Nicholson ketch Hurrica V, 1924.

William Oliver was never short of a quid from the time he was born in South Australia until his death in Melbourne in 1950 at the ripe old age of 97.

Born to a family of Scottish graziers, Oliver was addicted to travel and the better things in life, such as beautiful boats. In 1922, after enjoying four previous boats -- all called Hurrica -- of increasing size, he had leading British designer Charles Nicholson, of Camper and Nicholson fame, draw up the lines for a 60 foot gentleman's pleasure ketch.

The yacht, named Hurrica V, was built by WM Ford at Berrys Bay in Sydney, launched in 1924, and sailed to her new home in Melbourne where her beautiful lines and remarkable speed made her the dream boat of every yachtsman who laid eyes on her. She was just the sort of yacht that copper magnate Dan Cody, Gatsby's mentor, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s dashing Long Island playboy, would have loved.

Oliver regularly sailed the yacht around Port Phillip Bay when he wasn’t racing his 50 footer or puttering about in his motorboat.

The yacht didn’t get a lot of use in winter because in 1927 Oliver, who was then 74, escaped cold Melbourne and discovered aeroplanes and started touring the more remote parts of Outback Australia. In 1941 Oliver sold the yacht to William James Stuart of Sydney’s Darling Point, who converted he from gaffer to Bermudan rig.

Stuart didn’t get much time aboard because the vessel was commandeered by the Royal Australian Navy, stripped down, and sent to Papua New Guinea as a search-and-rescue boat -- rechristened HMAS Stingray. The yacht was restored to a sailing yacht after the war and sold to Dick Crane in 1948.

From then it went through the hands of five other owners, some of whom used it as little more than a floating holiday house in Pittwater, just north of Sydney.

When Sydney architect Steve Gunns saw the yacht on a mooring in Pittwater in 2002, she was a sad sight. Years of neglect had taken their toll and rainwater penetrating the deck had caused extensive damage to the hull and frames.

Gunns was not put off and decided to completely restore the yacht -- a task that took almost eight years. As Gunns told BoatPoint: "The costs didn’t so much escalate as explode." The restoration ended up costing $4.6 million. The yacht was stripped back to a shell and ribs and planking repaired. All the hull fastenings were replaced, as were the massive bronze keel bolts.

New masts and spars were built from laminated hollow spruce by the UK’s premier wooden mast maker, Collars, and shipped to Sydney. The original engine was replaced and the new donk fitted with a v-drive so it no longer had to sit in the middle of the saloon.

Gunns also adjusted the interior. Originally the yacht had the galley in the bow, a single berth owner’s cabin and the crew berths in a crawl space under the cockpit.

The redesign saw two berths in the coach house and three double cabins and two bathrooms below. The galley was brought aft and fitted with cleverly hidden modern aids such as a freezer, a fridge and a microwave oven. Gunns sourced Italian made 'oil lamps' that matched the originals but which provide light from low-drain LEDs. "I wanted the interior of the yacht to look like a gentlemen’s club," Gunns told BoatPoint.

When the mammoth project was completed, Gunns and his crew sailed the boat to Hobart for the annual wooden boat festival and, not surprisingly, were a real standout. Electric halyard and sheet winches, bow thruster, furlers and catch bags, lazyjacks for amin and mizzen, and fitted covers make for both ease of handling and maintenance

Now faced with the weekend sporting demands of two children, aged 5 and 8, Gunns doesn’t get to sail Hurrica V was much as he’d like, so he is hoping she will find a new owner with more time on his or her hands.

But he became so devoted to the restoration project that he is looking for another neglected classic vessel to bring back to its former glory. Meantime, Hurrica V, which won best presented yacht at SASC's Gaffer's Day, will be on display at next month's Sydney International Boat Show.

Film fans around the world will get to see Hurrica V at Christmas when she stars in Baz Lehrmann’s remake of The Great Gatsby as the playboy’s yacht.