Twenty eight years in Southern New England's offshore lobster industry, Chris has long talked of creating his own sound behind the instruments. Pushing fifty and with nothing to lose, here he is... Setting himself up with his late mother's Mason & Hamlin B, his trusty Fender Jazz bass, an upright, acoustic guitar, Korg Triton and a set of Rolands,... he's learning the ropes as he goes...
His songs come from the heart and soul of a man who's watched his entire adult life wash on by, to the tune of an honest hundred and something thousand hours spent at sea. That's right!... Do the math!... Year round, a hundred plus miles from land and deep sea lobstering on the edge of the Continental Shelf, as a teenager during the late seventies Chris went on to enjoy some of the very best years the industry had to offer. A fearsome deckhand, Chris reached the captains chair by the young age of twenty four, eventually going on to become owner operator of his own show by his late twenties...
Capping his offshore career with a spectacular eight year run as captain of one of the most successful and extreme operations that still plies the offshore waters of Georges Bank, he "semi" retired in 2002 aboard his custom built, and oh! so sweet Ralph Stanley forty four footer. Finishing her off himself after hand picking many of the trees for her backbone, Chris's long sought after goal of a life solo-lobstering along the coastal waters of Rhode Island had finally come to fruition... Plugging away in the slowly diminishing nearshore fishery but none the less content just to be home every night, his vision, livelihood and life's work begun nearly thirty years before came to a frightening and fiery finale last summer with the sudden loss of his beloved "Lucy"... Named for his daughter, the beautiful Lucy had represented everything that Chris had worked so many years offshore to accomplish... Watching her burn from the safety of the liferaft, in less than three hours time a lifetimes achievement disappeared beneath the waves...
And so began the start of a new life for Chris, one hard pressed from a tragedy at sea, but altogether long overdue and full of satisfaction in it's own right.....
January '98 A close call on the edgeWaterspouts on the edge
Nasty Day Offshore
Hedy Departs Newport RI from christopher lutyens on Vimeo .