Resurrected boat features at Australian Wooden Boat Festival
A boat designed and built in Norway that was almost too decrepit to be saved is featuring in the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart.
Twelve years and more than $1 million after it was plucked from the water in Sydney's Middle Cove, the Varg is racing again, although only the lead keel remains of the original vessel.
When Carolyn Mason and Kraig Carlstrom found the Varg it was a water-logged wreck.
"It had a metre of water right through it, it had no mast, it had the stern cut off the end and there were no deck fittings," Mr Carlstom said.
They brought it to Cygnet in Tasmania's south where a boat builder restored the 1924 yacht using huon pine, burmese teak and mahogony from Honduras.
The owners said at times they thought it would never happen.
"So many people have even said 'I bet you're sick of hearing this is a beautiful boat' and I just say 'Thank you no we're not sick of hearing it because it's been a long journey'", Ms Mason said.
The owners now race it every week.
The Australian Wooden Boat Festival is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere and held every two years.
Today is the last day of the four-day festival and organisers are already expecting visitor numbers this year will surpass last year's figure of 200,000.
