70 years after her first trip to Hobart, this little boat is heading south again this year, in the hands of husband and wife team Anne Lawrence and John Whitfield.

ALOA has quite a special history. She was designed by AC Barber (perhaps most famous for designing the first Sydney Hobart winner RANI) and built in Berry's Bay just north of Goat Island in Sydney Harbour, possibly by Charles Pugh.

“I knew there were already plans to electrify the lights. To automate. To relegate man beneath machines. To make us redundant. To take all the purpose out of life. As if richness did not lie in purpose and meaning but in leisure. I was keenly aware that I was in love with a dying life.”