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Either way, Small got only about 20 km up the Newfoundland coast before abandoning the project.

“I saw him on the bay his first day out,” reported Ted Perrin on Facebook. “Flat calm no seas at all……the next day or so after we had north east winds which are bad here. Guess he found out quickly that the North Atlantic is no joke.”

The craft’s last known Canadian whereabouts were in Portugal Cove-St. Phillip’s, about 30 minutes’ drive north of Small’s starting place in Conception Bay.

Despite Small’s apparent wish for the abandoned vessel to become a shelter for homeless youth, instead it appears to have been cast adrift almost immediately.

The vessel’s last reported sighting in Canada was on September 30th. This means that Small’s craft was able to traverse 3,100 km of the North Atlantic in less than 45 days. At an average of 69 km per day, the boat drifted towards Northern Europe at roughly the speed of a slow walk. The extremely buoyant boat rode high in the water, which would have allowed winds to push it eastwards more easily than a traditional vessel.

The National Post was not able to get in touch with Small, and his whereabouts remain unknown. The last post to Small’s YouTube page was in May of 2013.

The Ballyglass Coast Guard reported Sunday that they “managed to secure” the bobbing vessel. On Monday, officials are set to haul the boat off its final resting place at Cross Beach and tow it away for disposal.

Small’s craft is only the latest chunk of Canadian debris to hit Ireland. Due to eastward moving Atlantic currents, Western Irish beaches are frequent hosts to trash, capsized vessels and messages-in-a-bottle thrown from Atlantic Canada.

Most recently, in early 2013 the Irish Coast Guard had to be on guard for the M/V Lyubov Orlova, a rat-infested Soviet-made cruise ship that broke free from its tow lines while being tugged out of St. John’s, N.L.

Fortunately, however, the ship appears to have been claimed by the stormy North Atlantic long before it turned up on an Irish vacation beach.

• Email: thopper@nationalpost.com | Twitter: TristinHopper