"I was just scrolling Facebook one day, and we had been in the market for a timber boat for a little while. And occasionally I would send Holly ridiculous things from boats online or on Facebook. I'd come across this Maurice Griffiths boat, and I sent it to Holly. They were asking 800 bucks"

One of the main catalysts for starting the company was to sustain and grow the art of wooden boatbuilding by passing on the skills they have accumulated. It’s a shared passion to keep the skills of wooden boat building alive for generations to come. 

The South and West coasts of Tasmania are places that demand respect. The isolation, the exposure to the southern ocean, the lack of communication, all conspire to make the coast daunting. But all coins have an obverse side.

The boat yard needs a good tidy up, as most good boat yards do. There are two working slipways, quite a few interesting timber boats around in various states of disrepair, and a great big shed that appears to house generations of maritime objects that “might just come in useful one day”. It’s picturesque, it’s mildly functional and just for a fraction of a second, the romanticism the of prospect trumps the daunting realities.

At present what there is of the wood bank is kept in a dirty, dusty corner of a shed with no firefighting facilities (apart from a single small diameter hose). The timber is jammed in behind a vast wall of other timber. There has been no actual audit of the timber since its establishment, some boat builders who have tried to buy timber are appalled that sometimes good wood is mixed with low quality craft wood

Whether you are custodian of a much loved family dinghy, have just finished building your first kayak, are restoring a traditional Tassie cray boat, or are mad for sailing among other timber boats, this is your weekend to head down to the beautiful D'Entrecasteaux Channel on, or with, your wooden boat.

Maritime and terrestrial navigation requires two-dimensional coordinates. Once in the air a third coordinate comes into play — altitude. It was Gatty’s research and practical application that led to a solution to many of the complex problems associated with three-dimensional navigation.

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.

It was very, very important to both the authorities in London and those in the colonies that those who participated in this event were held to account. Somebody was going to swing for the piracy of the CYPRUS and they would swing in spectacular fashion.

I continued to look at the weather incessantly, until December came around – at last a double high pressure system lay over Victoria, producing a week of pleasant but windless days. It wasn't an idyllic northwesterly, but it was something. This was my chance.

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.

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.

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.

Sal and Mark - Editors of SWS - walk you through what’s to be undertaken in the 8 weeks prior to departure.

A film about a rough, old school sawmill that produces some of the world’s finest timber, including the uniquely Tasmanian Huon Pine.

FLIGHT was used as a Patrol Boat on the Tamar River in the last years of the War. Thereafter , she was used as a pleasure craft, the Flag Vessel for the Derwent Sailing Squadron and hosted the Queen and Prince Phillip during the Royal Tour of 1954

TARKINE, is a 40ft Pilot Cutter inspired design by Paul Gartside, and she’s starting to come together in away that gives the viewer an understanding of how this elegant craft is going to look and function.

The pictures in this article are my brief attempt to capture the essence of this wonderfully evocative piece of Tasmania’s wooden boat history.

“I came to understand that life is best to be lived with many adventures, preferably enjoyed on or by the water.”

“She was a beautiful boat, and what made it good for my wife Rhona and me was that we were the first to fish at Sandy Cape with a decent boat. We learnt to catch crayfish there before they ever knew there were crayfish off the continental shelf.”