"I never wanted to be famous." The words are those of the diminutive British sailor Ellen MacArthur, speaking in the French port of Les Sables D'Olonne last month after completing her 94-day, non-stop lone global circumnavigation. A little bit late for worrying about that! At 24, she will have to live with the sort of fame that accompanies such achievement - unless someone else breaks the records she has set as the fastest woman and youngest person to sail around the world in a single-handed race.
This little island has produced a fair few sailors imbued with MacArthur's level of determination, though they may not be household names. Angela Farrell was part of the all-female Maiden entry in the 1989 Whitbread Round-the-World Yacht Race. And two forgotten heroines were honoured recently by the yachting journalist and author W.M. Nixon, when he dug up some background on their exploits during research.
Designed vessels
Their names were Maimie Doyle and Daphne French. Doyle may never have received the credit she deserved in her own lifetime for vessels which she is believed to have designed over a century ago. She was the daughter of James E. Doyle, boat-builder and designer in Dun Laoghaire, and Nixon notes that her father may have come in for "a lot of stick" when it was revealed in 1901 that his daughter was the real architect. Dun Laoghaire's Water Wag dinghies were undoubtedly designed by her, among other craft, Nixon says.
It is over five years since Daphne French passed away in her 90th year. A niece of Percy French, the songwriter and artist, she was reared in Roscommon. Her early life is said to have revolved, like Ms MacArthur's, around sailing and boats. She was already a member of the Irish Cruising Club and had her own 30-foot ketch, Embla, in 1935 when she took off for distant waters.
It all happened shortly after she was out in Dublin Bay and witnessed a four-masted barque, Pamir, sailing into the port with a cargo of grain. Owned by the famous Erikson Line, it was bound for Australia. Ms French and a friend caught the next bus to the South Wall, boarded, and asked to see the master.
"We asked to be taken on the ship's books for the voyage to Australia, and, after a while, when the captain had got used to the look of us, he signed us on as stewardesses at one shilling per month."
She described comfortable quarters, including a salt shower, and one large can of fresh water a day. "Deep-sea pea soup, with lumps of salt pork floating in it, was a favourite dish," she said. "It is true one occasionally found a maggot in the porridge, but the captain said it `gave body to it'. Delicious brown and white bread every second day and Swedish coffee, laced with rum in the [roaring] forties, were very good." The pair continued on another ship, L'Avenir, to complete a global circumnavigation "under four sticks".
Twice awarded the Irish Cruising Club's prestigious Faulkner Cup, Ms French undertook some very ambitious voyages on her own vessel, including a 44-day voyage from Ireland to Stockholm; and during the second World War, she became a canal boatwoman, delivering fuel by barge from the fields around Coventry to the factories around Birmingham and as far as London. Afterwards, she returned to Ireland and lived in Dunmore East, Co Waterford, where she continued sailing. She spent her last years "close to nature", painting and gardening in a mobile home in Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Restless spirit
Moira Kieran shares the same restless spirit. Originally a Drennan from Bray, Co Wicklow, she qualified as a nurse, bore four children, and has been a member of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC) since its foundation. She was also a keen sea-angler and a former holder of the Irish Shark Championship. In 1974, she and her late husband, Stan, bought a 23-foot Seamaster yacht named MolPol.
The yacht undertook many trips around the coast and to the Isle of Man, but it wasn't long before sights were set further. Having recruited Owen Hearty, an officer with the Meteorological Service, as a regular crewman and navigator, the Kierans' first major cruise was to the northern French coast in 1989. The following summer, a much more extensive sail south brought them to Paris, via Cherbourg, Honfleur and Rouen.
In 1992, Stan died after an operation in hospital. "You can imagine the sorrow," she says, but she realised her partner would not want her to stop. Owen Hearty agreed to continue sailing, and the following summer they undertook a 1,311-mile cruise to Dartmouth from Dun Laoghaire.
Staccato style
No seasons were squandered after that, and on several occasions they even transported the boat overland to points south and west to make the most of time further up the Irish coast. Her modest account, written in staccato style similar to a captain's log, gives very brief descriptions of many of the landfalls.
Mol-Pol has clocked up many miles in the past quarter-century, and the skipper-owner has no plans to step ashore. As she says, "we never take chances" and they never sail in winds beyond force four. At 76 years of age, she says she can still scale a 23foot ladder and climb over boats "as one has to do".
It is only at the very end of her account that she reveals how her little yacht came to be named, and we won't spoil that here. Mol-Pol - the Story of a Yacht, by Moira Kieran, with a foreword by RTE's marine correspondent, Tom MacSweeney, is published this week.