The 65-ft ketch, Brime, which was arrested and impounded by the Naval Service in July 1993 before it could offload a £20 million cargo of cannabis is to a sail again as a luxury charter yacht from a new base in west Cork.
The Brime became famous for all the wrong reasons. Its arrest following an elaborate surveillance operation by the Naval Service was seen as a major coup in the war against drug-running around the Irish coastline. The cannabis was the largest amount seized in Irish waters.
Now, ownership has passed to Ms Mary Rose McAllister and her husband, Mr Brian McAllister, who run the Ocean Discovery Diving Centre at Adrigole in west Cork.
The couple saw an advertisement placed by the Department of Defence in The Irish Times two years ago inviting sealed tenders for the purchase of the ketch.
A bid of £46,000 was successful and now a £250,000 refit is under way at a boatyard in Lymington, on the south coast of England, under the supervision of Mr Barry Van Geffen, one of the original designers of the ketch, which was built in 1974.
After the seizure of the Brime, its four crew members were arrested and subsequently appeared in court.
Two of them, a Dutchman and a Belgian, were sentenced to 16 years in jail, while Dubliner Gerry Fitzgerald and a Briton, Wayne Bland, received 10 years each.
However, the mastermind behind the drug-running operation was believed to be David Huck, an Englishman with extensive assets in Ireland. Huck fled the State after being questioned by gardai who could find no evidence to link him to the crime.
In 1997, he was jailed for 14 years in Britain on drug smuggling charges after being arrested on a boat in the Bay of Biscay.
Last month, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) secured judgment against him in the High Court for £450,000 in unpaid taxes and interest.
This negated an earlier order restraining Huck from reducing his assets in this State to below £475,000. Regarded as one of Europe's most prolific drug-runners, Huck plied his trade between North Africa and continental Europe, switching to Ireland at a time when the CAB was yet to be established.
The elegant vessel will leave all this in its wake when it sails again, this time as a luxury yacht catering for corporate interests and specialist diving groups.
While the ketch was lying up at the Haulbowline Naval Base, the McAllisters went to see it and immediately liked its lines. Before making their bid, they researched its history prior to the drug run and found that it was one of 14 such vessels built by the Laurent Giles boatyard in Britain.
Complicated legal procedures regarding title to the ketch had to be gone through before the £46,000 bid was successful, and it was last October before they could sail the Brime to England for the complete refit which is expected to be finished by Christmas or early next year.
"The hull was in great condition and we are now in the process of installing a new engine, a new interior, new teak decks, a new steering system and all the latest electronic marine equipment."
Finance for the project came from their own resources as well as a BES scheme which attracted private investors. The second phase of the scheme is now open to bring the project to completion.