Displaying items by tag: Smith

29th January 2012

Lakeside Marina is Venue for First Powerboat Run of 2012

#POWERBOAT – Lakeside Marina on the river Shannon is the venue for first power boat event of the season and if it's a chilly one there's a good chance the event will end in Sean's Bar for a 'warmer upper'. That's according to organiser Cormac Smith who intends to run the first Powerboat run of the year 201 on February 11th at Lakeside Marina in Athlone.

The aim is to launch boats at 10.45am but plans will be very dependent on weather and size/ type of boats that turn up. All welcome. The schedule is as follows:

Meeting @ Lakeside Marina From 10.30

Launch ing from 10.45

Run up or down the lake (weather dependent)

Lunch In Lecarrow or Hodson Bay Hotel

Return trip on Lake

Recover Boats 4.30-5.00 ish

Published in Inland Waterways

Tagged under

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour