Flotsam & Jetsam 9.01.26
Stories from around the world and the web to start 2026
LBT Sail and Oar Safari 2026
We might have left promoting this one a bit late but we love the “Raid” movement and see it as one of the keys to grass roots involvement with wooden boats. All the values and none of the entitlement! The Living Boat Trust 2026 Sail and Oar Safari is scheduled for 31st January – 5th February.
This is the planned itinerary but it could change at short notice if there’s bad weather. Assemble in Franklin, and then a short hop down to Waterloo Bay where there is good bush camping on JP’s peninsula. Next day to Charlotte’s and stay two nights so we have an opportunity to make excursions from there. Next across the mouth of the Huon for a night in Dover. Back to Waterloo for another night and then home to Franklin.
Cost is $750 – $150 per night – to cover catering, logistics, organisation etc.
Read about the amazingly sucessful 2023 event HERE and find more information on this years event HERE
Arrive (or Depart) in Style
We’ve been promoting the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally for a few months now. (27/2-3/4) With the demise of the Victorian Wooden Boat Festival, now lying dormant in the hands of the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, this is the premiere traditional boat gathering in Victoria (if it wasn’t already). Well what better way to arrive at the festival than in a tall ship!
The Enterprize will be voyaging between Melbourne and Paynesville for the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally on the Gippsland Lakes in February 2026.
Limited places are available for the voyage from Melbourne to Paynesville and also the return voyage. Travelling with a core of experienced Enterprize crew, passengers are encouraged to join the watch system and participate in the sailing of the vessel. Outbound Feb 19th – 26th. Inbound March 5th – 12th
More infomation HERE
The Quest to Chart the Sea
If your news feed is feeling a little one dimensional or you suspect you might be being fed what they want you to eat, then you could do a lot worse than subscribe to the Economist Magazine. Founded in 1843 in London by the businessman and reformer James Wilson, its original aim was to campaign against the Corn Laws and promote free trade. (There’s an idea!) Over the decades, it has developed a distinctive voice—concise, witty, and usually liberal in its economic and political philosophy—It’s militantly independent, rigourous in its analysis and at times refreshingly funny. This weeks article on charting the ocean floor is a great example.
As of 2025, little more than one quarter of the seabed has been measured directly. The remainder is an estimate.
There are many reasons why governments should want to find out what the remaining 73% of the ocean really looks like. Depth data benefit nearly any marine activity you can think of: modelling climate, building infrastructure, mining the deep sea, managing fisheries and searching for wrecks. On December 30th, Malaysia Airlines will resume its search for Flight MH370, a plane that disappeared with 239 passengers and crew without trace in 2014. During two previous searches, a significant chunk of the Indian Ocean was mapped.
Despite this, progress on charting the ocean floor—known as bathymetry—has been sluggish. In 1903, Prince Albert I of Monaco founded the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) to produce a map of the entire seabed, pooling data from governments, NGOs and companies. But by 2017 the effort had only managed to map 6%. In 2017, to speed things along, GEBCO launched a project called Seabed 2030 in partnership with the Nippon Foundation. As the name suggests, it hoped to have all the seabed mapped by 2030, and although progress is now moving at a decent clip, completion is still a long way off.
Continue reading with a free trial HERE
Project OUZEL launched
We mentioned this project back in September last year and its great to see how its coming along.
OUZEL has been launched after three years of construction and is now beginning mechanical and systems trials. With traditional timber supplies becoming more and more of an issue for wooden boat builders, this type of build smells like the future of wooden boat building!
Full Story HERE
Restoring PETREL
From Larry Eastward at Pittwater Wooden Boats
Episode 9 landed on Youtube over the Christmas break. This episode focuses on fiberglassing the deck, a crucial but less glamorous step. Weather challenges and expert advice influence the process, impacting the timeline.
We Are The Ocean - Voyaging and the Pacific - AWBF Symposium
Another in the series of events, this time from Hobart’s Theatre Royal, which formed part of the immensely successful symposium at the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
The vast Pacific covers one third of the world’s surface, and the story of its exploration and settlement is an epic tale of human endeavour. Cross-cultural historian Dame Anne Salmond, visual artist Michel Tuffery and waka captain Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr recount and relive this incredible story in writing, artworks and waka voyaging. Their work celebrates the achievements of the original Pacific explorers, voyaging in wooden watercraft, guided only by the stars and their intimate knowledge of the sea. It also provides new insights into contact history, and the key role played by charismatic individuals, both Polynesian and European, in creating cross-cultural understanding. This is a unique opportunity to hear these three revered interpreters of Pacific history and contemporary identity, in conversation with Kate Fullagar, with performances by Māori cultural troupe Ngā Mātai Pūrua.
Underwood’s Marine
Given the talent and determination trhat we witnessed in 2022 and 2023 as Tom Robinson rowed his self built MAIWAR across the Pacific we knew in wouldn’t be long before we heard from him again.
After speaking to packed out audiences at the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival, he has now set up his own business designing, building and restoring wooden and composite boats on the banks of the Tingalpa Creek in Brisbane. Over the last 18 months the yard has worked on many interesting projects, but the one that caught our eye is the Gaff Cutter ARANA.
Arana came to Underwood’s in 2024 for her 90th birthday. She was built in Sydney by Brown Brothers of Balmain in 1934; typical of 20th century Australian boat building, she features hardwood planking below the waterline with oregon topsides; all roved to steam bent spotted gum ribs. Her decks are planked with tongue and groove oregon, originally canvas sheathed, now overlaid with plywood and sheathed in fibreglass.
After 90 years she was showing her age. Her hull, although generally sound, had a substantial leak above the waterline, her seams were in need of attention, and her paintwork had built up over many years.
Arana spent a bit over two months in the shed at Underwood’s. First her hull was wooded (taken back to bare timber) from gunwale to keel. Once bare we could then see the extent of the work required. Her hull was in remarkably original condition, with just one section of planking replaced. We then made an assessment and decided to replace a few more sections of planking, plus plenty of smaller repairs where there was worm damage.
All seams below the waterline were raked of their old putty, caulked where necessary, and re-payed with polysulfide seam compound. The largest seams around the turn of the bilge were splined with cedar.
Above the waterline spots of rot were repaired in her gunwale, planking, sheer clamp, etc. A new mast step was built. Every exterior surface was refinished, including decks and cabinside varnish. The aft end of the cabin and cabinsides were found to be rotten, so were completely removed and built anew. A couple of hundred hull fastenings were replaced with new copper nails and roves. Her engine cooling system was overhauled, her standing rigging was replaced, a new furler and headsail were fitted and she was re-wired; electric navigation and cabin lights being fitted for the first time in many years.
After two and a half months of work Arana was relaunched and is now enjoying the waters of Moreton Bay.
If you are in the Brisbane area and have a wooden boat project you want to move forward you could do a lot worse than have a chat to Tom!