In late December 2024, Key West misplaced certainly one of its most colourful and legendary characters: Captain Finbar Gittelman, who won’t ever be forgotten on the island that was his residence port for some 50 years. He lives on via the schooner Wolf that he constructed and captained, and thru the irreverent independence of the Conch Republic he helped form.
The quintessential seafarer, known as merely “Finbar” by virtually everybody who knew him, grew up on Miami Seashore. He first got here to Key West as a toddler along with his mother and father to board the then-operating ferry to Havana, Cuba to go to family. He made the island his everlasting residence in 1973.
“Once I sailed into Key West Harbor anchorage, dropped anchor and appeared round, I knew I used to be residence,” he mentioned in 2018.
Whereas he relished the island’s seafaring ambiance and freewheeling lifestyle within the Seventies, he was stunned on the lack of passenger sailboats. In 1980, Gittelman constructed the 33-foot sloop Excessive Tide, designed for day crusing and journeys to the reef.
In 1982, together with grasp builder Willis Ray, he started setting up the ship that will turn out to be his lifelong ardour and frequent liveaboard residence: the 74-foot, gaff-rigged topsail schooner Wolf.
“I’ve at all times cherished conventional ships,” he mentioned years later. “To me, the outdated methods are generally the perfect methods.”
Patterned after the Nineteenth-century blockade runners that after plied the Florida Straits, the Wolf was finally designated the flagship of each the Conch Republic — the Keys’ offbeat alter ego — and the town of Key West. The venerable vessel was headquartered in Key West and neighboring Inventory Island for some 4 many years, working as a passenger boat that provided specialty day sails, personal charters and even prolonged voyages.
Rising shortly via the ranks of the colourful Conch Republic Navy Forces, Gittelman finally earned the titles of admiral, first sea lord and supreme commander. For many years he and the Wolf led the republic to victory in its yearly “sea battle” towards the U.S. Coast Guard and federal authorities — a spotlight of the annual Conch Republic Independence Celebration that commemorates the “nation’s” 1982 start. That was the Keys’ symbolic secession from the USA in opposition to the federal blockade on the prime of the Keys that aimed to curb drug smuggling, however as a substitute crippled tourism.
He additionally portrayed a pirate king throughout Key West’s long-running Pirates in Paradise competition, a rollicking revel for buccaneers and wenches that was created and coordinated by his spouse and soulmate, Julie McEnroe.
However there was way more to Finbar than the personas he assumed with devil-may-care enthusiasm. In 1980 he and three shipmates survived a lethal Caribbean hurricane at sea, spending harrowing days in a tiny life raft after their vessel sank within the Class 5 storm.
Maybe because of that have, through the years Finbar and first mate McEnroe sailed the Wolf on quite a few humanitarian missions of mercy within the Caribbean, delivering cargoes of meals and aid provides to areas devastated by hurricanes, earthquakes and different pure disasters.
The couple additionally poured their hearts into instructing seafaring expertise and traditions to younger mariners — a major focus of Finbar’s life.
“I like instructing younger sailors the traditional artwork of sail,” he mentioned a number of years in the past. “I need to cross on what I do know and attempt to present them the spirit of the ocean.”
Finbar’s life supplied him with fodder for a wealth of tales — and as his pals can attest, he advised them masterfully. A few of his most distinctive tales had been captured in “The Outdated Man and the Sea: Return to Cuba,” a documentary launched in 2018 by Matt Dean Movies, that explored the captain’s seafaring spirit and first journey to Havana since his childhood.
However irrespective of the place he sailed, Finbar’s affection for his island residence by no means wavered.
“I’ve been to many ports and none of them have the lifestyle I like right here,” he mentioned in 2018. “Key West is likely one of the locations on the planet the place you will be your self, and that is the place I belong.”
Finbar’s ‘Crossing the Bar’ memorial set for April 23
Pals and followers of Capt. Finbar Gittelman, the schooner Wolf and the Conch Republic are invited to rejoice the captain’s life and legacy at a memorial ceremony and dinner on Wednesday, April 23 from 5 to 9 p.m. on the Sundown Pier at Ocean Key Resort & Spa. Earlier than that, the Tropic Cinema will host a free screening of “The Outdated Man and the Sea: Return to Cuba” documentary about Gittelman at 1 p.m.
Named for the standard time period for a sailor’s passing, “Crossing the Bar” refers back to the journey from a sheltered harbor to open, unpredictable seas. The Gittelman gathering is a part of the 2025 Conch Republic Independence Celebration. Admission to the ceremony is free, however tickets for the seated dinner are $45 per individual and reservations are recommended. Go to conchrepublic.com.
A portion of the night’s proceeds advantages the Schooner Wolf Restoration Fund, created to assist much-needed renovation and repairs to Gittelman’s beloved tall ship — and protect its goal as a “classroom” the place new generations can be taught the artwork and traditions of crusing.