Yesterday, the Glandore Harbour Yacht Club in West Cork posted sad news on its Facebook page:  It is great sadness that we learnt this morning of the passing of our dear friend Don Street. Don will be forever remembered for his infectious love of sailing and mentor to our youth sailors for many years. 

On May 1st, 2024, sailor and cruising guide legend  Donald (Don) MacQueen Street Jnr died at his home in the loving care of his wife and family at Rock Cottage, Glandore, Ireland. He was 94.

Don Street will be remembered as a life-long sailor, chart maker, and author. He has been referred to as the “father of the cruising guide.” 

As described in his website biography, Street came from a long line of sailors. He wrote that all had gone to the canyons of New York to make money and then spent their money on yachts. “From an early age, I was beaten over the head being told, ‘You go to the canyons of New York, make money, and then you can spend it on yachts. You can’t make money in the yachting business.’ However, I ended up sailing for a career.”

Don Street went on to spend over fifty years cruising, charting, and writing about the Caribbean. Forty of those years were spent in his 46ft. engineless yawl, Iolaire, built in 1905, and 6 years on the 28ft engineless yawl L’ll Iolaire. (Iolaire means “white-tailed sea eagle” in Gaelic.)

When Street arrived in St. Thomas in the beginning of December 1956 there were no cruising guides to the area. Street’s father had sent him a copy of Sailing Directions to the islands printed l867, which served as his guide until he wrote his own cruising guide, which is exactly what he did. His first cruising guide was published in 1965.

Don Street would become a yachting writer, writing his first article for Yachting in September 1964. Almost 200 yachting articles followed — a series of Caribbean cruising guides, a Transatlantic Crossing Guide plus Ocean Sailing Yacht volumes 1 and 2, and finally, Seawise, a collection of articles he wrote between 1964 and 1977.

Don Street is survived by his wife, Patricia (née Boucher); his children, Dory (Vogel), Donald, Richard and Mark; and grandchildren Dylan, EmmaKate, Matthew, Sam, Luke, Noah, Gabriel, Rebecca & Amaya.

Funeral service to celebrate Don’s life will be at 4pm on Saturday, 4th May in Christ Church of Ireland, Glandore.

Thanks to Captain D. Peter Boucher for contributing to this post.