The Icelandic government decided yesterday to renovate the vessel Kútter Sigurfari, which has been on dry land in Akranes in west Iceland for 30 years and has become a symbol for the town.
The government has decided to put ISK 60 millions (EUR 658,000, USD 851,000) into the renovation project and the goal is for Kútter Sigurfari to set out to sea again within five years. RÚV reports.
The ship has been decaying in Akranes harbor for three decades and expert say renovation has to begin immediately if this last monument of the age of sailing ships in Iceland is to be saved.
Minister of Education Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir and Gunnar Sigurdsson, head of the Akranes Town Council, signed an agreement yesterday about government involvement in the renovation project and in the maintenance of Kútter Sigurfari.
The sailing ship was built of oak in England in 1885 and has 86 small holds. It was used for fishing off the coast of Iceland until 1919 and thereafter in the Faroe Islands until 1970.
About 30 years ago, Jón M. Gudjónsson, a priest in Akranes, made it his work to see that Kútter Sigurfari was brought back to Iceland.
