Sunny skies greeted the fleet at the Royal Motor Yacht Club Broken Bay’s 21st anniversary Timber Boat Festival on the weekend of the 5th & 6th November 2022.

Each boat on show had a unique story to share with the thousand visitors who came through the two-day event.

Commodore’s Choice this year went to Stephen Lake’s 1928 Cruiser FOLLY III.

After the death of William Holmes in 1925, His son Reginald had taken over the boat building business. Reginald was a colourful character, not only was he involved in boatbuilding, but he also controlled a lucrative smuggling ring using speedboats built at his boat shed to pick up cocaine, cigarettes and other contrabands thrown overboard from ships passing off Sydney Heads. A previous owner believes that FOLLY III, then know as SIROCCO, was involved in some of these transactions due to remnants of bullets found in the transom during repainting. This has never been confirmed. She was trucked to the Gold Coast in 1961 and had numerous owners in the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. In 1977 she was painted black and used in the film 'Love In Ambush' starring Sigrid Thornton and Gary Sweet, which was filmed off Stradbroke Island. Stephen bought her in 2016 and after spending 2 weeks on board attending the Classic Boat Regatta at Bribie Island discovered that she was in a worse state than the survey revealed. Major repairs and total refurbishment were carried out taking 18 months to complete. The hull was stripped back to bare timber; rotten timber was cut out and replaced. The original chalking was raked out and filled with epoxy and fibreglass sheathed. The interior was gutted and also stripped back to original timber; any rotten wood was replaced before being saturated in timber preservative. The original timber interior structures were sanded and repainted before being reinstalled, leaving the boat true to its original 1920's period. In December 2017 she was launched and cruised back to Sydney.

The Best in Show was awarded to Kobi & Fiona Simmat’s Halvorsen Super Cruiser SILVER CLOUD II, which was the feature of the festival suspended in the middle of the show. SILVER CLOUD II was one of three similar luxury motor cruisers built by Lars Halvorsen Sons Ltd in the mid 1960s. It is double diagonal cold moulded, a strong method that they had used on many of their high speed craft built during the Second World War. It is powered by twin diesel engines and can almost reach a semi displacement planing speed.

She was designed by Harold Halvorsen's son Harvey and this continued the tradition of the eldest son being the principal designer in the firm. The craft could be described as a motor yacht to evoke the luxurious appointments of its interior and stately appearance. It was originally called KANAHOEE and then later KANAHOEE II. Its shape and styling reflect the trend of the time with a raked and flared bow, strong sheerline, a lower cabin top behind a big foredeck, and raised superstructure for the saloon, wheelhouse and flying bridge aft of midships.

During the 1980s the boat belonged to Alan Bond, and was used as a starting boat during trial races for the America's Cup challenger AUSTRALIA II. In 2006 SILVER CLOUD II was based back on Sydney Harbour and has undergone a significant restoration of the deck and interior. It is one of the flagships of the impressive fleet of vessels that carry the name Halvorsen..

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.

Cleanest Bilge Award went to the immaculate timber motor sailor AWABA owned by Margaret & Phil Heaney.

The Coldest Fridge Award was presented to the cruiser PAUL MITCHELL which was used to commute Doctor Mitchell to and from Brisbane to Peels Island in the mid 1900’s.

The 2022 Timber Boat Festival was proudly supporting Marine Rescue Broken Bay, Marine Rescue Cottage Point and Be Centre.