Today was when the waterfront comes alive, yesterday you could have fired a shotgun and not hit anyone but overnight and thru out the day the classic wooden craft kept pouring into the surrounding areas.
The highlight of day one is the ‘Parade of Sail’ that sees 11 Tall Sailing Ships and over 200 craft sail up the Derwent River and into Sullivan Cove to mark the start of the festival. At the 2023 festival I was aboard the 110’ brigantine – WESTWARD BOUND, this year I choose the very fast and stable media boat. A perfect platform to capture the event.
Today woodys I post a snapshot of the day and share our culinary highlights- the seafood is next level in Tasmania.
I’m now in wooden boat heaven – attending the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Arrived yesterday mid morning and to use that wonderful Aussie saying – ‘ I’m as happy as a dog with two tails. I attended the 2023 festival and quickly became hooked – search Australian Wooden Boat Festival in the WW search box to view that trip.
I’m adopting a different reporting style this festival – rather than doing massive photo posts each day – there will be some narrative on what we have been up to and some BOATS of THE DAY photos, then at the end of the trip there will be one big story. Why you may ask – well last trip I spent 1/2 my time bent over my laptop editing photos and loading up via very average hotel internet services.
This year I will be trying to enjoy the occasion more and meet more woodys and visit their craft dockside.
Each year the festival has a theme – The 2025 festival celebrates Australia’s deep maritime connections across the Tasman Sea, featuring the debut of Te Karangatahi, the Māori waka taua, and a lineup of NZ vessels including NGATAKI, LADY GAY and TE RAPUNGA. There will be talks, open to the public, on the restoration of NGATAKI and the saving of the DEEMING. These vessels are well known to the followers of WW, so the cameras will be mainly focusing on the hundreds of stunning Australian wooden craft that make up the festival – so I apologise in advance to the connections of these Kiwi boats. 🙂
Lots of activity down at the waterfront as all the festival crew are setting up.
Tomorrow I’m out on the water for the event that marks the start of the festival – the Sail In’ – it’s very spectacular.
WORLDWIDE CLASSIC BOAT SHOW- FREE ACCESS TICKET FOR WW READERS
As you read this I’ll be winging my way to Hobart for the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival. There will be daily posts of the best thats on display so check in each day.
Readers of WW will be familiar with my addiction to the USA based v-blog OFF CENTER HARBOR, one of the super cool gigs these guys pull together is the annual WORLDWIDE CLASS BOAT SHOW, which waitematawoodys is co-sponsoring this year. The online show kicks off on February 14th – and as a WW reader you get a Free Ticket to the Worldwide Classic Boat Show
See over 1,200 of the world’s best wooden boats at the show. The show is 100% online/virtual, February 14 to March 2nd, so you’ll get free access to everything from your favorite lounge chair at home. You can CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE TICKET/PASS.
WHAT’S AT THE SHOW?
World Map – Everything related to classic boats on one interactive world map
Boats – Beautiful photos and details of 1,200+ of the world’s best classic boats
Organizations – Explore festivals, boatbuilders, clubs, museums, schools, etc.
Live Presentations – Inspiring presentations featuring experts on a variety of topics
People – Connect with other attendees anywhere in the world (right on the map)
Your free ticket will get you into all of these presentations:
Arctic Solo Sailor Veronica Skotnes
Yacht Restoration w/ Dave Snediker
Indigenous and African Maritime Legacies w/ Akeia de Barros Gomes
Why Are These the Best Boat Festivals? w/ Port Townsend, France, and Australia
Two-Tim Race to Alaska Winner Jeanne Goussev
Marine Systems w/ Kevin Ritz from NWSWB
Small Boat Design w/ John Welsford, Clint Chase, and Ross Lillistone
+ SUBMIT YOUR OWN BOAT: They’re still accepting boat submissions too, so you can CLICK HERE to submit your own boat to be in the show. Enjoy the show
03-02-2025 INPUT ex COLIN BROWN – photo below of a painting Colin has of ROMANY in the shed at Whangateau boat shed.
