Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator
Bob Fannin Jnr feels most at home on the high seas. For as the Bristol-based writer, broadcaster and university lecturer told the members of the Cruising Group at his former club of Howth on Tuesday night, when sailing the sea,…
Exhibition to Mark Commander Bill King's Epic Circumnavigation Opens in Galway City Museum
29th November 2023 Bill King
A new exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the global circumnavigation by yacht by the late Commander Bill King opens in Galway City Museum this week. A display of objects and memorabilia relating to his voyage, loaned by his family…
Leonie King's Memories of Her Late Father Solo Sailor Commander Bill King
31st May 2023 Wavelength Podcast
“There’s a Japanese man coming, it’s probably revenge..would you just go away, I’m old; I don’t mind dying “ “I came back three hours later and they were on their third bottle of white wine..” That’s one of many memories…
Galway Bay Sailing Club Plan Exhibition Marking Golden Jubilee of Commander Bill King’s Solo Sail Around the World
23rd May 2023 Solo Sailing
An exhibition this autumn marking the golden jubilee Commander Bill King’s solo sail around the world is one of a number of events planned by Galway Bay Sailing Club (GBSC) commodore Johnny Shorten to pay tribute to an “unsung hero”. It…
Last Nautical Miles In Commander Bill King's Galway Blazer II Log Recalled
22nd May 2023 Solo Sailing
“Light, backing -fluctuating” was how the late Commander Bill King described winds in the final frustrating days of his successful solo sail around the world half a century ago. The log entry for his schooner Galway Blazer II, recorded in…
Countdown Continues in Commander Bill King's Epic Circumnavigation 50 Years Ago
21st May 2023 Solo Sailing
Ìmagine being just 50 nautical miles away from completing a third attempt in the best part of five years to sail around the world solo, and hoping for some wind. That was the situation that the late Commander Bill King…
On this day half a century ago, solo sailor Commander Bill King was still becalmed on board Galway Blazer II in the final stages of his global circumnavigation. This was his third – and first successful - attempt to sail…
Galway Blazer II Logs Released in Advance of Global Circumnavigation Golden Jubilee
19th May 2023 Galway Harbour
“Fog cleared….BECALMED” wrote the late Commander Bill King in his log this day 50 years ago, during his epic global circumnavigation in his yacht Galway Blazer II. His logs have been made public for the first time in advance of…
“Atlantic alert for yachtsman”, read the headline in the Daily Express 50 years ago. The missing yachtsman was the late Commander Bill King of Galway, then 62 years old and on his latest attempt to sail around the world solo…
Bill King's Galway Blazer Circumnavigation Will Have 50th Anniversary Celebrated On May 23rd
12th May 2023 Galway Harbour
Following this week's Mariners Memorial gathering on Monday at Galway Bay Sailing Club, which featured - among other significant west coast maritime memorabilia - some key items relating to the area's own global-circumnavigating Bill King of Galway Blazer II fame,…
Global circumnavigator Bill King of Oranmore Castle in Galway had lived to be 102 when he died – still very fit – in 2012. Yet he’d led such an extraordinary life of adventure and danger ashore and afloat and under…
#OBITUARY - The Sunday Independent paid tribute this past weekend to round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King, who died last Friday 21 September aged 102. William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving commander of a submarine in the…
