Outstanding Sailors Seamanship and Stunts

[StuM]

Then there's William Bligh.

Together with 18 loyal sailors in a 23 foot open launch, he navigated 3,600 miles from Tonga to Timor with a quadrant and compass but no charts or chronometer.

[Juho]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

Al Grover

In 1985, Al Grover of Vero Beach crossed the Atlantic Ocean in this skiff, becoming the first person to ever cross the Atlantic in an outboard and setting a record in the Guinness Book of World records.

Read more about Al at
http://www.indianrivermag.com/favorites/AlGrover.pdf l

Pekka Piri and Matti Pulli drove from Helsinki to Iceland in this boat, in 1994. I have to say I do not classify people that risk their lives and maybe encourage also others to do so as my heroes or outstanding sailors. Maybe more points to those that save the lives of others. These stories are extremely interesting and inspiring though.

[wunderluster]

Linda Petrat single handed a 22 foot Pearson Ensign from Kittery Maine to Sarasota Florida when she was 61. Her book is "A Great Big Adventure on a Good Little Boat".

I went to the launching of her next boat, a Morris 26, where Linda rode the crane cable down to the deck, she was 65 at the time.

She is a very inspiring lady.

[Suijin]

Matt Rutherford circled the Americas non-stop in his Albin Vega 27. I believe it was the smallest boat to ever pass through the Northwest Passage. One of his goals, other than his own personal accomplishment was to raise money for CRAB which promotes sailing for the disabled on the Chesapeake.



He's done several other interesting voyages, including going 200 miles up the Gambia river. He currently owns a steel motor ketch that he has outfitted as a research vessel and is up measuring deep glacial currents along the west coast of Greenland..or was last summer.

What I admire about Matt is his focus and determination. He doesn't let anyone tell him what he can't do.

"If you die doing what you love it's not a tragedy."

[Don C L]

What Ernest Shackleton pulled off in 1916 still seems to me the one if the most amazing feats of all time...

[ghendoaus]

Sir Francis Chicester,

From Wikipedia
In 1958, Chichester was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. (This may have been a mis-diagnosis; Dr. David Lewis, a London physician who competed against Chichester in the first solo trans-Atlantic race, reviewed his case and called Chichester's abnormality a "lung abscess".[6]) His wife Sheila put him on a strict vegetarian diet (now considered to be a macrobiotic diet) and his cancer went into remission. Chichester then turned to long-distance yachting.

In 1960, he entered and won the first single-handed transatlantic yacht race, which had been founded by 'Blondie' Hasler, in the yacht Gipsy Moth III. He came second in the second race four years later.

On 27 August 1966 Chichester sailed his ketch Gipsy Moth IV from Plymouth in the United Kingdom and returned there after 226 days of sailing on 28 May 1967, having circumnavigated the globe, with one stop (in Sydney). By doing so, he became the first person to achieve a true circumnavigation of the world solo from West to East via the great Capes. The voyage was also a race against the clock, as Chichester wanted to better the typical times achieved by the fastest fully crewed clipper ships during the heyday of commercial sail in the 19th century (the first recorded solo circumnavigation of the globe was achieved by Joshua Slocum in 1898 but it took him three years with numerous stops – Slocum also took up the harder challenge of sailing east to west, against the prevailing wind).
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I think it was his arrival in Sydney in 1966 that captured this, then, you boy's imagination and fired up in me a love of the sea and the desire to emulate his acts.

[calin1967]

My favorite is Kris Larsen, who left with 1.5 $ in his pocket on a steel hull with a light pole as a mast, across the Indian ocean.
Atom Voyages - A Law Unto Himself - Kris Larson Sailing his Steel Junk

[250224]

1964 from Scotland to Norway, the summer cruise was not going to plan...

(from the guardian)

The story of Wanderer's 1964 ocean voyage is one of the most remarkable stories in a canon filled with heroism and catastrophe. Dye's planned route took 650 nautical miles from Scotland to the Faroes and Norway. It would be a challenge in a modern vessel twice the size, with a cabin, an autopilot, two-way radio and a life raft, but for Dye, Brockbank and Wanderer it was epic – some said suicidal. The often-cited greatest small boat journey, Ernest Shackleton's 1916 voyage to South Georgia on the James Caird, was only 150 miles longer than Dye and Brockbank planned to sail, and Shackleton had a crew of six in a larger and heavier whaleboat with a deck to keep out the sea. Wanderer, a Wayfarer dinghy, had been designed to be trailed to lakes and estuaries: it was small and light enough to be pulled out of the water by two adults. In massive contrast to Shackleton and his professional seamen, Dye and Brockbank were on holiday

(links)

- https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...gerous-journey
-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ9Qh9hv8eQ

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Dye

(better don't repeat this...

[Lambretta]

Originally Posted by Don C L

What Ernest Shackleton pulled off in 1916 still seems to me the one if the most amazing feats of all time...

Yes Shackleton get my vote An incredible feat of seamanship and leadership

[TheThunderbird]

Shackleton!

Yet, l sail after Sir Chichester 's feat

[lancelot9898]

Shackleton, William Bligh, and Matt Rutherford would all be on my list. Another one would be The Kon-Tiki expedition which was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Kon-Tiki is also the name of Heyerdahl's book; the Academy Award-winning documentary......

Also look at the top two finishers in the Verdee Globe....Armel and Alex

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by lancelot9898

Shackleton, William Bligh, and Matt Rutherford would all be on my list. Another one would be The Kon-Tiki expedition which was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Kon-Tiki is also the name of Heyerdahl's book; the Academy Award-winning documentary......

Also look at the top two finishers in the Verdee Globe....Armel and Alex

I concur that Shakleton's was one of the greatest feats ever. Those men in icy waters! Huge!

Kon-Tiki, was interesting, got a lot of press at the time, and it proved 'twas possible, and, for 1947, it was remarkable. However, the downside was that it was then promoted as having proved that former voyages happened that way, with the only true evidence was that it was *possible*.

But, Armel and Alex, for modern life, my, how they battled round the world, what courageous, dedicated, and overwhelmingly capable men! Hats off to both of them!

Ann

PS. I'm somehow back to Cook. Without charts, without a reliable chronometer--although pretty darn good--Just look what he did!

And, as a PPS, I'm wondering about old time female skippers who may have done extraordinary things. Any of them?!

[Hydra]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

To me the guy who fixed his broken 80ft tall carbon mast baking the repair with 12Volt bulbs and then he actually re-masted the boat in ... where? ... Kergeulen Islands ???

And he kept on going as if nothing.

That's just one.

b.

I suppose you are referring to Yves Parlier, whose mast broke near Kerguelen islands during the 2000-2001 Vendée Globe. With a jury rig, he sailed to New Zealand where he found shelter at anchor and repaired the mast. Then, he finished the race.

He told his story in the book "Robinson des mers" (Robinson of the seas). His website is there: beyond the sea ® by Yves Parlier

Alain

[Hydra]

Poon Lim was a steward on a cargo ship that was torpedoed in the S Atlantic in 1942. He survived 133 days alone on a life raft, catching fish and drinking rainwater. When he was rescued by Brazilian fishermen, he had lost 9kg (only!).

Alain

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Hydra

Poon Lim was a steward on a cargo ship that was torpedoed in the S Atlantic in 1942. He survived 133 days alone on a life raft, catching fish and drinking rainwater. When he was rescued by Brazilian fishermen, he had lost 9kg (only!).

Alain

I think the Mexican fisherman has that one beat

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ft-119846.html

(But is either really a tale of "outstanding seamanship"?)