'Notorious' - The Ship.
The Notorious was docked at the Scarborough Marina over the weekend so I wandered down to take a look. The school holidays have just begun so it was understandable that many, young, 'would be' pirates took advantage of this wonderful opportunity to climb aboard and imagine themselves sailing the high seas with a patch on one eye and a parrot perched on their shoulders.
The Notorious is:
A full size, sailing recreation of a 15th century vessel of exploration, the Spanish or Portuguese CARAVEL. Researched, designed and constructed by Graeme Wylie over an 11 year period. Constructed from Monterey Cypress saved from the bonfires on south west Victorian farms. Launched in 2011.
This ship is Australia's earliest ship reconstruction and is the only sailing caravel in the southern hemisphere.
She measures 17.5 m in length, her Beam is 5.5m, Draught - 2.1m Ballest - 12 tonnes bluestone, Displacement 58 tonnes.
The Lateen Rig borrowed from the Arab Dhow, improved windward sailing and was more easily handled by a small crew. Steered by an upright tiller extension called a Whipstaff as steering wheels had not been invented at that time.
These ships were used by European explorers to discover a route to plunder the riches of the east. Caravels were favoured by pirates for their speed, agility and large holds.
A variety of Notorious merchandise was available which included T/Shirts, Caps, Flags, Bandannas including a DVD of captioned photographs and video footage depicting the construction from log to completion, launch and sailing.
The owner (pictured below) and his wife live on this ship and travel around the coast of Australia and call in to ports and marinas to allow people to visit.
He told us that he feels safer sailing in this ship than in modern boats and the largest seas he has encountered was nine meters and lived to tell his story. What an exciting life!
THANK YOU FOR VIEWING. HAVE A GREAT DAY.
