Following the sighting Nick rented a small plane to locate VAL and was set to rent a boat to bring VAL when the police said they had a training exercise nearby and they would tow VAL into Eden. Nick was told not to tell anyone that VAL had been found to avoid salvage claims.  VAL was repaired in Eden about 235 miles south of Sydney. A local man donated to Nick a new full suit of sails that he had kept for his next boat that never came to pass because of ill heath.

While other kids were playing sport, Ms Lambert and her brother spent weekends by their father's side as he built his masterpiece over the next decade. She was a teenager when the boat was finally launched at Mackay Harbour in 1984.