The child of Cambodian refugees Rita found her way to boats via a ‘curiosity of floating’. This led her to questioning, how do boats work? Having just completed a three month introduction to boatbuilding, this young shipwright is looking for an apprenticeship. Can you help her?

“I have always been a bit eccentric and done my own thing. My mother thought it would ruin my skin and make me unladylike, which it did, and I wasn’t encouraged. So that for me was a great challenge, I did it in spite of everybody.” From teaching sailing during WW2, to commissioning her own boats and founding a magazine - Sheila’s story remains an inspiration.

THE SHANK RETURNS for anyone who wishes to turn the pages of adventure on the high seas, or plans to visit Tasmania's wild South West Coast for themselves to write adventures of their own. 
If however the latter is your preference, make sure you heed Ian's warning, "Are you ready for this?”

In the words of custodian Juha Sironen - “My original plans are not feasible anymore and I am tired. I have brought KALUA home and there she will stay. I will auction her as soon as I get import approval.” The fate of KALUA awaits.

My friend Justine grew up on Big Rat. She remembers tiger sharks ramming the hull of her dad’s fishing boat and watching a whirlpool of fins, waiting for a bucket of guts to be tipped over the side. This was all I knew of the Abrolhos. Islands have always attracted writers and readers as rich fictional microcosms. Here’s a review of three books perfect for a Christmas on deck read.

FLIGHT was used as a Patrol Boat on the Tamar River in the last years of the War. Thereafter , she was used as a pleasure craft, the Flag Vessel for the Derwent Sailing Squadron and hosted the Queen and Prince Phillip during the Royal Tour of 1954

When did Asian spices first step off the Spice Route and make their way into Australian bush tucker? Did Aboriginal people and Asian people trade before European Settlement? Enter the Macassans and what Mathew Flinders referred to as, The Malay Road.

Recently I heard, via the SWS grapevine, EGRET is alive - she’s in Beashel’s shed in Elvina Bay. So, this week, for SWS, I’ll rekindle old love and write an article about EGRET. I’ll call Colin and find out what’s going on with the vessel, I believe to be one of the most beautiful in Australia.

Recently the clever people at the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, in conjunction with the Queenscliff Literature Festival received over 600 suggestions in response to a rather unusual competition. The aim? To find a word to describe a group of lighthouses. In other words the competition sought to find an official collective noun.

And along the way, we’ve met people like you who appreciate the craft, relish in the history and simple enjoy the stories and beautiful images that seem to turn up in their inbox on a weekly basis…Jokes and melancholia aside - here’s the BUT - we really need your help.

I’m sitting at 35,000ft, watching Tucci devour sardines, the place he visited next, grabs my attending – there on a rocky beach, a ‘boat graveyard’ – a sandbank of discarded, impounded wooden boats, makeshift craft, roughly hammered together, cut down from bigger craft, wooden boats used by migrants crossing the waters from Africa.

She first met Julian, the man not the boat, at the Shakespeare Hotel - an irony not lost upon her, for Julian was a fisherman with a sonnet in his heart and his very own name on the stern.

“I came to understand that life is best to be lived with many adventures, preferably enjoyed on or by the water.”

John Brown suggested it - a round up of the D Boys. I was curious, how is it that this group of kids from Kettering, or there-abouts, has jumped on board the Derwent Class? Not as crew, but as custodians. Fully engaged, fully into it and loving their D’s. Listen to this wonderful conversation and be inspired.

The Kettering Wooden Boat Rally 2022 – if you didn’t happen to make it, here’s what you missed. Welcome to a place where you can smell the wood shavings. Here varnish is thick, history alive and passion is real. Old boats are and always have been, a way of life in Tasmania. Old boats don’t come to Kettering to die, they come here to thrive.

In 1922, on a remote beach in Western Australia, a group of Australian Scientists proved Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to be correct.

“The final tally - twenty two years dreaming, three years courtship, four months work, six dozen beers, 40 pies, 2 sanders, five rolls of sand paper, fourteen brushes, twelve rollers, two pairs of overalls, one iPhone dropped twice from the scaffold, much profanity, lots of advice, unexpected help from great people and in the end a beautiful boat.”

Vendee Globe sailor, Bruce Schwab, calls himself a certified boat bum. Then, humbly adds, he’s ‘sailed around the world a couple of times’. Watch the restoration of – THE IMPROBABLE. Not so much a restoration, it’s more a design update.

It is impossible to stand under Lonsdale Lighthouse and not wonder just how those early pilots guided a ship into this harbour. And, how did those on board feel, after a 6 month journey, from the other side of the world.

This week, we’re not tracking the Fastnet, or the Sydney to Hobart. This week we’re tracking the great classics; the survivalists of the ocean – the Southern Right Whale.