"We're moving quickly to get her back into a situation where we can find out what, on this occasion, went wrong and then we'll continue to move forward with a plan that we have to restore it."

The idea was, that the two fully restored boats would go out on the Derwent and sail a short course in company. There would be a start boat to see them on their way, and then they would cruise sedately beside each other providing opportunities for photographs.

Well that wasn’t going to happen! On an overcast day with a 15 knot South Easterly blowing, the fog horn sounded, signalling the start ,and it was on for young and old!

“For the amount of work in the six-month time frame, it was very tricky. We worked every day, some very long days, to get Mermaid ready for relaunch at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in February.”

Mark and Sal will be in Hobart on the waterfront for all four days of the festival. Don’t hesitate to come up and say hello, (especially if you’ve got a good story to tell in future pages of SWS!)

"My father in law, Hugh Garnham (now in his late 80s) built a 26ft Huon pine yacht, called GLENSHIEL in the late 1950s, to do the Sydney-Hobart. He was in his early twenties when he built it at his parents’ house, which happened to be on the foreshore of the Derwent."

“Unremarkable little boat lives on a mooring and is little used in recent years, The family finds it too hard to look after. By this time it’s in disrepair and probably too late to sell it as a going concern”

Nothing remarkable there!

As the work is nearing completion, the AWBF is now welcoming any enquiries regarding her future! She will be launched on February 10th 2024, as part of the Kettering Wooden Boat Rally, and all funds from her sale will go directly to the AWBF.

So far, the stem has been rebuilt – she was originally cut for and aft with a chainsaw, to widen the stem! A chunk of wood was glued in to fill the gap, and a new inner knee to cover the stem on the inside of the hull has been fitted.

It's not often that you come across a seventy year old, 30ft yacht that’s been around the world. The story of MAORI LASS has some great history but it also has some large blank chapters waiting to be filled by a yachting sleuth with the time and inclination to fill in the gaps.