2005 Blue Water Medal to JARLATH CUNNANE aboard Northabout

2005 Blue Water Medal to JARLATH CUNNANE aboard Northabout

For building and skippering the Irish yacht Northabout which completed the first east to west polar circumnavigation in October 2005. The four-year voyage began in Westport, county Mayo, in June 2001 and took them through the north west Passage to Alaska and western Canada where they spent the next two years cruising. In 2004 they sailed to Russia, wintering the yacht at Khatanga, Siberia, when stopped by the ice.

In 2005 they completed the Northeast passage voyage to Ireland via the Norwegian coast and the Caledonian Canal..

Award
Blue Water
Year
2005
Recipient Name
JARLATH CUNNANE
Boat Name
Northabout

Prior Recipients

 

Blue Water Medal

The prestigious Blue Water Medal was inaugurated by the Cruising Club of America in 1923 to:

reward meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities, that might otherwise go unrecognized.

Blue Water Medallists have included such luminaries of the sailing world as Rod Stephens, Eric and Susan Hiscock, Sir Francis Chichester, Eric Tabarly, Pete Goss, Bernard Moitessier, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston..

The Medal itself was designed by Arthur Sturgis Hildebrand, a member of the Cruising Club of America, who was one of the crew of the yacht Leiv Eiriksson, lost in the Arctic with all hands in September of 1923