Sailing Credentials - Day 2 at Sea. 29:30.72N 22:15.40W
The Return of Irene III - 2018
Louis Goor
Tue 5 Dec 2017 10:59
days
The Goor family have sailing in their blood going back the generations.
Louis Goor, AKA " Pop" who was our skipper's grandfather and namesake (they
even share birthdays), instilled a love of the sea in his children. Pop's
son John Goor, inherited the salty gene and in turn has passed it on to his
children, two of whom are on this voyage.
One of John's early boats, named Martell, was a hand-crafted wooden vessel
with sleek lines. He often brought his young family - Sabine, Monique and
Louis out for long sails around Dublin Bay. Sabine's love of boats was
cemented in Greystones where she sailed Mirrors all through her teenage
years. She even helped her dad to build her first Mirror in their garage.
John painted it bright canary yellow and attached a large JCB logo to the
hull.
Then college, Sabine's music career and twenty years of living inland in the
US intervened, allowing for only short intermittent cruises, usually with
family when she took trips home from the States.
Like his father and grandfather before him, Louis is besotted with sailing.
He just loves boats and all the joy and responsibility that goes with them.
He's owned shares in more than a handful of vessels and always knew that he
would cross the Atlantic before he turned sixty.
However the impatience of youth took hold, and last year more than a decade
ahead of his original schedule he purchased Irene III.
When Louis began hatching this trans-Atlantic adventure in May 2016, he knew
that Sabine would want to make the passage with him. And once enlisted,
Sabine set about refreshing her maritime skills by doing a skipper training
course in Berkley, California.
That's where she met up with our navigator, Sean Boyle who was an instructor
on her course. Sean originally hails from Detroit and was more familiar with
paddling canoes that sailing boats during his high school years.
In 2010, he went on a weekender sailing trip with a couple of buddies in
San Francisco Bay and was immediately smitten with the power and potential
of sails. Soon after he decided he would sail around the world. Like many of
us with lofty dreams, he did nothing at first. But then in 2012 Sean started
to put his plan into action. Over the next four years he completed a series
of sail training courses under the auspices of the US Sailing Association.
Indeed Sean progressed to being a sail trainer. So when Sabine mentioned in
passing that a spare berth had become available for Louis's impending
voyage, Sean leaped at the opportunity to complete the first leg of his
circumnavigation.
As a five year old, John Holmes was signed up for a sailing course in
Brittany. Day one on an overcrowded Caravalle was 'beastly and horrible',
says John but his attempts to cry off for the rest of the week long sail
school fell on the deaf ears of his strong willed Breton grandmother. John
now credits her with his life-long love of the sea. By the end of that
childhood summer holiday he was totally enamoured by the sport and
camaraderie that sailing brought into his young life. He's been sailing and
racing in increasingly bigger boats ever since.
Johnny Frey's father was more interested in the skies than the sea. As a
radio operator with the US Airforce, he was posted from his home in Montana
to various bases in the US and overseas. At the age of eight, Johnny moved
from Texas to Cabinteely and began his sailing career in Dun Laoghaire's
Coal Harbour. Since then, sailing has taken him all over the world; to
France, Italy and Spain, while he's raced competitively in New Zealand,
Australia, Thailand and also Antigua - to where we're headed.
Johnny has been sailing with Louis and his dad, John for the past decade and
knows their boats intimately. Of Irene III which Johnny really enjoys, he
says; "She's lovely and solid and comfortable - but also complicated, like a
high-maintenance lady".
And lastly there's John Egan who describes himself as a hill walker. He
certainly not a sailor but knows enough about boats not to be a liability on
a passage like this. More than 30 years ago, John voyaged with Tim Serverin
and a crew of latter day Argonauts in search of Jason's legendary fleece.
That involved rowing (and sometimes sailing) a replica Mycean galley from
Northern Greece through the Bosphorous and along the southern coast of the
Black Sea to what was then called Soviet Georgia, a journey of 1,500 miles.
In the decades since, John's limited experience derives from short day sails
in Dublin Bay and West Cork, numbering less than 10 in total!
Although not a sailor, clearly his appetite for adventure was never fully
quenched. When Sabine called John from a smoke filled Napa Valley in early
October, wondering if he might like to sail with herself and Louis on this
trans-Atlantic voyage, he signed up immediately.
So there you have Irene III's newly formed and so far untested crew. Our
ambition is to sail this lovingly built Oyster 575 cruiser, safely and
assuredly to Antigua, in a style that befits her elegant lines and
demeanour.