The Notorious Caravel docked at the Shellharbour Marina on Saturday 4 November and Sunday 5 November and was open to visitors from 10am to 3pm. Lines of visitors stretched along the dock, and souvenirs such as flags were available.

Entry cost was $4 to $6 and the Notorious returns to Shellharbour Marina Saturday 11 November and Sunday 12 November open from 9 am to 3 pm.

It is a replica 15th century caravel, typical of the Portuguese or Dutch caravels sailing northern and western Australia well before the arrival of Captain Cook in 1770 on the east coast.

It took 10 years to build from reclaimed Monterey cypress by owner Graeme Wylie at his home at Bushfield near Warrnambool, Victoria. It is 17.5 metres long, a beam of 5.5 metres and a draught of 2.1 metres. It has a displacement of 58 tonnes. It has a lateen sail which makes it the only lateen rigged ship in Australia.

Owners Graeme Wylie and his wife Felicity live on board with a number of modern conveniences, including a diesel engine, hidden behind various wooden panels. The exterior finish is black varnish which is a mixture of linseed oil, stockholm tar and turpentine and keeps it seaworthy.

Noah 5 and Olivia 2 as pirates

The inspiration was the famous Mahogany ship, a tar black wreck thought to be possibly Portuguese, seen in sand dunes near Warrnambool from 1832. 

The wreck was last reported in 1886. 

Since its launch in January 2012, the Notorious has sailed 20,000 nautical miles all around Australia, showing a Portuguese or Dutch caravel of the 15th century could have easily sailed completely around to the east coast of Australia from Indonesia. There would have been numerous similar vessels visiting the Dutch city of Batavia now part of Indonesia just north of Australia for centuries.

Graeme said he had been approached to use his vessel in the making of the Pirates of The Caribbean movies.

“I refused, as they wanted to buy it off me and then blow it up in production, and I couldn’t live with that.”

Graeme Wylie, builder and operator of the Notorious caravel.