build a boat, and those two combined with the quantity of timber I had here."

The Mahogany Ship was recorded as being sighted in the sand dunes by a sealing party in 1836, with some believing it could have been the wreck of a Portuguese or Spanish caravel washed up on the shore years before Captain Cook arrived.

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Mr Wylie said his caravel was attracting plenty of interest.

"There is a Portuguese festival down here every second year and they have come out for the past few events and the Mahogany Ship committee has shown interest," he said.

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Mr Wylie's version is a bit easier to find and hundreds have visited his creation since he opened his gates to the public a monthago.

The former furniture maker said his was the only caravel in Australia and one of only a handful around the world.

"This ship, I believe, would be most accurately placed around 1480, but anywhere from 1450 to 1520 was the real main era of the caravel and that was when Europe was first making its real voyages of discovery," he said.

He said the ship was similar in size to Christopher Columbus's caravel Nina, used in his voyages to the Americas.

"Columbus had two caravels and a ship, and of the two caravels, the Nina was his smallest and his favourite one and this is pretty much the same dimensions as the Nina."

The Raven is 21 metres long, six metres wide and 17 metres high. Mr Wylie, 51, plans to sail