The reputation of the Royal Navy's Peacock-class patrol boats, currently up for offers, cannot have been enhanced by recent developments in the Irish Naval Service, which bought two of the vessels a few years ago.
Not only are the Irish unhappy with the ships' short range, but they have now introduced a possibly unique measure: sailors have won the right to be discharged if they prove chronic seasickness.
Each year about 12 sailors find duty in fishery protection vessels too much to stomach. They will now be offered voluntary redundancy.
Built for Hong Kong waters, the Peacocks have never fared well patrolling the Irish Sea and Western Atlantic. But an Irish Navy spokesman admitted the difficulty was not just with the Peacocks.
'The real problem is the Atlantic; it gets inordinately rough out there,' he said.
Refugee Co-ordinator Brian Bresnihan is all at sea too - especially when it comes to boats for boat people. Not for him, we fear, the illustrious public relations careers of his predecessors, the now-former Government House spokesman, Mike Hanson, and Clinton Leeks of the New Airport Project Co-ordination Office.