Friday the 13th fears fail to keep cardboard boat in dock

WHO would choose to take to the water on Friday the Thirteenth in - of all transports - a cardboard boat? Our intrepid quartet didn’t look or talk crazy yesterday as they rowed up the Liffey in the unusual craft, a freshening easterly astern.

Undaunted by superstition, the Phileas Fogg Four were taking part in Day 12 of the historic Around the World in 80 Ways adventure, a 21st century retelling of the Jules Verne novel. It’s being done to raise money for the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, which assists profoundly disabled children.

“Don’t lean too much against the cardboard in the back,” cautioned Belfast-born Robin Dunseath, originator of the idea to circumnavigate the globe, as the Aisling moved off from Custom House Quay for a 10-minute voyage to O’Connell Bridge.

The boat? Created entirely of cardboard by the adventure sponsors, Smurfit Corrugated Ireland, it is nine feet long by seven feet wide and weighs one and a half tonnes.

It took a team of Smurfit engineers six weeks to design the unusual vessel. The 50 buoyancy “tubes” were made from rolled, re-inforced cardboard.

Caroline Casey, the visually-impaired heroine of the 1,000-kilometre elephant trek across India two years ago, commented: “I love the sense of adventure and the excitement of achieving things you can only dream of.

The spirit of 80 Ways is to capture people’s imaginations as we prove we all have ability regardless of what the label says.”

She set up the Aisling Foundation to continue the campaign to make employers aware of what people with a disability can achieve in the workplace.

The voyage began on September 2 from the Reform Club in London. After Dublin, the team travel on to Nice, Monaco, Rome, the Red Sea, South Africa, India, Bangkok, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and on to New York.