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
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.
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
I KNOW ITS NOT WOOD – BUT IT CERTAINLY LOOKS THE PART
Last week we ran a story on the Okura Gig clinker dinghy that the owner of the the Logan launch NGAIO had just restored and ‘fitted’ to the launches stern.
Todays story is in response to the number of emails I received asking for more details on the dinghy, and in the fact I got tired of sending responses.
Just prior to the xmas break I had cause to visit Warkworth, ok I’ll tell the truth – I was buying a pie on route to Sandspit marina 🙂
Rather than fill the car with crumbs, I went for a stroll down to the riverfront dockside. As always there was a very salty looking collection of craft tied up.
Most of the craft will be attending the 2025 Mahurangi Cruising Club Regatta later this month (Jan 25th) – the biggest gathering of classic craft afloat in New Zealand, refer flyer below.
CAN WE ID THESE WOODEN CRAFT WASHED ASHORE AT BROWNS BAY
Todays images come to us from a fb post by Mungo Lloyd via Chris Leech.
Mungo commented that they came from his grandfathers photo album and showed the boats washed ashore on Browns Bay beach after breaking their moorings during a severe easterly storm in the 1950’s.
Todays report comes to us from the camera of Bay of Islands photographer – Dean Wright. Dean snapped this gallery of craft over the xmas period in and around the bay.
Some familiar faces here and a few newbies – Dean commented that “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes a Maritimo with a XOS six person island pool float. Every wooden boat should have one or two… Yee gods what next” – photo below Enjoy the stunning photos – As always – click on photos to enlarge😉
What you buy when you can’t quite afford a beachfront bach at Omaha
The video below showing LADY ADELAIDE leaving Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island gives you a look at some of the weather closer to Auckland. Sent in by Andrew Sunde.
Todays woody comes to us tme via Ian McDonald and is the 34’4” motor sailer -SAFARI. What we know is she was built in 1950 by Cox and has undergone a recent refit inside and out. Powered by a 52hp 3 cyl. Fordson diesel engine.
Home is Lyttleton, South island.
Keen to learn more about this very salty looking woody.
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