00:00After seven months of work, Mermaid is ready to get back in the water.
00:12The 81-year-old yacht looked very different when it arrived in Matt Stephens' shipwrights
00:18after being retrieved from Sydney with damage.
00:20So she was floating, but yeah, just, and yeah, the further we dug the more we found and it
00:29kept going.
00:30It's a Derwent-class, a design unique to Tasmania.
00:35Mermaid and three other Derwent-class yachts were relaunched today after being saved from
00:41the wooden boat graveyard.
00:43Gremlin has been out of the water for ten years.
00:47It's been about six months part-time work and then the last five months have been full
00:53time to get it to this stage.
00:55Gus McKay grew up with a Derwent-class in his family and is now the owner of Goblin.
01:01He says there's been growing interest in the Derwents over the last few years.
01:06We decided we'd put together an association and try and lift the class and get more boats
01:12either rescued or restored and get as many on the water as we could.
01:19Twenty-six Derwent yachts were built between the 1920s and the 1950s.
01:25Not all are accounted for.
01:27Yeah, there's still some out there, some that we've sort of gone off the map.
01:31The yacht's resurgence has boosted the local boat building industry with enthusiasts and
01:37donors funding restorations.
01:39It's given us the opportunity to put on an apprentice, which is what we started the business
01:45for.
01:46We want to keep these skills going and get the younger generation excited.
01:50On Sunday, 13 of the Derwent-class yachts will race as part of the Australian Wooden
01:55Boat Festival.
01:56It'll be the biggest fleet in more than 50 years.
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