Top Ten Most Inspirational Sailors

[svHannabel]

My list of the Top Ten Most Inspirational Sailors is here on my website: Sail Far Live Free: Top Ten Most Inspirational Sailors

Who's on your list and why?

[Lowcountry]

Moitessier, because he accomplished incredible feats of sailing and navigation (largely by himself), and he did it on a shoe-string budget.

[Beersmith]

Originally Posted by Lowcountry

Moitessier, because he accomplished incredible feats of sailing and navigation (largely by himself), and he did it on a shoe-string budget.

+1

Moitessier has inspired me more than anyone else


For modern inspiration:

Liz Clark and the Voyage of Swell

[minaret]

James Cook is obviously #1. But I believe his predecessor who paved the way for him was in many ways just as awe inspiring. Commodore George Anson.

[Lowcountry]

I was surprised to see that Sir Robin Knox Johnston was not on that list. I had the great fortune of having two beers with him this past spring here in Charleston.

[boatman61]

Motessier..
Blondie Hasler..
Ellen McArtur..
Laura Dekker..
Captain Bligh..
Rory McDougal..
Rosie Swale..
Spike..
Captain Ron..
Me...
Just kidding on the last...

[svHannabel]

Originally Posted by Lowcountry

I was surprised to see that Sir Robin Knox Johnston was not on that list.

He was in the running, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Motessier..
Blondie Hasler..
Ellen McArtur..
Laura Dekker..
Captain Bligh..
Rory McDougal..
Rosie Swale..
Spike..
Captain Ron..
Me...
Just kidding on the last...

Nice to see someone had the balls to put Bligh on their list. That man got a bad rap. Most people know nothing of his connection to Cook, just the open boat voyage connected to the mutiny. Bligh was sailing master of the Resolution on Cooks third voyage. He ended up Vice Admiral of the Blue, but people still call him "Breadfruit Bligh".

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by Lowcountry

Moitessier, because he accomplished incredible feats of sailing and navigation (largely by himself), and he did it on a shoe-string budget.

I can't come up with a top ten, but I do know Moitessier would be my #1.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by minaret

Nice to see someone had the balls to put Bligh on their list. That man got a bad rap. Most people know nothing of his connection to Cook, just the open boat voyage connected to the mutiny. Bligh was sailing master of the Resolution on Cooks third voyage. He ended up Vice Admiral of the Blue, but people still call him "Breadfruit Bligh".

Aint that the truth...
all most see is the Hollywood version with the clean cut Christian and the evil Bligh... the truth was he was no better no worse than many Captains of the time in administering Admiralty Codes and Regulations..
But he was a great navigator... and considering he kept the men together during that epic voyage, proved he was also a good commander..
He just had the misfortune to get picked on/spotted by a romantic novelist...

[avb3]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Captain Ron..

I think I saw the documentary on him. T'was educational.

[minaret]

Boatman, your Spike is Spike Africa? A good one, the Mayor of the Pacific. He was a local for me, harbormaster at the Seattle Yacht Club in his later years. What a guy!
I'll just throw in this bit of an article about his harbormaster days-

In his last years, his career in decline, he’d ended up as the harbormaster at the Seattle Yacht Club. Now, there was a wealthy gentleman in Tacoma, a top executive at the Weyerhaeuser Corporation—we’ll call him McClellan—who moored his private vessel at the Seattle Yacht Club, and this McClellan, with the arrogance that sometimes marks those of his class, had a habit of ringing up the harbormaster on the phone, and as soon as the receiver was lifted, would yell, “Africa! Get a pencil!” And then he’d curtly list all the things he wanted done to his boat and slam down the phone. This went on for some time until one day the phone rang, Spike picked it up, and heard, “Africa! Get a pencil!” Seems that McClellan had decided he wanted his yacht brought down to Tacoma immediately.

So, Spike went out to the boat to alert its crew—which, as fate would have it, had been helping itself to the contents of its boss’s liquor cabinet and the whole lot of them was drunk as skunks. Nevertheless, Spike passed them McClellan’s urgent instructions, and shortly thereafter, the yacht weighed anchor and its thoroughly intoxicated captain gunned the engine full speed ahead. Alas, he’d forgotten to put the gears in reverse and the yacht slammed into several other expensive boats, took out the dock, and, after plowing through a flowerbed and several yards of manicured turf, came to rest on the clubhouse lawn, causing, in all, considerably more than a hundred thousand dollars in damages. At that point, Spike Africa went inside, dialed the direct line to the executive’s office in Tacoma, and when it was answered, said, “McClellan! Get a pencil!”


Classic! The schooner Spike Africa which they named after him is presently doing charters in the San Juans. She's a real beauty.

[MacG]

Moitessier for a sure No 1;
2. There is another guy nobody knows, a Dutchman called Evert Lamberty, sailed in a obsolete, almost scrapped lifeboat to Raratonga in the early '50s.
3. Donald Crowhurst - he was so much afraid for the sea that he went all along the South American coast before committing suicide, he never realised that he had by long surmounted his fear.
4. Will van Selst - he was so insecure and drank a bottle of whiskey the night we had a rough entertainment on the Biscaya. Nevertheless he confessed that he drank the bottle. Dutch courage!
5. THe German sailer Uwe (and something) sailing the splendid Dick Zaal design named "Grey Wolf" (My ideal boat).
6. Chichester. He may be ranked on any number of the list. He was a victim of the decline of the British industry. Gypsy was a piece of shambles, Camper & Nicholson no less and Illingworth the same. Budgetarian problems might have contributed to the poor performance, outside the efforts of F.C..
7. Laura Dekker. A definitely yes. You might find everything in this girl, although no Playboy sizes.
8. The numerous sailors who made tours unfamiliar to the general public.
I start with one: what do you know about Nordenskjold?

[Hydra]

Joshua Slocum
Bernard Moitessier
Ellen MacArthur
The "Damiens" (Jérôme Poncet & Gérard Janichon)
Eric Tabarly
Tim Severin
Jean Merrien
Annie Van de Wiele
Steven Callahan
Richard H. Dana

Alain

[minaret]

How about some of the great Arctic explorers like Shackleton and Fridtjof Nansen? They made completely insane voyages under sail. Especially Shackleton.
I believe Nansen was one of the most amazing people of the last century. His passport for stateless people was genius, he was a real humanitarian. Some credit him with saving as many as 20 million lives through his diplomacy with Russia at the end of WWI. There's an awesome book out about his love letters right now. That guy could write too!
Then there's Peter Freuchen. And I don't think anyones mentioned good old Tristan Jones yet. Even though he made most of it up, and by some accounts was not the greatest person, you have to give him kudos for all he did.