From salvage to salvation

摘要

The first time I saw the wooden fishing trawler YUKON she was lying just south of Copenhagen, Denmark. She was a beauty, with sweet lines that set my creative juices flowing. She was big enough to live aboard and, with the correct sail plan, would be manageable by a few people. With a length of 65' on deck, a beam of 14', and a draft of 6', she seemed a perfect fit for a sailing shipwright like me; just the right size to sail around the globe. Unfortunately, she was not for sale. What's more, she lay at the bottom of Drag0r Harbor. At that time, I had been living in Denmark for only a few months, working as a stagehand. My profession (as a boatbuilder) had taken me all over the world, and now I was a long way from Adelaide, South Australia, where I'd been born and raised. There I had done my apprenticeship building sailing dinghies, then worked on the construction of the sail-training brigantine ONE AND ALL. Now I wanted my own boat.