Brendan’s vision was to rebuild her graceful design. And to create a yacht that would be both beautiful and very user friendly for himself and his family

My connection with the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, has allowed me to meet many dedicated wooden boat aficionados, perhaps none more so than fellow board member Captain Sarah Parry, so I was delighted to hear that she was going to be on the ABC’s “Conversations with Richard Fidler.”

Evening light will bring the water;
Day long sun will burst the bud,
Clemency the General’s daughter,
Will return upon the flood

Most Unique Boat was awarded to Roger Patterson’s PEGGY OF TWEED. An open canoe  stern launch, that was built by her owner Roger in 2022 in Pottsville, NSW.

Is Pamela Allen’s book WHO SANK THE BOAT the greatest who-done-it of all time OR a genius attempt to educate children on the Archimedes' principle?

Given the difficulties in travel and transport over the last few years, the festival organisers made a cleaver decision for 2023, to highlight Australian designers and builders and with the release of the full program on line, we can now see how they are intending to do this.

After custodianship by the Calverts, the history of VENTURA becomes a little more vague. We know that VENTURA made her way to Sydney when she was acquired Captain Kennedy of Phoenix House around the 1960’s.

Taking her for a cruise today has been described as being akin to accompanying a beautiful lady to a ball: Everyone stares at her, ignoring her rather motley partner(s) … except to wonder how he ever became associated with such a stunner.

By the last stanza, however, the language has drawn closer to its object, as the same headlong rhythm draws ancient and modern into a poetic continuum.

But the price of his adventures had ultimately to be paid by others, in the succession of families he created, then broke apart; and many of his actions brought him into conflict with the feelings of friends and contemporaries. We may legitimately ask ‘was it really all worth it?’

It was Martyr who suggested the present-day course to the Fastnet, of a similar distance to the Bermuda Race – 615 miles. This established a trend in offshore races of that length, spawning the Sydney-Hobart (1945), China Sea Race (1962) Middle Sea Race (1968) and more recently the RORC Caribbean 600 (2009).

The top end of the course near Port Melbourne means tricky twisting shifts off the beach and apartment infill but flat water. The southern end exposed beyond Altona produced difficult rolling slop for the downhill legs. Thrown in on both days on the western side of the course was a huge tidal outflow from the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers with recent rain and floods.

The adventure started by putting her on a truck to come back to my region, in Brittany. The mast was put on a different truck. It took a while to organiSe the expedition and I decided to create my own shipyard to start the renovation.

Turns out you can teach an old Regatta new tricks. For the very first time, The Balmain Regatta includes a Work Boat Convoy.

For those of us lucky enough to be attending next years festival, the live symposium provides a level of scholarship and intellect rarely applied to the world of wooden boats. The program is now out!

Abandoned at sea by commercial fishing boats, these ghost nets once drifted aimlessly along the ocean floor, silently trapping and killing marine life

A tricky day on Port Phillip, with torrents of brown water gushing out of the Yarra and wind from 14-28 knots with rain squalls. Big congratulations to the boats that completed the two races.

Nurminen was regarded as a wizard for his ability to work his chartered Tumlare class yacht YVONNE to windward. He was rarely beaten by the top skippers pitted against him. In YVONNE, he won over 300 races, including 17 State titles, the last 11 in succession.

After two years of planning thirteen Couta Boats travelled from Melbourne along with two crews from Perth for the 2022 Sydney Harbour Gaffers Regatta.

During last week’s phone call he very excitedly told us about two of his most recent reads. He’s awarded “Greatest Book Ever” to Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher and “Most Favourite Book” to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden or Life in the Woods.