The vessel that has been puzzling residents since they saw it anchored off Bundeena is a full-size recreation of a 15th century Spanish or Portuguese caravel and it’s in Darling Harbour for one more day.
Owners Graeme and (wife) Felicity Wylie saw the Leader online article and contacted us with the real story.
Notorious, which is the earliest ship reconstruction in Australia, docked at Darling Harbour late last week, near Sydney Aquarium. It will be open from 10am to 4pm for the last day, Tuesday.
The couple said caravels were the first ship style to be designed specifically for ocean crossing, including Christopher Columbus's La Niña, a caravel similar in size to Notorious.
Captain Graeme Wylie researched, designed and built the caravel over 10 years at his property in Bushfield, Victoria. She is constructed almost entirely from reclaimed Monterey cypress collected from parks and farms in south-west Victoria; not a single tree was felled.
Notorious was launched at Port Fairy on February 7, 2011; she is 17m long, has 5.5m beam, 2.1m draught and 55 tonnes displacement.
She was a major attraction at the 10th Australian Wooden Boat Festival at Hobart last February.
Felicity Wylie said the Notorious was the first vessel of this type in these waters for almost 500 years, since Mendonça's epic voyage of 1522.
The couple spent four months exploring Tasmanian waterways before returning to Paynesville, Gippsland Lakes.
Darling Harbour will be the fifth port of call on this historic voyage along Australia’s east coast. The couple are sailing with their daughter Tegan and two ship dogs, Taz and April.
visit facebook.com/notorioustheship for daily updates
August 7 story:
A number of readers have contacted the Leader about an unusual-looking boat anchored off Bundeena this week.
Some say it looks like a pirate ship, the more cynical souls in the Leader newsroom think it may be a publicity stunt, or is it just a weary traveller looking for a place to rest?
There are reports this morning that the boat has moved on.
A Roads and Maritime Services spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon that it was advised this morning that a privately owned 21 metre vessel from Victoria, named Notorious and resembling a pirate ship, would sail from Port Hacking to Sydney Harbour.
One reader said he saw the boat moored off Jibbon Beach from the afternoon of Monday August 5.
It has a small bow chaser cannon on the port side.
''When we sidled up to take a photo a single crew member came out of the cabin to look at us and then scuttled back inside,'' he said.
''And no, he wasn't carrying a cutlass.''
Do you know more about the ''pirate ship''?