A CELEBRATION OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN STEAM BOAT – ROMANY
The top photo above is on my permeant laptop screen saver rotation i.e. one of my favourite woody boating images. The craft is Russell Ward’s steam boat – ROMANY and I have been taking photos of her for over 10 years. Just after I took this photo myself and Murray Deeble joined Russell for a very special early morning cruise around Lake Rotoiti.
The year was Feb 2014 and the annual Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade had been postponed 24 hrs due to inclement weather (mainly fog). Given that ROMANY takes several hours to fire / steam up Russell was keen to head out anyway, so Deeble and I hopped aboard. A very memorable day, made even more special by ‘visiting’ (gate crashing) several waterfront holiday homes along the way.
What prompted todays story was Russell sent in two photo of the new engine for ROMANY, in the final stages of assembly – I would not like like to be funding that project – looks very $$$. I’m sure Russell will had some details on the new engine.
Enjoy the photos, mainly taken at LRC&WBF’s over the last decade.
The 1962 Des Donovan designed and built launch – ATHENA has made several appearances on WW and has had a very colourful life.
She is 48’ in length, has a beam of 12’11” and draws 5’5”. Forward motion is from a 127hp Gardner 6LX.
When I arrived last Friday night at Scotts Landing, Mahurangi I dropped anchor alongside ATHENA and was greeted by an old friend Dave Holmes who had just purchased her.
A great back story – owned by a Coromandel farmer who undertook a 10 year refit on her. All the interior wood was felled and milled on his property. Dave had been aware the ATHENA had been on/off the market for over a year and approached the owner and made an offer – sold.
So the Mahurangi Regatta weekend was really the shake down cruise.
I was invited aboard for a sun-downer and took the photos above. A few exterior items that need addressing but Dave is the man for that, having once owner the launch – WAIMIGA.
One of the things that makes ATHENA so special is she is a member of the sub-mariners club – Cameron Pollard told us the story a few years ago – “ATHENA ran over a bit of NZ ( like many still do) and sadly when the tide dropped so did the boat and she filled up and skidded off the rock. Story has it she was lost for quite a few days as the tide took her for a underwater voyage. When she was later found and salvaged the mud and foul inside her was quite unreal.” Photo below (ex K Ricketts) of the opps
So to see her on Friday living her best life was very special and testament to the skills of the tradespeople that have worked on her in recent years.
Todays woody is the launch – ROSELLA. I was sent the above photo by John Dawson who saw it in a classic yachting newsletter. Accompanying the photo was an update on the craft from her current owner – Danvers Devereux.
“We rescued ROSELLA a few years ago due to our connection with Great Barrier Island, producing the Great Barrier Island Bee Co range of body care products. We were fascinated with the island’s history as well as classic boats.
ROSELLA was built in 1928 by the Voss boat builders at Westhaven for the Blackwell family. She became well known for carrying the Barrier Island honey and produce back to the wharfs in Auckland to be traded. Because of this she became known as “the honey boat”
She also made many mercy missions with Adam Blackwell to help the sick or injured off the “Barrier”. She was like the Westpac helicopter back in her day!
We found her by chance and luck, high in the Coromandel ranges, ironically next to some beehives! No trucking company could assist due to 4WD access, so it was down to some Kiwi DIY, a long trailer and a Land Rover, followed by a 7-hour drive back to Matakana. She is now parked outside our Great Barrier Island honey gallery/museum.We hope to explore opportunities this year on how we can go about possibly restoring her.”
Back in Oct 2022 W ran a story on a launch also named ROSELLA,, as seen in the photo below. At the time we were trying to learn more about her – ex a Lew Redwood fb story we learnt that the photo was from the Auckland Library Heritage collection and was tagged 1930>1939. The location was Falls Park, Henderson, West Auckland. Sadly we learnt no more. So woodys – todays question is – are these two craft the same or just share the same name.
24-01-2025 input EX HAROLD KIDD – I think that the Falls Park launch is the 24 footer ROSELLE (not ROSELLA) built in May 1914 by/for Peter A Smith of St Mary’s Bay for Reeves Currie with an Alpha engine.
