DAY SIX – BULLETIN – TUES 11TH
On the big silver bird today heading back to Auckland. Today we have a glimpse at a rather fine speed boat – MISS JAMAR that caught both my self and Angus Rogers eye.
Powered by a 383 ci Chev V8.
DAY FIVE – BULLETIN – MONDAY 10TH
DAY FIVE – BULLETIN – MONDAY 10TH
Today woodys we have a gallery of photos of the 1895 Bailey Brothers built yacht – TE UIRA. She was one of the first NZ designed and built racing craft to be exported to Australia (Victoria, Melbourne).
TE UIRA has had a colorful past and been very close to a Beehive restoration several times. Luckily she found the right owner who commissioned a full restoration that was only completed late last year by Cygnet Wooden Boats.
Won’t bore you with the full details but lost my IPhone yesterday, spent hours visiting lost & found + police etc but there are some honest people out there and later in the day I recovered it. So relived.
Lunch was a shared pizza – very good 😋
DAY FOUR – BULLETIN – Sunday 9th
Four seasons in one day today on the weather front but all good post mid day.
Some serious culture today via museum and gallery visits then dock mooching to snap the woodys I’d not photographed and then some R&R at the local watering holes. Public holiday on Monday so crowds could be a little OTT.
Bumped into anyone and everyone that matters in the trans Tasman classic wooden boating scene and made a few new friends.
Lots of activity at the Pacific exhibition, with Johnny Wray’s – NGATAKI, stealing the limelight.
Back at the hotel our wallaby mate came around for dinner and bought the whole family 😄
DAY THREE – BULLETIN – Saturday 8th
The first gallery of photos above were taken early evening yesterday, taking advantage of the best light.
Today was overcast all day and a tad cold. A little bit of sightseeing and dining then the ‘Dinghies After Dark’ function at the City Hall. Lots of Kiwis in attendance which is always nice.
It was also time to move on from the fish diet – Beef Cheek Wellington and discovered a new ginger beer ✔️
Also woke up very early and meet a visitor on the lawn, could have been worse eg a snake.
OFFICIAL OPEN DAY
DAY TWO – BULLETIN – Friday 7th
OFFICIAL OPENING DAY
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.
DAY ONE – BULLETIN – Thursday 6th
Hello woodys
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?
Your free ticket will get you into all of these presentations:
+ 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
ONLY TWO THROTTLE SETTING ON MY GIRL – IDLE AND FULL CHAT
Some woodys are pure speed demons eg MY GIRL (#51) below and others with the help of a heart transplant can still lift up their skirts and show a good turn of speed – NGAIO (blue boat) and PACIFIC (white) two good example below.
TUGBOAT RACE START
2025 ANNIVERSARY DAY INNER HARBOUR MOTORBOAT RACING
Due to the weather on the weekend I was able to attend the anniversary day regatta motor boat events on board Jason Prew’s launch – MY GIRL.
The two gigs are the Tug & Workboat Race and the Classic Launch Race – known around the waterfront as as the Tug Off and the Drag Race.
The commercial boats were first away and are always a sight to behold – so much horse power – and great to a mix of very old – WILLIAM C DALBY and current working waterfront tugs.
The main event for me is the launch race, pulled together each year by Jason Prew – it is a handicap race but the adrenalin kicks in and the launch skippers are going at full throttle most of the race. Race results below.
I wouldn’t be true to my DNA if I didn’t comment about the continuing demise of the regatta – each year less and less vessels turning out – aside from small beach launched yachts, the motor boats would have to be the two biggest categories in the regatta. And a very concerning sign – no Navy ship in the harbour as the VIP grandstand………. just saying.
Enjoy the photo / video gallery.
NOTE – AFTER A TECH ISSUE UPLOADING VIDEOS YESTERDAY – WE HAVE RESOLVED THE FAULT AND HAVE ADDED SOME GREAT SAILING FOOTAGE TO YESTERDAYS MAHURANGI REGATTA STORY – SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW.
