From Three Yachts: Kelpie, Saoirse & Ilen
by Conor O'Brien
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Description
Conor OBrien sailed around the world 1923 - 1925 in his yacht Saoirse, which he designed himself and had built at the Fishery School in Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland. He was the first person ever to circumnavigate eastwards and south of the Three Great Capes - Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn. For this ground breaking voyage Conor was awarded the Royal Cruising Club Challenge Cup three years running in 1923, 1924 and 1925.Saoirse was Conor OBrien's 2nd yacht. His first was was show more Kelpie, in which he ran guns for the Irish Volunteers in 1914, together with Ershine Childers in the Asgard. Kelpie sank off the coast of Scotland in 1921, after which Conor designed Saoirse (see above).During his circumnavigarion, Conor spent three months in the Falklands / Malvinas. When he returned to Ireland he received a commission to supply a boat for inter-island trading. Conor returned to the Baltimore Fishery School to build Ilen, which he then delivered himself.From Three Yachts is Conor OBriens memoir of his various voyages on Kelpie, Saoirse and Ilen show lessTags
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Author Information
11 Works 85 Members
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
The Mariners Library (13)
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- From three yachts : a cruiser's outlook
- Alternate titles
- From three yachts : Kelpie, Saoirse and Ilen (1950) (1950)
- Original publication date
- 1928
- People/Characters
- Conor Cruise O'Brien; Jack Gardner (Brixham sailor); Con Cadogan (Cape Clear sailor); Mr Goddard (secretary, Falkland Island Co.)
- Important places
- Ireland; English Channel; Cardigan Bay, Wales, UK; Grand Canal, Ireland; Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland; Rùm, Highland, Scotland, UK (show all 17); Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland; Loch Scavaig, Skye, Highland, Scotland, UK; Blasket Sound, Ireland; Derrynane, County Kerry, Ireland (1926); Avonmouth, Bristol, England, UK (1926); Funchal, Madeira, Portugal (1926); Machico, Madeira, Portugal (1926); Caniçal, Madeira, Portugal (1926); Pernambuco, Brazil (1926); Cabo São Thomé, Brazil (1926); Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1926)
- Important events
- Irish Revolution; Irish Civil War; Fastnet Race (1927)
- First words
- To own a yacht and see the world is a very laudable ambition.
- Quotations
- Luckily we had come to a section [of the Grand Canal, Ireland] where there were few bridges; if the inhabitants wanted to cross they paddled themselves over in a wash-tub, using alternate strokes from a shovel for propulsion ... (show all)and for baling. I suppose wheeled vehicles never wanted to cross; if they did, the bridges would have been of little more use than the wash-tubs; for the Canal Company, with a glorious disregard of utility, had built them on the Chinese model, a great embellishment to the scenery but calculated rather to allow barges to pass under them than carts to pass over them. (Chapter II).
Just as of houses, so it is said of yachts that fools build boats for wiser men to sail them. (Chapter V).
There is surely no more fascinating trade than that of a shipwright. While others regulate their work with a square and straight-edge, his rules are a springy batten and an artist's eye; where the shore carpenter use the flat... (show all) and fool-proof plane the ship's carpenter uses that fearsome weapon the adze - and let not anyone rush unwarily into the use of the adze unless he would risk losing the use of a leg, as I nearly did through laziness in not keeping a proper edge on the thing - the good carpenter also uses it to shave with, and then he knows that it is sharp. (Chapter V). - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And that anchoring was the affair of her new owners, who came bustling on board with plans for fitting out their new ship as a tender to a sheep farm; but my affair was to put upon the sails of my old ship, with the help of the two good comrades who had brought her from Ireland, that careful stow which is the due of any port, before I closed the most enjoyable of all my voyages with the convential order: That will do, men.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- 1st pub., 1928. 1st pub. in the Mariners Library, 1950.
Preface to the revised edition
In the twenty-one years since this book appeared things which then seemed to me of interest have lost their significance, statem... (show all)ents I made have been falsified by events and opinions I expressed disproved, and the lapse of time enables me to review dispassionately hasty and sometimes unfair judgments. In cutting out the unnecessary and the undesirable passages I have shortened the book by nearly a third, for I have not tried to rewrite them or added any new matter. To do so might cast doubt on the genuineness of those sketches which I set down while they were still fresh in my mind.
C. O B., 1949.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Sports and Leisure, Travel, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 797.124 — Arts & recreation Recreation, sports, and performing arts Aquatic and air sports Boating Types of vessels Sailing
- LCC
- GV813 .O3 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Recreation. Leisure Recreation. Leisure Sports Water sports: Canoeing, sailing, yachting, scuba
- BISAC
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
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