A dreamer’s dream realized

“All my life I’ve been dreaming of having my own boat” 

As discussed previously, John Lennon was inspired to learn how to sail after a trip in 1980 on a sailboat named Imagine. He subsequently instructed his assistant to purchase the “‘dumbest’ and simplest” one-sail sailboat.

After first starting his sea explorations with a small dinghy with an outboard motor, on May 1st 1980, Lennon received the sailboat his assistant had purchased. It was a green, 14-foot O’Day Javelin sailboat, ordered from Coneys Marine, the same place Lennon had purchased the dinghy.

Owner Tyler Coneys sailed the boat to the dock below Cannon Hill, the Lennons’ home on Long Island. John’s younger son, Sean, described it as a “rickety wooden dock sinking slowly into the sea.”

For Lennon, the arrival of the sailboat seemed to be a watershed moment. “All my life I’ve been dreaming of having my own boat,” he said. “I can’t wait to learn how to sail.”[1]

Sean Lennon wrote in 2010, “Because my grandfather was a sailor, my father always felt an affinity with the sea.”

Lennon christened by boat Isis, named after the Egyptian goddess. Among her powers was said to be “protection of ships at sea.”

Image of O’Day Javelin sailboat courtesy of sailboatdata.com. Note that this image is NOT of John Lennon.

[1] Womack, Kenneth. John Lennon 1980 – The Last Days in the Life. Omnibus Press. 2020. P103.