THE STORY OF ‘SAGAN’
Building a yacht out of a 1000 year old Huon Pine Log- An Ocean Sailing Podcast
I first came across David Hows’ podcasts when he approached me to talk about offshore sailing in wooden boats back in 2020 …… Well that was episode 93, and now he’s up to episode 114. One of his most recent chats was with Derek Shields and tells the following story.
Imagine discovering a log that had just floated down a Tasmanian River in a storm and building an ocean going yacht out of it. Not just any log, but a rare Huon Pine log, felled 40 years earlier from a tree estimated at 1,000 years old. Thats what Derek Shields set out to do, with no background in boat building. After years sailing on other peoples yachts, he had found a John Muir design in 1982 and he decided to build it. 3 years and thousands of hours later, ‘Sagan’ was launched.
Following Sagan’s launch, Derek set off on an adventure that took him up the east coast of Australia and across the Indian Ocean to Africa where he spent 10 months travelling through 17 different countries by road. Derek’s shares his sailing story in the tranquil setting of the Gordon River It's an amazing tale of setbacks and perseverance.
LISTEN TO THE FULL STORY BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE BELOW
Thanks to joy Phillips for sending this podcast in our direction.