The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.
AUSTRALIAN WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL LAUNCHES ACROSS THE PACIFIC
"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."
“The Little Blue Boat”
“Unremarkable little boat lives on a mooring and is little used in recent years, The family finds it too hard to look after. By this time it’s in disrepair and probably too late to sell it as a going concern”
Nothing remarkable there!
The Sydney Hobart Classic Yacht Regatta is back
The CYCA has confirmed that the Classic Yacht Regatta will be held on 8th 9th and 10th December this year. An invitation is extended to all Classic Yachts that have competed in a Sydney to Hobart Race.
Not sailing, but sailing related
The digitally rendered image shows the stadium looming over the iconic streetscape of Hunter Street, dwarfing the Henry Jones Art Hotel and celebrated Mac 1 hotel.
Remember where you have been, look to where you are going.
Perhaps rowing is a metaphor. As we age we seem to spend more time looking back than looking forward, and we risk stagnation. If we don’t row we go nowhere.
The Festival-Frame by frame
While we came away with enough content to keep these pages filled for a month or two, this week we choose instead to simply share some images from an unforgettable four days.
‘Elements’ and ‘Shelter’
This joint exhibition examines the connection between the ‘Elements’ and ‘Shelter’. At sea amongst it, in an anchorage seeking it and ashore being comforted by it.
Treasured Possessions.
In today’s world many of us cry out for ways to express our individuality and character. Many of our manufactured possessions are white and precision made from plastic or metal, it is rare for us to give them a name or character.
Timber boat world mourns Hobart’s ‘Battery Point Kid’
From modest beginnings, never lacking family love, Bill found in himself a deep and abiding fascination for working with wood, primarily in helping to create some of the most famous yachts ever built in Australia.
Wurundjeri to Nipaluna- A Bass Strait Cruise
The Islands of the Kent and Furneaux Groups are surely one of the great undiscovered cruising grounds of Australia. They are not for the faint hearted and will punish the arrogant sailor, but with preparation and respect, they reward in spades.
How Sarah built a tall ship
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.”
Winning the Sydney Hobart with a wet well.
Jock liked to remember WESTWARD as the only yacht with a fish well to win a Sydney to Hobart race. Her building virtually marked the start of Muir's Boatyard and her first race and handicap win kicked off Jock Muir's illustrious career as a blue water ocean racer.
Expressions of Interest Now Open for AWBF 2023
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.
From Gadigal to Nipaluna Country. A Not Race
In many ways ocean racing has become a monoculture. To succeed you must be skilled and tough and rich, but for most owners with a realistic chance of victory, the broader values, ambitions and motivations of the founders of the event have disappeared amid the ruthless need for a trophy.
A Trim Centenarian
Historic Workboats Are An Endangered Species, But This Little Tasmanian Has Remained Remarkably Intact For Over 100 Years. I’ve always been attracted to that place in sailing where working boats and sailing “yachts” intersect.
Australian Wooden Boat Festival
it’s good to see that despite the cancellation of the 2021 Australian Wooden Boat Festival, the organisers led by Paul Stephanus, have decided to go ahead with the spectacular biennial Parade of Sail on the Derwent. on Sunday 7th of February 2021.
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