When the good ship KS Norge drops anchor in Dublin Bay later this week, it will mark the first State visit by a royal yacht since Victorian times to two former royal ports.
The 80 metre vessel is due to berth in both Dún Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown) and Cobh (Queenstown) during the State visit by King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway. The craft is currently en route to Ireland from the Mediterranean, crewed by 34 members of the Norwegian navy.
The royal couple are due to join the yacht next Sunday, and will fulfil a number of official engagements in Dublin on Monday, including meetings with the President, Mary McAleese, and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Weather permitting, the royal couple will travel from Dublin to Cork by sea for a conference on Wednesday, September 20th, on maritime governance in the State's new maritime college at Ringaskiddy.
The Naval Service will handle liaison duties during the three-day visit from September 18th to 20th, but Queen Sonja intends to see a bit more of the Irish coastline after official duties are over. She will remain on the KS Norge and will cruise the south-west coastline as part of a private tour during the rest of that week, and anchorages have already been checked out on the west Cork coastline for this purpose.
The Norwegian royal yacht is one of the last held by European monarchs. It was originally built for Sir Thomas Sopwith in 1836 and was commissioned in 1946 as a regal vessel.