The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

Mark Chew Mark Chew

the 1946 Sydney Hobart Start by A.D.Blake

What is almost as impressive as the aesthetic, is the historical accuracy of the paintings…”The start was off Rose Bay between Clark and Shark Islands. Rose Bay beach is in the background.”

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ADVENTURE Mark Chew ADVENTURE Mark Chew

Wine, Olives, Oil and Garum

One squally day or stormy night about 1,700 years ago, a boat carrying hundreds of amphorae of wine, olives, oil and garum – the fermented fish sauce that so delighted the ancient palate – came to grief during a stopover in Mallorca.

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DINGHIES, FLOTSAM Mark Chew DINGHIES, FLOTSAM Mark Chew

Branding the Cloth

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.

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RACING Charlie Salter RACING Charlie Salter

THE 2022 CUP REGATTA - A CLASSIC COMMUNITY

This was a weekend to celebrate the boats and the shipwrights who maintain them. The willingness to share information, answer questions and put in for each other is the way. While we like to sail well, winning races has small interest for this classic community.

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FLOTSAM Mark Chew FLOTSAM Mark Chew

Even Number years at the AWBF

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.

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RACING, RESTORATION Sal Balharrie RACING, RESTORATION Sal Balharrie

Polished Time Capsule Or Beast of the Sea

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.

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