IS ANYONE BUILDING REAL WOODEN BOATS IN NEW ZEALAND
I’m a big fan of The Wooden Boatshop in Sorrento, Melbourne, Australia.Tim Phillips OAM and his team turn out the most amazing craft – both traditional and spirit of tradition.If you haven’t already checked out their website, do it now. Every post is classic boat porn. Link below + sign up for their e-newsletter and follow on fbook.https://woodenboatshop.com.au
Back to todays headline – I hope I’m wrong but is anyone (professionally) working to this standard? We kill Australia when it comes to the size of your classic movement both in terms of numbers and boats on the water, but sadly we have a very small number of artisans doing mainly restorations and repairs.
Today on WW we showcase the recent (late 2024) launching of – BETTY , a Couta boat built by The Wooden Boatshop.Read more on Couta boats and TWBS at this link https://woodenboatshop.com.au/Couta-Boat
Tim Phillips is even a fan of WW (photo below es 2023 AWBF) – or maybe he just needed a clean, dry shirt after crossing the Bass Straight on his 1925 built ex workboat – STORM BAY Check out the 10 year conversion / restoration here https://woodenboatshop.com.au/Storm-Bay
HOW TO MAKE ONE OF THE BEST LOOKING CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCHES LOOK BETTER
In a Dec 21st story we did a fly-by of the last minute, year end work happening at the Slipway Milford. I mentioned that the 36’1921 Arch Logan built launch – NGAIO was hauled out to have a set of davits fitted to accomodate the recently refurbished clinker (f/glass) tender. Fast forward to this week and the Slipway team, which included owner Jan Barraclough, are putting the final touched to the new set-up and the sinks got a ’sea-trial’ in the creek.
Well done to everyone – a stunning executed project.
CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASSIC LAUNCH – JAN MAREE
Recently WW was contacted by Hamish Moore regarding the classic launch – JAN MAREE, that in Hamish’s words is in the family stable and has resided on Lake Taupo for many a year. The family are short on her history and Hamish was wondering if any of the WW followers might know more about her. The WW post on the Vindex RENA brought some more thoughts to Hamish’s mind and having recently had JAN MAREE surveyed for insurance and the gears have been turning to find out more about her.
What we think we know about JAN MAREE – she was in the Bay Of Islands owned and used by one family line and ownership changed to another family line, Taupo based. Her specs are 33’9” x 10’9” x 3’3″ What everyone would like to know is :-
• Confirm design (Vindex?)- • Who built her and where • Tales of her life on BOI She lives in a shed on Lake Taupo and is enjoyed by family members for fishing, recreational and sightseeing.
JAN MAREE was recently hauled out and trucked to Auckland and underwent some TLC. • New Heart transplant, now a 320 Cummins • Hull Maintenance and replacement of all skin fittings. • Remove and plug all redundant fittings. • New Dash and systems upgrades, to complement the new Engine package. • New Paint and varnish. The above work was completed by :- • The Boatbuilders, HMB, • Ray Bryant Marine • Halfmoon Bay Electrical. • Gloss Boat, Tāmaki Park
The count down to the xmas / ny break always sees a few last minute opps / can I / any chance of – phone calls to our boat yards.
I popped down to the Slipway Milford for the annual donut-fest and it was wall to wall woodys.
One of our finest had an emergency haulout for a ‘LEAKING’ water pipe that had also destroyed a rib/s – all fixed and two replacement ribs, done in 24hours. Boat name will remain anonymous. But a good reminder to check in all those hard to reach areas 😉
One of my bucket list boats the Arch Logan 1921 NGAIO was hauling for the addition of a set of davits to house the new (restored) dinghy. More photos when completed.
ALOHA, 1926 Charles Robinson, out for some deferred maintenance and TLC .
EILEEN PATRICA , 1933 A Couldrey, was getting the final touches with a JPPJ paint job and winter maintenance.
Woody Bill Rimmer (POCO LENTO) sent in the photo below, I’d like to think the bird is resting, but I’m sure a few grumpy old CYA members hope its about to take a poop 🙂
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