Ormonde O’Carroll

An Irish immigrant, Ormonde O’Carroll grew up on a ranch in Oklahoma. B.A. Philosophy ’76, Honor Roll student, he first sailed back to Ireland in ’77 on a leaky old 42’ Alden yawl. She was followed by a 47’ Laurent Giles wooden ketch and a 50’ dragger he rigged for shrimping in SC. In ’83 he got his 100 Ton Captain’s license and also the Robert Clark 47’ sloop, Querida. He sailed Querida alone for decades, summered here and wintered in New Orleans via the Windward and the Yucatan Passages. He purchased an unfinished 80’ steel schooner (documented 78’ 11’’ she measures 80’) in ’87, and in the 90’s Ormonde had a hydraulic trailer in St. Augustine, FL, and got his Class A CDL. He sold his ranch in ’01 and bought three more vessels, two 85 footers and another 80 footer with the intention of using them in the Caribbean inter-island trade after rigging them to sail and installing variable pitch or feathering props. Working Sail has been, in a worldly sense, Ormonde’s life’s work. Ormonde rigged all of these large prototypes for sail and made offshore passages with all of them. They exceeded every expectation.