Richard Ogilvy with his 40ft wooden yacht Sea Wraithe which he spent several years doing up in his back garden. Photo / Caters
When Richard Ogilvy decided to spend his retirement restoring a pre-war yacht, his dearest wish was to see it take to the high seas once more.
Five-thousand man hours and three years later - not to mention £13,000 ($23,000) poorer - his dream finally appeared to be a possibility.
But once in the sea, the 75-year-old's nostalgic vision for the vintage yacht Sea Wraithe quickly became a nightmare when it began to take on water... and sank within five minutes of being launched.
In what is probably the shortest voyage in history, Ogilvy and his son Jonathan, 45, were forced to scramble to safety as the 40ft wooden craft slipped below the waves and sank to the bottom of Burghead Harbour, Moray.
Ogilvy, of nearby Forres, who was rescued by a fishing trawler, said: "The cracks were bigger than I thought and the water came gushing in. We just had time to get off.
"I was hanging on to the fishing boat as the Sea Wraith sank under me in about 12ft of water."
But clearly it takes more than that sinking feeling to get the retired forester and boomerang maker down.
He has now managed to retrieve the boat and - when it's watertight - plans to sail her six miles round the Moray Firth coast from Burghead to a new berth in Lossiemouth.
He laughed: "I will have a fast RIB shadowing us all the way. Just in case. It's been a very positive experience.
"I'd lost the thrill of yachting but this has certainly put it back into it. This is what it's all about."
The sinking was just the latest drama in the life of the yacht, one of 100 built before the Second World War to train German sailors.
Originally called Zeegeist, she was seized by the Royal Navy along with others in war reparations and almost all British service personnel who sailed offshore for the next two decades were trained on what were known as Windfall yachts, because they were procured for nothing.
The Navy gradually disposed of them to civilian buyers and Ogilvy bought his 15 years ago for £5,000 from a yachtsman on the Thames.
He added: "I've spent another £3,000 moving her about on cranes and low loaders plus £5,000 on materials."
Now his seagoing saga has spread through the yachting community like wildfire.
The high point for him, he said, has been the young people in the coffee shop who were talking about the sinking of the Sea Wraithe and the shortest voyage in history.
He joked: "I was in Starbucks in Elgin and some youngsters were talking about it.
"I said, 'Be careful what you say, because that was me'. It's taken me 75 years but I've got there in the end. I'm the talk of the town."
But he added: "Everyone has been so good. Everyone's been so cheerful and helpful." That includes his wife of 54 years, 72-year-old Susan.
Ogilvy said: "Nothing much fazes her, including this little episode. She doesn't like sailing at the best of times."
Next weekend, if Sea Wraithe had remained watertight, he had planned to be at the Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival further along the coast.
He laughed: "I was going to sail her round but my ambition now is to have her in sailing condition and show her off there next year."
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