Boat International - February 2016

http://www.boatinternational.com | February 2016

IF BRIAN O’SULLIVAN EVER SITS DOWN TO WRITE THE BOOK IN HIS HEAD, he’s

got the title: Among Cannibals and Kings. In truth, he never actually saw either on his trip from

his native Canada, across the Pacific and Indian oceans and then into the Med, but it’s

a handy shorthand for what boats can ofer you: an unrivalled breadth of experience. There was

that time in the Marquesas, when he was touring a sacrificial altar and his business colleague

Matt reached into a crack in a wall and brought out a human jaw bone. “The guide told us

cannibalism had been outlawed 100 years ago, but that jaw looked pretty fresh!” he jokes. They

cruised into a Tongan town the day after the king visited and saw the streets dressed to welcome

royalty, and then children being taken to school on the back of flatbed trucks. On Fijian beaches,

his two sons played rugby with local kids who had nothing, on islands with no roads, phones or

electricity. He met yachtsmen in remote corners living day to day, and one who was forced to use

a sewing machine as an anchor after selling his actual anchor to make ends meet. “It dragged,

and the boat ended up on the rocks. Turns out sewing machines aren’t good anchors.” And in

Ibiza, which must have felt like another planet, he watched curiously as one of the world ’s

biggest superyachts motored into the harbour every evening and left the following morning

with a fresh contingent of guests – all young and all female. “This happened every day for

a month! I mean, it was [going from] subsistence living to 60 girls a day. Just the contrasts,

they were so dramatic,” he says, wide-eyed at the memory.

O’Sullivan is able to spend so much time on board because, at 64, he’s a relatively free

He may have travelled the

world at the helm of his

40 metre motor yacht, but

it’s wind power that’s driven

this Canadian boat lover.

Stewart Campbell meets him

On board

with

BR I A N

O’SULLIVAN

OWNERS’CLUB

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