2025 MAHURANGI REGATTA WEEKEND – 75+ Classic Wooden Boat Photos
Well that wasn’t the woody weekend I‘m sure we all planned, but it was still a magic weekend and just goes too prove that classic wooden boat enthusiasts don’t let a lot of wind and rain get in the way of a good time.
The trip up on Friday afternoon / evening as uneventful (unless your woodys named – TAWERA, who ‘lost’ 2.5m off the top of her mast) and most anchored in and around Scott’s Landing.
Then it went down hill on Saturday morning – confusion around the start time for the launch parade – 1/2 the boats thought 10am, now I’m told it did say 9.30 in the classic yacht club newsletter, but……. the % of launches there that were members would have been less than 20%, so the parade was very patchy with skippers joining at different times. Numbers were down and the loop of Sullivan’s Bay was embarrassing- less than 20 people on the beach and I suspect they had no idea what was going on. BUT – still good to get together. Parade aside there was an impressive number of classic wooden launches in the harbour, in terms of pure classic craft , launches would have out numbered yachts by 4:1Most turning up to just enjoy the weekends activity on the water.
As the morning wore on the wind and seas picked up – resulting in some spectacular sailing in the Mahurangi Regatta yacht race. Amazing that they was no carnage, that I’m aware of.
Below is a selection of photos that Jason Prew took from his launch – MY GIRL. I have several videos put have tech issues with uploading – will sort and add asap. I’m sure there will be more fleet coverage on social media.
Post the boating activities the weather turned ugly and the smart people left Scott’s Landing for Pukapuka Inlet. The shore based activities would have been dampened down by the weather but the true blue woodys partied on. Big ups to Nick Atkinson and mates who entertained the revellers from the back of a truck. The normal 20+ piece jazz band was absent this year but from everyone I spoke to – I think Nick has a permeant gig.
The forecast for Sunday was evil, anything that has 50 knots in it is a big red flag. Then the heavens opened up and we had everything- wind , rain, lightening all night. Not a lot of sleep was had that night. Woke to no rain and wind down a little but forecast wasn’t good so made the call to cancel heading to Kawau and waited in Pukapuka for the weather to improve enough for a dash (not sure 8 knts is worthy of that term on RAINDANCE) home. Which we did.
Sad I missed hanging out at the Kawau Boating Club on Sunday night, but the upside was I scored a ride on Jason Prew’s – MY GIRL in the anniversary day launch race – full report tomorrow.
Enjoy the photo gallery 🙂 And remember to click on photos to enlarge.
MOOCHING AROUND WEST-PARK HAUL OUT
Earlier in the week I had a good excuse to visit the West-park Marina, so I took the opportunity to do a lap of the hardstand area. Very few boats out, but given we are in the height of summer, there shouldn’t be many there.
It was great to see the 48’ classic cruiser – RANUI – built in 1948 by Lidgard out for some TLC. Read more about her here https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/07/08/ranui-a-peek-down-below/
The second woody in the line was the 43’ – MANAPOURI, built by Hector Parks. She is on the down hill run of a 2+ year restoration – read more on the project at the link below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/11/28/manapouri-refit/
Update ex the Mahurangi Regatta – MANAPOURI did a sneaky launching and made it to the regatta – photo below
Lastly the 1909 Bailey & Lowe built woody – STERLING, out it appeared for a shave in anticipation of her appearance in Mondays anniversary regatta tug & work boat race. This old girls is very quick, I suspect the handicappers will have a good memory and she might struggle to win on handicap, but always a contender for line honours 😉
IF YOU ARE AT A LOOSE END TOMORROW MORNING (MONDAY) GET DOWN TO WESTHAVEN / WATERFRONT – there will be some spectacular motorboat action on the water
10am The Tug & Workboats start their race from off Westhaven / RNZYS
11am The Jason Prew celebratory classic launch race starts also off Westnhaven / RNZYS
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