A huge sandbank will be built around a wreck on Dargaville's west coast if a planned salvage operation goes ahead.
Belgian brothers Pieter and Gustav Wittevrongel arrived in Dargaville this week to inspect the wrecked yacht Askoy II, once owned by Belgian singing and acting superstar the late Jacques Brel.
Brel was
classed as a European Bob Dylan, according to the Wittevrongels.
The Belgian brothers want to salvage the Askoy II and ship it to Antwerp for full restoration.
The Askoy II ran aground at Baylys Beach, 12km west of Dargaville, during a storm in 1994.
The vessel was owned by former Nelson harbourmaster Lindsay Wright.
Brel had sold it in 1976, and the vessel changed hands several times before Mr Wright purchased it.
A Kaipara salvage preparation team led by historical and maritime enthusiast Noel Hilliam had found that the vessel's hull was still in good condition and able to withstand the salvage operation which - finance and weather permitting - is planned for March.
The Wittevrongel family are a well-known sailmaking firm in Belgium and had constructed Askoy II's sails.
Gustav Wittevrongel was also a good friend of Brel who died of lung cancer in the late 1970s.
Mr Hilliam said a sand bank 800m long and five metres high would be built to protect the wreck if the salvage operation went ahead.
"We have done this before when we salvaged the L'Alcmene which wrecked on the coast in the early 1900s."
The vessel came to grief after skipper Lindsay Wright had received some wrong weather information.
"Lindsay had sailed some of the world's most treacherous and challenging seas and I know he would not have taken any foolish chances but he got some wrong weather information," Mr Hilliam said.
"It was just one of those unfortunate things and I remember him telling me how he scrambled up that cliff face over there and ended up in a farmer's paddock not knowing where he was," Mr Hilliam recalled.
He said 10-metre seas and 120 knot winds pushed the ketch ashore where much of it became quickly covered in sand.
