I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
John Masefield “Sea Fever”
Sibley Putnam Reppert, a distinguished trial attorney, competitive rower, blue-water sailor, formidable intellect, committed friend, and loving husband and father, passed away of cancer on August 21, 2013 in the arms of his family.
Sib was born on July 4, 1945 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Charles Miller Reppert, Jr., an engineer, and Charlotte Putnam Reppert, a high school English teacher. Sib spent his youth sailing with his family on Long Island Sound and racing out of the Manhasset Yacht Club. From the coastal waters of the Mid Atlantic and New England Sib soon moved on to more distant horizons, completing his first transatlantic race aboard Dr. Walter Neumann’s Sitzmark in 1966.
Sib graduated from Wesleyan University summa cum laude in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts in the College of Social Studies. He continued his education at Christ Church, Oxford, where he spent two years on a Kaysbee fellowship reading for a B.Phil. in Politics, graduating in 1969. After several years service in the U.S. Navy aboard a nuclear submarine in the North Atlantic, Sib earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975.
Sib’s career as a litigator spanned three decades. He argued and won major cases in patent litigation, as well as the national asbestos property damage litigation, breast implant cases, and in large construction, insurance, and professional malpractice cases. During his career, Sib was a partner at Herrick & Smith, Goodwin, Proctor & Hoar, Pasternack, Blankstein & Lund, Samuel Stevens Gauthier, Lahive & Cockfield, and Pearl Cohen Zedek Lazter & Baratz.
Sib was also an entrepreneur. He founded LawRisk, an interdisciplinary consulting and software firm, as well as Incogno, also a software company.
A lifelong competitive rower, Sib was a founding member of the Wesleyan University crew team. He joined the Union Boat Club in Boston in 1976. While rowing for the Union Boat Club, Sib competed in hundreds of regattas around the United States and internationally, and rowed until only a few weeks before his death. His daily early-morning rows were always followed by at least one breakfast, his favorite meal of the day.
Sailing was Sib’s passion. Whether on coastal jaunts or long ocean voyages, he was never happier than at sea. In 1995, after being inspired by Paul Theroux’s “Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific,” Sib and his family sailed to New Zealand through the Panama Canal aboard their 37-foot sloop, Victoria. This passage inspired both daughters to later pursue careers in international affairs. Sib completed well over a dozen Newport-Bermuda and Marion-Bermuda races, including a double-handed Newport-Bermuda race with his then 13-year old daughter, Catherine. On one notable 1981 Marion-Bermuda race with his mother and father aboard their sloop Bienestar, Sib and his wife, Chris Vezetinksi, received an award for rescuing the crew of another boat that had run up on Kitchen Shoals reef. He was an active member of the New Bedford Yacht Club since 1989, and the Reppert family enjoyed many fine sails around Buzzards Bay and the Newport area. Membership in the Cruising Club of America, an international organization that values capable and convivial long-distance sailors, was meaningful to Sib. He was especially proud when his daughter Catherine became the club’s youngest-ever member.
In 2001, Sib, his daughters, and his brother-in-law, Paul Vezetinski, sailed from Cape Town, South Africa to the Windward Islands via St. Helena and Fernando de Naronha on Catalyst, his newly built Chris White-designed Atlantic 42 catamaran. Catalyst defined Sib's later sailing career. He and his family cruised extensively on her up and down the Atlantic seaboard and throughout the Caribbean.
Sib enjoyed spending time with his family and friends at their home in historic Westport Point, often culminating with a dinner on the back porch overlooking the beech trees. Quiet winter evenings reading books by the fire, tending to his raspberry bushes, strolls to the Point, long bike rides, and scenic rows on the Westport River will all be fondly remembered by the Reppert family.
Sib’s accomplishments were extraordinary, but they pale in comparison to the quality of his character. His commitment to integrity and intellectual curiosity inspired many, most notably his daughters Victoria and Catherine, who pursued careers in public service as an extension of their father’s sense of duty. Of his life, his friend Art Burke wrote, “The facts tell only the framework of the story. Sib was far more than an accurate recounting of the history of his existence. He had a keen sense of duty, infused with a relentless pursuit of excellence and detail, aided by terrific native intelligence and old-fashioned hard work. At the core of this was his career as a lieutenant in the navy submarine service, and later in his life as a lawyer and an ocean-going yachtsman of substantial repute. He was exemplary in all those endeavors and his journey through life embodied the expectations shared by all of us as young adults.”
Adventure, enthusiasm, and optimism were the keystones of his character. His friend Tom Franklin recently wrote, “Sib lived life large: let’s sail to New Zealand, build a catamaran in South Africa, buy a house in the Bahamas, set sail at midnight if that’s when you are ready. What an inspiration for we more reserved souls. What vicarious pleasure from his literate, adventurous log of crossing the Pacific, and what wonderful humor: “This trip may not have made me a better person, but it made me a better mechanic.” Sib, we will miss you and we will cherish always the memories of Catalyst tearing over five-foot seas at twenty knots, gin and tonics at sunset, CCA cruises, and that irrepressible smile and laughter.”
Sib leaves his wife of 33 years, Christine Ann Vezetinski, a business development executive, and two daughters, Victoria Charlotte Reppert, a Foreign Service Officer, and Catherine Abigail Burke Reppert, a Naval Officer, all of Westport Point, Massachusetts. He is also survived by his sister, Christy Sacks, and his brother-in-law, Stephen Sacks, of Brooklyn, New York, as well as their sons Gordon and Jacob Sacks, and their families. He was predeceased by his parents, Charles and Charlotte Reppert, and brother, Barton Reppert. In addition to his family, Sib leaves behind many dear friends in the sailing, rowing, and legal worlds, notably Yossi Shamir, a business executive, and Joel Brenner, a litigator and author.
Fair winds and following seas to our beloved father, husband, and friend. We will miss him so.
The family will be hosting a gathering on September 28th. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Sib's name to the Union Boat Club.