An ageing yacht has stayed afloat overnight, to the relief of locals, after weeks stranded in the sand and seaweed at an Adelaide beach.
The vessel reportedly hit bad weather in mid-July, but plans to tow it into Port Adelaide for repairs came adrift when the towing dingy floated away.
Since then it has been stranded at North Haven Beach.
Excavator Bill Haros was asked by the Port Adelaide and Enfield Council to free the boat and pull it into the water on Wednesday where it was hoped it would survive the overnight tide.
"It's still floating," he said.
Mr Haros dubbed the yacht the S.S.Minnow after the fictional charter boat that ran aground in the popular 1960s television show, Gilligan's Island.
Riddled with wood rot and pocked with holes, Mr Haros did not have high hopes for the yacht.
"I don't want to put something down, and hopefully I'm wrong, but I can see the writing on the wall," he said after pulling the boat into a metre of water on Wednesday.
Plans come adrift
The boat has repeatedly run into trouble.
At North Haven, it was anchored offshore but its moorings broke and it ended up on the beach.
The owners and volunteers dug a channel around the boat so it could float again on the tide but their attempts repeatedly failed, leaving the beached vessel to become the subject of bemused media headlines and onlookers.
By Tuesday, the council had run out of patience and asked A Haros & Sons Earthmoving for help.
"I dug around it first because I didn't want to damage the boat," Mr Haros said.
"Once the sling was around it, it literally took me a minute to drag it out."
Out of trouble
Mr Haros, who helps manage dunes and sand along the shore, has pulled "all sorts of stuff" out of trouble before, including bulldozers and excavators.
The council offered to pay him for his latest recovery but Mr Haros refused, saying he "just wanted to get someone out of trouble".
"There were a lot of people helping, which was great, a good effort," he said.
Mayor Claire Boan was among those helping and said the owner now planned to use another boat to tow the yacht to a slip at Port Adelaide for repairs.
She said it was not the first time a boat had become stranded on the beach.
"I reckon about 18 months ago, there was a similar story, but it's not a common occurrence, thankfully," Cr Boan said.
