KING'S LOVE FOR YACHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19832, 30 December 1927, Page 7

KING'S LOVE FOR YACHT.

BRITANNIA'S GREAT RECORD. NEARLY 200 FIRST PRIZES. " Nobody loves a ship as His Majesty loves Britannia," said Major Hunloke, the commander of the King's yacht, replying at the Press Club " Seafaring Night" dinner in London to the toast of "Sail." " I doubt if he will ever get rid of her." he added. " The King,, too, likes a yacht on which he can take a large number of guests, and Britannia enabled him to do this. To build a new boat like Britannia would now cost something like £40,000, although she was built for £9OOO. " It would be difficult to replace the crew, as few young men now go in lor yacht sailing. All the fishing boats, where the men came from, with the exception of the boats from one port, have motors." Major Hunloke added that the Britannia was 35 years old, had sailed 319 times, and had won 187 first and 64 other prizes. "So far as I atn concerned," said RoarAdmiral Barry Doirivile, Director of Naval Intelligence, " 1 can assure you everything possible will go to the press. I hate secrecy nvyself, and I believe there is a lot of undue secrecy." Commodore Sir James Charles, Captain of the Aquitania, responding for the Merchant Service, with which he had been connected for 47 years, said ho did not think anything had progressed so much as the carrying of passengers by sea.