TEE FAST OPAWA

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 145, 16 December 1932, Page 13

TEE FAST OPAWA

ANOTHER RECORD

What is believed to be a record passage between Auckland and London, via Cape Horn and Dakar, has been completed by the New Zealand Snipping Company's motor-s-liip Opawa. The Opawa left Auckland at 2.20 p.m. on 10th November, and arrived at London at 1.45 p.m. on 14th December. It is not known how long the Opawa stayedat Dakar, which is on the West Coast of. Africa, for fuel, but the .voyage was one.of 34' days. >.■

To escape the Panama Canal dues, ships proceeding Homewards from New Zealand have recently taken, to using the Cape Horn route, and records on the route are still in the process of formation. However, tho Opawa's performance will take a fair bit of beating, although it is likely the Otaio an<f Orari, sister ships to the Opawa, could i repeat the performance. . The Opawai has a number of fast passages to heri credit. On one trip, in which she made a record for the Glasgow-Auckland, via Cape of Good Hope route, she maintained an average speed of 16.2, knots between Glasgow .ajul Dakar, and anaverage for the whole vojTage of 16.02 knots. The distance covered was 13,620 miles, and the actual steaming time 850.25 hours. The Opawa on this occasion was in ballast, but when loaded on a previous occasion she maintained an average speed of 15 knots between Liverpool and Auckland, via the Cape of Good Hope. For a call only at Dakar, the Opawa made a record passage of 34} days when she arrived in London from Wellington in August of last year.

The .Opawa, which was launched early last year, has a gross tonnage of 10,107.