible for, in maintaining the multitude of lighthouses all over the country.
He spent his early childhood years on that base and made friends among the carpenters, metal workers and masons . At an early age, he toured the whole country and the beauty of coastal Greece and its islands shaped his mind and future.
After graduating from high school in Athens, he came to the U.S. where he obtained a BS and an MS in Naval Architecture from the University of Michigan.
This is where he also met his wife Mary, a teacher of romance languages, with whom he had his two daughters. He held jobs with Bethlehem Steel shipyards in Baltimore and the Maritime Administration in Washington, D.C.
He returned to Greece with his family in 1979 and a few years later accepted a job with the European Commission in Brussels, dealing with government research funding programs in the area of Information Technology. His government career spanned 17 years and his last job called for managing development projects for the new democracies that had risen from the old Warsaw Pact countries, which eventually joined the European Union.
When he left his job in Brussels to look after family concerns in Greece, his childhood interests reemerged. He got back into sailing, he began exploring traditional wooden boat building in Greece, he crossed the Mediterranean and the Atlantic with a friend on a 37’ sloop and joined IYRS in 2005.
Soon after graduation he moved to Stonington, CT with the aim to build his own wood workshop in the midst of the boatbuilding world in the Mystic area.

Where is he now?

Manos and his wife spend half the year in Stonington, Ct. and the other half in Europe, primarily in Greece. In Connecticut, he plans to enjoy his new wood workshop which was created by modifying a large garage. He wishes to collaborate with people living around his area who like this craft and hopes to also develop better woodturning skills. He will continue volunteering for Mystic Seaport in the area of documentation and measurement of boats. Finally, he hopes to save time for sailing, photography and gardening. While in Greece, he intends to work with organizations devoted to maritime heritage preservation.

Manos Castrinakis, class of 2007