And we had to find the “right” people. They had to have experience of competitive yacht racing, but also an appreciation for timber craft, and above all an understanding that the wellbeing of the crews and craft must be placed well ahead of a desire to win. And without wanting to sound boastful…. we nailed it!

Two very different but equally interesting films have landed on the desk (laptop) at SWS this week. One from The heart of East Coast US wooden boat land, Maine. The other from Pacific North West.

Seventy beautiful and unique Wooden Boats assembled at the RMYC Broken Bay for a great weekend of festivities and displays. The RMYC Festival now in its 23rd year is Sydney’s only annual celebration of classic wooden boats.

“Eet’s the end of summer,” said the taxi driver, en route from the airport to Barcelona, partly because he’d just learned to say it on Duolingo, but mostly because of the heavy rain and great bolts of fork lightning in the sky above the Catalonian capital.

Under the decks many family members had written personal notes about their favourite AFL team and other notes intended to never see the light of day! Another story goes that the boat was near completion when Max realised, he had run out of materials for the centreboard. No problems for the creative Max and a quick visit to his mother’s (and Stuart’s Grandmother) house in Geelong and the removal of her bedroom door while she was out provided the necessary wood for the centreboard!

How do you quantify the feeling of six 40 plus ft craft, meters apart, with a combined age of 400 years, storming close-hauled through the Port Phillip chop towards a start line?

Doug has entered PICCOLO in the Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025 in Hobart. Sadly he didn’t get to sail his beautiful yacht but the Derwent sailors will bring her up the river next February to honour Doug.

They set sail from Sao Vicente, bound for Recife, on 9 December 1970, meaning they would be at sea that year for Christmas.  Vertue Carina was reaching fast in gusty conditions, with the occasional wave breaking over the deck and filling the cockpit, often soaking the washed nappies and other items they were attempting to dry in the sun. 

There was little indication of what was to come over the next few weeks. The swell was so high that the treacherous, unrelenting waves were smashing onto the coast providing no access to the foreshore. The AMAZON wreckage was swept 60 metres to the east where it settled but over the next few weeks, in the bed of the eastern outlet of Wreck Creek it ‘slid’ a further 7 metres where it is now partially imbedded

"The AWBF is a celebration of our collective heritage. The 2025 theme allows us to explore our connection with the Pacific like never before, bringing visitors face-to-face with historic vessels and remarkable people from across the ocean. We hope to create a festival experience that feels both grand in its spectacle and intimate in its sense of community."

Five artists interpret the remote cool South, taking in Ernest Shackleton’s failed yet epic Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917) to the Weddell and Ross seas, and modern-day South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean, where the climate crisis has glaciers on the run and biodiversity experts worried

A very long time ago I was in the boatyard talking to a retired marine engineer who had hauled his 35 -foot long keel yacht out for maintenance. Knowing I was a budding naval architect he imparted what he though was wisdom to me. “Look at that boat” he said, puffing his pipe whilst pointing to the modern fin keel yacht hauled out next to his. “It’s completely unsound to separate the keel out like that and hang it from the hull with a few bolts. It’s much too radical a design for offshore sailing”. The boat in question was an S&S 34

Wickham and Anne took up residence at Newstead House along with three Galapagos tortoises called “Tom”, “Dick” and “Harry” (later re-named “Harriet”) which Charles Darwin gave Wickham on his second voyage on the Beagle. Upon Wickham’s 1860 departure from the District, Harriet lived in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, and much later Australia Zoo, for another 150 years.

While other kids were playing sport, Ms Lambert and her brother spent weekends by their father's side as he built his masterpiece over the next decade. She was a teenager when the boat was finally launched at Mackay Harbour in 1984.

A yacht constructed with one of the greatest timbers.
By one of the worlds most famous shipwrights.
With 130 years of irrefutable provenance and achievements.

Of the eighty images in the initial selection, eight are loosely of traditional/timber boats. This is down by two, from our unscientific survey in 2022. Interestingly twenty of the eighty images are of foiling boats. Is this the writing on the wall?

It is one thing for modern day master mariner travelling through Patagonia or the South Tasman Sea – in a modern one hundred thousand tonne plus cruise or commercial ship, viewing from enclosed bridge – to navigate and marvel at the ferocity of a Southern Ocean gale. It is quite another thing to command from an open deck a ninety  foot long two hundred tonne timber hulk, tasked with the safety of the vessel and sixty crew.

There are two types of traditional boat enthusiasts; Those that grew up reading the American publication “Wooden Boat” and those who grew up with the British monthly, “Classic Boat”.

Sixty years after entering Port Phillip Bay [under Flinders in 1802], INVESTIGATOR returned with cargo for the Victorian Gold Rush. After 77 years of service, she was finally sold in Williamstown. Ironically, the ship that put Australia on the map [literally] finished up a coal hulk in Melbourne. In 1872, her register closed with the comment “broken up.” It was a dreadful end to arguably Australia’s most historically significant ship.

“It's like dumping a car in a national park and expecting everyone to be OK with that. I'm not OK with dumping a car in a national park, and we should be treating our beautiful harbour with the same outlook."