Wellington – A New Zealand woman who is selling her ex-husband's historic sailing boat on an online auction website with a reserve of 1 New Zealand dollar, has been swamped with bids.
The auction, which started on January 2, started at 1 dollar but by Monday afternoon bids had reached 505 700 New Zealand dollars (351 664 US dollars).
The boat, a 20 metre long schooner built in 1944, is called Ruah and is insured for 800 000 New Zealand dollars, according to the advertisement put online by owner Fiona Campbell.
"I bought my seafaring husband this beautiful yacht. We had amazing trips on it and I loved sailing her," Campbell wrote on the auction website Trade Me.
"But then my husband and I divorced and I was left with the yacht."
Campbell told local website Stuff that, since putting the boat up for sale online, she has had some unusual offers.
One bidder reportedly suggested she could keep the boat and marry him instead, while others asked her out for dinner or proposed to swap it for land.
Campbell told Stuff that she was happy that the bidding price for the boat is now starting to get closer to it's actual value.
"It would have been good, but slightly heartbreaking, to sell her for a song."
"Obviously people have seen the value in her and are willing to put their money where their mouth is," she said.
Art philanthropist Campbell made her fortune as one of the early Trade Me investors when she sold her shares in the company ten years ago.
The boat auction closes on January 16.