2018 Classic and Wooden Boat Festival

The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) will present the 2018 Classic and Wooden Boat Festival from April 13-15 at the Museum in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. The biennial Festival celebrates the beauty and diversity of our heritage vessels, the craftspeople and proud custodians who stand behind behind them.

The ANMM says a huge range of boats will be on display over the course of the festival including Halvorsen crusiers, yachts and skiffs, classic speedboats, steam launches and workboats from all around Australia. Every other year, the Australian Wooden Boat Festival runs in Tasmania.

But this year, Sydney is the place for the biggest classic and wooden-boat display in Australi.

Also featured will be the stunning 1924 luxury ketch Hurrica V, featured in Baz Luhrmann’s film The Great Gatsby, and SY Ena, a magnificent steam yacht now in the museum’s collection, both originally built in Sydney.

In addition to the 100 plus boats moored around the museum and Cockle Bay, visitors will enjoy a vast number of exciting activities. From cruising on Sydney Heritage Fleet vessels including the magnificent James Craig, perusing a maritime marketplace and artworks to witnessing a swimwear parade showcasing a colourful selection of cossies through the ages from the museum’s collection.

Visitors will also discover traditional maritime skills with line throwing, sculling and caulking demonstrations throughout the festival weekend. There’s also the spectacle of the ‘Quick and Dirty’ boat building competition, where the race is on to create makeshift boats and sail them on the harbour in record time.

Each day a host of arts and crafts activities for kids will take place in the ‘kid’s boatshed’. Crafty kids can engage in a smaller boat building competition and make, float and race their very own foam boats to win a trophy.

Lively entertainment throughout the weekend will include live music, a magician, a jumping castle and food trucks. Festival goers can also relax with drinks and music while enjoying the sun setting over Sydney’s iconic harbour at the museum’s waterside café Yots.

The Classic and Wooden Boat Festival run s the weekend of Friday April 13 to Sunday April 15, 2018, at the Australian National Maritime Museum and Cockle Bay. Festival entry is free.

For more information see Classic and Wooden Boat Festival.