Australia's last ever pilot cutter vessel is at risk of being scrapped if $12,000 isn't raised urgently.

Even Clive Palmer has had a role to play in the Wyuna's history. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

For the past 18 months, the Wyuna has been anchored unmanned off Beauty Point in Tasmania's Tamar River.

The vessel's owners, the Western Port Oberon Association in Victoria, said they have been told by Tasmanian Authorities if the vessel is not moved by Tuesday it "will be seized and most likely sold off for scrap metal".

"I just shudder to think, there would be a lot of people heartbroken," Western Port Oberon Association governor Ian Heraud said.

"We've reached the point of where we've got to act, we've got to do something or lose her."

Mr Heraud said the boat had run out of chances after more than a decade of inaction and that raising the money needed for travel costs was the only way to save Wyuna.

"There'll be none of this 'we'll see what happens in a month's time', we've got to be committed in the process of moving her by the 24th," he said.

"If we can show the money is there and we are making steps to move, I hope that if we need (we will get a) few more days of leeway."

The Wyuna even played a part in Australia's 1987 America's Cup defence. ( Supplied )

From 2004 to 2013 the Wyuna was moored in Launceston as prominent business figures Clive Palmer and Gillian Swaby both failed to act on plans for the vessel.

The ship was then donated to the Western Port Oberon Association, who in 2014 launched an ill-fated bid to move her to Melbourne.

"Before the ship had even got out the mouth of the Tamar a message came through saying that the berth no longer existed," he said.

"In fact the person that had organised it, had turned out hadn't been incredibly truthful."

In a statement to the ABC, TasPorts confirmed it was working with the Wyuna's owners to move the vessel but said that no deadline had been set for its departure.

Western Port Oberon Association president Max Bryant, who was part of the Wyuna's first attempt to leave Tasmania, said it was vital they try again to preserve the ship's history, which dates back to 1953.

"She's certainly the last seagoing riveted ship in Australia and she is the last pilot cutter of her type in the world, so she is a significant historic vessel," he said.

"It would be a terrible loss to our maritime history to lose such a vessel, we just can't afford to have it happen, that's all it is to it."

"We have to save this vessel."

Michael Tuck remembered a surgical incident on the Wyuna's chart table. ( ABC News: Georgie Burgess )

Ship host to Hollywood stars and makeshift toe surgery

The Wyuna was originally used to house maritime pilots off Port Phillip Bay who would then help other vessels navigate through the difficult waters.

In 1979 it was sold to the Australian Maritime College in Tasmania and used to teach thousands of students.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman saw in 2000 on the Wyuna. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"They'd have an annual intake of 10 cadets and they'd do their basic seamanship training, navigational training before they were actually turned loose on ships for real," said former shipwright Michael Tuck.

Beyond the classroom Wyuna was used as a support boat in Australia's 1987 America's Cup defence in Western Australia and in four Sydney to Hobart yacht races.

Mr Tuck recalled when in the 1985 race it even became a floating operating theatre.

"The genoa sheet hooked around this man's foot and three quarters tore his toe off," he said.

"They called us over because everybody knew we did have a doctor on board and the doctor did a successful amputation of his toe."

Mr Tuck said the procedure took place "on the chart table of the Wyuna and using the ABC cameraman's outside lights so she could see what she was doing".

"There have been other incidents but that was probably the most dramatic."

In more recent years, Mr Bryant said the Wyuna hosted a New Years Eve Party attended by Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise to bring in the millennium on Sydney Harbour.

"That's legitimate because the bosun onboard who I know very well, Max Cassidy: Nicole kissed him on the cheek and I don't think he has washed his face since."

If the Western Port Oberon Association can raise the money and find a temporary berth in Melbourne for the Wyuna, it plans to one day build a purpose-built museum at Hastings along with submarine HMAS Otama.

While there are preliminary plans for the tourist attraction, the Victorian Government said it is yet to be presented with a business case or detailed application request.