How Irish inspiration and an old horse float brought a warmth to Port Fairy

Sitting in a modified horse float in Port Fairy the weather outside is cold and crisp, but inside water is splashed on stones and steam rises. Subscribe now for unlimited access. or signup to continue reading SAVE $119 All articles from our website & app The digital version of Today's Paper All other in your area The tradition of saunas dates back thousands of years and after spending time in Ireland, Port Fairy's Claire Graham noticed going to a sauna wasn't something you did once in a while; it was a ritual. With her partner Jack Waterson, who is a steel fabricator by trade, they wanted to create their own ritual on the beaches of Port Fairy for everyone to enjoy. Claire Graham and partner Jack Waterson turned an old horse float into a traditional sauna. Picture by Jennah King Photography The couple bought an old horse float on Facebook Marketplace and had the dream to turn it into a wood-fired sauna. "He (Jack) is capable in his ability to make stuff, but we'd never made a sauna before and didn't really know that much about that process," Ms Graham said. "We would research it, but at the end of the day the whole time were were making the sauna up until we were able to light the fire a year later, we didn't know if it was going to work." To their relief, it worked. They called it "Pony Sauna". The traditional sauna operates at South Beach, Ritchie Street and Little East on varying days across weekends. "It takes about two hours to get hot and then we just drive down to our spot, leave it there for the day and take it home at the end of the day," Ms Graham said. The wood is collected from wherever they can source it - friends, wood reserves and even properties that are doing a bit of clean-up. Ms Graham had aspirations to one day open a restaurant and was doing her chef apprenticeship, planning to go into the industry. Her family heritage is Irish and a few years ago she decided to go to a culinary school on an organic farm in Cork. "It was a 3-month cooking school where you cook every day and you cook for everyone on the farm, it was an amazing experience," Ms Graham said. She noticed at any beach no matter the size, there were sauna setups that she and her friends would go to. "We always had such a nice time, we connected with the people that we were in the sauna with, you'd end up having these really great chats and leave feeling amazing," Ms Graham said. The travelling sauna can be spotted on Port Fairy beaches on varying weekend days. Picture by Jennah King Photography "I thought when I was over there, 'God this would work really well in Port Fairy', it's a similar climate." After arriving back from Ireland, she continued her chef work, but a broken leg from surfing derailed her plans. "I went back to studying," she said. "I'd come back from overseas and I thought 'that's right, I'm going to work all summer', and then I broke my leg a month later, I had no money. There was no way back into the kitchen." She started studying primary teaching. The couple sat on the sauna idea but decided to give it a go. "It was a lot of work to get here. I'm so happy that we've actually got this business off the ground, because we did talk about it for so long," Ms Graham said. "Starting a business, I always was thinking about doing it at some point, but I always though it was going to be a restaurant. "I'm where I thought I was going to be, but maybe it looks a bit different." Ms Graham said she knew people would be excited to use it, but whether there would be return customers was the question. "I know people are going to love it once they try it, but it's whether or not we can get people using it as a regular part of their routine," she said. They wanted it to be for the community year round, not just a one-off thing during the busier months. "We wanted to be able to provide something for our local community. We've had people coming back every week since we opened, people from Hamilton, Portland and Warrnambool, we even had people from Melbourne as well," she said. For Ms Graham and Mr Waterson, they have loved the small things about the new venture, such as watching strangers become friends through their sauna. "It has been the best part. People are sometimes a little bit closed off when they first get there and they're maybe a bit nervous or just trying something new," she said. "By the end of the session, they're like 'oh my God, that was great'. Their body language is all open and they want to have a chat and you can hear them laughing in the sauna together or you see groups of people running out into the water. "It's really nice to see." As it happens Breaking news alert Be the first to know when news breaks.