The mystery is solved: The owner of Ireland's abandoned ship is in Canada

The 6m long ship equipped with solar panels, there was no one on board when the waves brought him to the Drum Beach, near Belmullet in County Maino, in November 2016.

There was a written message: I, Rick Small, gave this structure to a homeless young man to give them a better life that Newfoundland decided not to! No rent, no mortgage”.

Rick Small, was known in Canada as an environmentalist who built a three - wheeled bicycle with solar panels, but he was elusive and his connection to the ship and how he crossed the Atlantic remained unclear.

This week, the CTV News network found him in Vancouver. “Mystery selects”, he said.

The 62-year-old said he built the ship in 2016 and planned to sail from Newfoundland to the Arctic to raise awareness of the climate crisis and the extinction of ice in this part of the world.

But when he failed to find the right engine, he abandoned the boat. Now there's no idea how it ended up at sea. It is proud that he survived a journey of more than 1,800 miles largely untouched.

“did not sink. I've done a good job”, he said.

Small said he planned to build another boat after making more solar-powered bicycles that he calls Solarized-It.

Volunteers in Mayo renovated his ship in 2017. Now it's located in a community garden in Binghamstown, a few miles from Drum Beach. RTE television reported that locals have invited Smalls to visit his ship.