The Commemoration of the Centenary of the pioneering global circumnavigation south of the Great Capes by Conor O’Brien of Foynes, sailing the 42ft ketch Saoirse between June 20th 1923 and June 20th 1925, was put underway yesterday (Saturday) from Dun Laoghaire with the 56ft 1926-built trading ketch Ilen – another O’Brien creation – departing from the Royal Irish Yacht Club to replicate Saoirse’s initial 1923 passage, the 1,300-mile voyage to Madeira.
Having been restored by Gary MacMahon of the Ilen Project in Limerick, working with Liam Hegarty of Oldcourt Boatyard in West Cork, Ilen is now under the command of James Lyons of the of Sailing into Wellness Programme, and she was accompanied out of Dublin Bay by a flotilla of other craft including sail-training vessels.
A very complete reception has been arranged in Madeira for July 3rd and subsequent days, by which time Ilen will be accompanied by 38 other craft – including some quite substantial vessels – to mark and celebrate what was a very special first port in the as-then untested new ship’s remarkable voyage.
The re-build of Saoirse sailing recently in Baltimore. Photo: Kevin O’Farrell
Ilen is fulfilling this role in 2023 as the newly-commissioned re-build of Saoirse, undertaken for Fred Kinmonth of Hong Kong and West Cork by Liam Hegarty, will remain Baltimore-based for the time being.
But meanwhile, in the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Saturday, safe in the knowledge that O’Brien and Saoirse’s “leap in the dark” of a hundred years ago went on to achieve complete and totally ground-breaking success, Commodore Jerry Dowling hosted a very convivial and fully-attended Saoirse Centenary Lunch.
This was for Commodore David Beattie and his members of the Irish Cruising Club, who have published a special Centenary 6th Edition of O’Brien’s highly-regarded account of the voyage, Across Three Oceans. The large attendance included members of the O’Brien family most closely related to Conor O’Brien, as well as many other Saoirse/Ilen enthusiasts.
Royal Irish Yacht Club Commodore Jerry Dowling (right) presenting Irish Cruising Club Commodore David Beattie with the Saoirse half-model on Saturday Photo: Aoife Nolan
The lunch programme included a ceremony in which the RIYC presented the ICC with a half-model of Saoirse that will now remain on permanent display in the Royal Irish YC clubhouse, together with a bust of O’Brien – sculpted from whalebone by Danny Osborne – which was presented to the club at a ceremonial lunch in 1998 to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the voyage.
The O’Briens gather. Close relatives of Conor O’Brien on Saturday in the RIYC with the Danny Osborne-sculpted whalebone bust which was presented to the club in 1998 to mark the 75th Anniversary of his circumnavigation. Photo: Aoife Nolan
The current healthy state of the two most historic O’Brien vessels is very largely due to the determined enthusiasm of Gary Mac Mahon of Limerick, who devoted 27 years and more of his best efforts to ensuring that they sailed again. When he brought the “worn-out” Ilen back from the Falkland Islands in 1997 where she had been retired from her duties as inter-island service boat, her restoration became an eleven-year project after the first of many fund-raising projects had amassed sufficient initial funds.
As for Saoirse, a post-hurricane beaching and break-up in 1979 in Jamaica had resulted in very little in the way of surviving material. But Gary retrieved what he could of those artefacts, and steadily amassed an impressive collection of research material and technical data. This included lines taken off by international designer Uffa Fox in 1927, which showed that Conor O’Brien’s initial rough sketches of 1922 were remarkably accurate, but their availability added even further credibility to the re-build.
The Ilen heads seawards followed by sail-training vessels leader and Brian Boru. Photo: Afloat
Ilen is Madeira-bound. The initial 1,300 mile passage from Dublin Bay to Madeira was Saoirse’s first real experience of ocean voyaging back in 2023. Photo: Afloat
His work successfully completed, Gary Mac Mahon has now stood back from day-to-day involvement. But in celebration, Saturday’s lunch concluded with two toasts – one for Conor O’Brien, and the other for Gary Mac Mahon. And then the crew of Ilen and their escorts and the well-wishers embarked on their various craft to sail out into a grey sea which was decidedly at variance with the bright cheerfulness of the dining room in the RIYC. But the mood was good, and doubtless the sun will be shining brightly when the well-attended rendezvous – with generous hospitality from the Madeiran authorities – gets under way in Funchal on July 3rd.
Flag signal to Ilen as she leaves Dublin Bay: “I wish you a safe voyage, Ilen” Photo: Aoife Nolan
