ALL SAIL FOR IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 250, 21 October 1924, Page 7

ALL SAIL FOR IRELAND.

YACHT SAOIRS_7S DEPARTURE. The 12-ton Irish cruising yacht Saoirse, owned and sailed by Captain Conor ; O'Brien, was to leave Auckland at sun- ( set to-day on her long voyage to Dublin. ; The tiny craft's homeward route will , largely depend on the weather met with : to the Horn. Provided that conditions are favourable her iirst port of call will be Montevideo, otherwise Captain : O'Brien will probably shape a course for Port Stanley (Falkland Islands). It is ; j difficult to estimate when the yacht can be expected to reach Dublin, but her j captain considers that she will bo doing ! well if she averages 1000 miles per week. The outward voyage occupied nearly I twelve months, but the yacht was actu- ' ally at sea« only 157 days. i During the early stages of the war I 1 Captain O'Brien served as a sub- ' lieutenant in command of a trawler doing patrol work out of Yarmouth and | Newhaven. After nine months he joined ' the R.N.V.R., serving in motor launches! for some time. Still later he saw ser- j ' vice in a steam yacht in the Stornoway > ] patrol, and in a patrol gunboat as navi- ' j gating officer. At the end of the war I Captain O'Brien commenced to prepare • for his present voyage, which he is i making in the form of a holiday. I For his return trip to Dublin he is ] taking two of his fellow-countrymen, Messrs. J. Mooney and J. Lynch, who . were signed on at Auckland. He will also have the services of one of two , Islanders who joined the yacht when she was at Nukualofa about live weeks ago. | The Saiorse is the second small yacht to visit New Zealand from Home during the past two years, the 29-tonner i Amaryllis, under command of the late Lieutenant G. H. P. Muhlhauser, having called at Auckland in 1922. j