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Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 13

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WORLD VOYAGE PLAN.

VENTURE IN 40FT KETCH.

TWO TEARS' TRIP FOR £400.

(Special.—By Air Mall.)

LONDON, August 20.

Two Englishmen set out from Falmouth this week-end to sail round the world in a 40ft ketch rigged with sails and fitted with a 30-yea,r-old auxiliary motor. It is to be a two years' adventure for the Hon. J. R. Benson, son and heir of Lord Charnwood—who will navigate—and his companion, Mr. David Napier, Cambridge undergraduate, son of a retired naval officer.

Mr. Benson, who is 37 and has been an engineer and a film producer, has never yet sailed out of British waters, but he means to try to sail round the Horn —a feat said to be almost impossible for a small sailing vessel except in the month of April.

Mrs. Benson will probably go by steamer to meet the travellers at a halfway stage. Besides the auxiliary motor, the ketch—the Doughty—is fitted with an internal combustion four-stroke engine burning paraffin.

The adventurers are taking with them the minimum of clothing, and their food will consist almost entirely of tinned goods. Mr. Beneon estimates that apart from what is spent in port, the cost of the voyage should not exceed £200 a year.

About 60 different places will be visited during the journey, including porta in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Piteairn Island.