Matching a famous ship
It has taken a Northmead resident two and a half years and approximately 29 000 matches to patiently built a detailed scale-model of the famous HMS Victory.
HMS Victory was Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Jan van Wyk (81) started the ambitious project in October 2010 and finished it in May, this year.
He set out to build the ship after his daughter started buying weekly parts of the HMS Victory from a chain store.
Van Wyk thought he could do the same; only he did it with matches.
Some days he would sit for nine hours and delicately position the matches to create the ship,which is 1,1m long and 88cm high.
“I am a patient person and I am becoming frustrated now, because I have nothing to do,’’ said van Wyk.
‘‘It was a challenge and that kept me going.’’
He does not have any immediate plans to sell the ship, as he feels he cannot put a price on it.
Van Wyk built a match model of the Campanile (bell tower), in Port Elizabeth, in 1977 and 1978.
