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.

Dylan’s reaction when he first heard what happened was, perhaps not surprisingly, pretty sanguine.

“Man…it’s like that reef has been sitting there waiting for you since the very beginning.”

The late Bob Gordon was just 16 years old when he launched his first hand built wooden boat. He went on to build around 30 classic craft over the next 67 years.

Got a wooden boat? Why not bring your pride and joy? It will be four years since the last Festival, and the AWBF crew are excited to open the flood gates for registrations.

Rob, a talented and successful Mullet boat sailor had a chat with us about how and why he ended up as the new custodian and what his (exciting) plans are for the future.

Over the last month, we had more Ukrainian readers than Russians logging in. SWS can’t comment on the expansionary motivations of an authoritarian kleptocracy, but we can invite you to speculate about ordinary people and ordinary sailors living through a war along the Black Sea coast.

Firstly, and most importantly… she has an appointment with a large, angry chainsaw on the 1st May unless someone puts their hand up

After rounding Cape Howe onto the southern coast, Bass discovered a big bay he named “Western Port” because of its position relative to Port Jackson. Bass reported the southern coast and islands were teeming with seals and predicted a colonial sealing industry.

Not many sporting clubs survive for 150 years. Albert Park Yacht Club reached its sesquicentennial in 2022, making it one of the oldest yacht clubs in Australia.

The pictures in this article are my brief attempt to capture the essence of this wonderfully evocative piece of Tasmania’s wooden boat history.

Its alway sad to see pictures such as this, but it’s important we put it out there….”They were seen heading out from their mooring at Flinders and around the point.”

Wooden boats were and still are a common feature in Tasmania, an island surrounded by water. Sharing the knowledge surrounding the wooden boat craft is a big feature for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

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.

Its rich, and informative, and unlike most coffee table books (I hate that term!) has a substance that makes it cherishable and unlikely to end up on the nature strip on hard rubbish day.

A speech by Ian Johnston from the City of Hobart’s Speakers’ Corner Series acknowledges why Tasmania is so special and suggests what needs to be done to keep it so.

The first Race for the “Rudder” Cup will long be remembered by Australian yachtsmen. There were only four starters for the imposing voyage across Bass Strait, and the size of the task was calculated to interest even longshoremen.

SWS is continually shuffling pieces around a Tumlaren history puzzle. It’s gumshoe work to cross reference clues and sift fact from bar-fiction.

Through this imagery, Ricardo presents poignant observations of the human condition – some of which allow us to laugh at our own behaviour.

The Tasmanian Board of Sea Fisheries, administered by the Tasmanian Police in these early years, agreed. Alfred Blore was commissioned to do the design and he was soon meeting with Challenger to adapt a fast, seaworthy design for patrol of the rugged Tasmanian coast. 

“She was a good result for the effort that went into her. The fact that she has lasted 130 years is proof of that, particularly when you consider that this boat has not been pampered. For much of its life it has either been neglected, or actively abused.”