This crazy little film, made this week, starts off a little slow… but soon picks up, and somehow warms the heart!

These brands act as a reminder of a time when local was good, when small could be beautiful and one craftsperson with a sewing machine could dream of powering the boats of champions.

A couple of weekends ago, while covering the Inverloch Classic Dinghy Regatta for SWS, I was struck by the history and beauty of retro design encapsulated in the cloth badges of the sailmakers from the 1950’s 60’s & 70’s.

There is a varied and enriching selection of events on offer, that brings to live the wooden boat building and associated crafts of the Huon Valley and the Channel Region South of Hobart.

The wind fell away, stalling the ship in irons, the limp sails useless in the dead calm. The prevailing southwest current and a long swell relentlessly drifted GENERAL GRANT shoreward, then to her doom.

James was a trailblazer, a fighter with great determination and vision. From a young age he followed his passions – to roam the hills – for fair politics – for intelligent women – to sail the seas – to prove the Polynesian double canoe an ocean worthy craft – to become a Man of the Sea.

TUP is on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels. As just over half of their 36 yachts were folkies, they are in many ways H & J’s “signature” boats, and they were probably responsible for the largest number of the class in Australia

“When I’m working on boats, I’m in my happy place,” said Deborah Simmons, 17, an apprentice in the wood shop as she was sanding down another plank. “I’m just going, going. I’m letting myself flow through the wood. I’m in the zone.”

This year, Wang Ye worshipers hope the ceremony - eight days of religious rites that culminated in the burning of a carefully crafted "king boat" on Oct. 31 - can help end the coronavirus pandemic.

The Wooden Boat Shop is an Accredited Training Facility for apprentices in Marine Trades and over the years has trained around 50 shipwrights.

Have you cooked lunch for the Queen aboard a super yacht? While backpacking around Europe did you happen to spend a summer working in a lighthouse in the Scilly Isles? Perhaps you’ve worked as a rigger on a tall ship or have an unusual story of restoring a Viking Longship for a museum in Oslo.

Last Wednesday on the ABC’s “Art Show” there was in interview with Gemma Rasdall. She not only lives on a boat on Pittwater but works as an artist painting on Scotland Island often using old sailcloth as her canvass.

It’s so invaluable to have these cross hemisphere connections… so when I saw this great little story which covers all the things we at SWS feel are so important, youth involvement, environmental custodianship and female participation, then we felt we had to republish. And surely this is the worlds best looking sewage barge!

With the recent dramatic change of thinking on Australia’s next Submarine fleet, It’s apposite to look back a hundred years and perhaps learn something from history….

“Yay rich people doing a totally non-scalable thing to make themselves feel better!”…. OR….. “The human race is doomed to destroy our home, but it's better to go out trying to effect positive change than to throw up our hands in embittered despair.”

The truism that product lifetime “ain’t what she used to be many long years ago” is underscored by the Navy’s decision to fork out an eye-watering $90++billion on subs having a service life only ten years longer than its build-time.

We were one of 747 boats in the Douarnenez Festival and won the Marco Polo award for having travelled the furthest. We were treated like rock stars.

“For such a hunt to take place in 2021 in a very wealthy European island community just 230 miles from the UK with no need or use for such a vast quantity of contaminated meat is outrageous.”

Rob Read, COO at Sea Shepherd UK

We remember what we have heard or seen on the water when any number of situations arise on land, and are likely to say, “It is just like being on a boat.” Sailing is a metaphor for everything.

Traditional wooden boatbuilding and seafaring are integral to the long history of an archipelago of islands that became Indonesia. This is Australia’s northern neighbour that we sadly ignore except when making a holiday dash to Denpasar.