Story and photos by Tom Selldorff
Don Street, the legendary skipper of his engine-less wooden yawl Iolaire, passed away peacefully May 1, off to what he often called “sailor’s Valhalla.” He was known and admired for his knowledge and seamanship by the many sailors who cruised or raced in the Caribbean and other venues he knew well and wrote about in books and articles.
He and I had been friends since high school in the 1940s, when we sailed and raced on opposite shores of Long Island sound but kept in contact as our paths diverged professionally. He followed his passion for sailing, winding up in the late 1950s in the Caribbean.
He had a passion for sailing and sailboats, especially wooden ones. He also had an endless curiosity which led him — assisted by his nephew Morgan McDonald — to survey and chart the harbors, coves and passages in the Lesser Antilles which had not been mapped for centuries. He later did the same for the Venezuelan Coast and the Cape Verdes. Those charts became the Imray-Iolaire series that are still the mainstay of the charter business in these areas.
He had a deep knowledge of boats and cruising born of practical experience, and he shared it widely and freely with everyone he met, as well as through his many books and articles and lectures. He was a great student of the weather and wrote extensively about the best way to do ocean passages. While his views were sometimes controversial, they were always well grounded and based on his extensive experience. He was a great storyteller and writer, though his abysmal spelling was the bane of many editors. He created the first cruising guide to the Eastern Caribbean. Some say that was the genesis of the charter business in the area.
We cruised and raced together a number of times, the RORC series along the French Coast from La Rochelle to La Trinité and up to Bénodet, and most recently the Caribbean 600, a story he wrote about as “Out on a High.”
He touched hundreds, perhaps thousands of sailors all over the world with his stories, his knowledge and his enthusiasm for cruising, racing and adventure. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
