Australian Wooden Boat Festival: Update

The Australian Wooden Boat Festival has been running since 1994 when a few wooden-boat enthusiasts thought they’d put on a bit of an event for some like-minded friends. Since then, it has grown to be the biggest wooden boat festival in the Southern Hemisphere.

The event comes around every two years and in 2013 it attracted more than 200,000 to the Hobart waterfront. However, even though the event has grown, "the guiding principle is still the same: we celebrate our maritime culture and heritage and the enduring beauty of wooden boats," say the organisers.

Highlights of the Wooden Boat Festival include the Opening Day, which features the Parade of Sail from the John Garrow Light starting at 12.30pm and arriving at the Sullivans Cove from 1.30pm. All day there will be exhibitions, talks, musical entertainment and fun for the kids.

On Saturday there will wooden rowing eight race from 10.00am, the Derwent Class yacht race starting and finishing at Wrest Point from 3.00pm and there will be mini rowing and sailing dinghies for the kids at Constitution Dock all day.

Also on Saturday will be the International Wooden Boat Symposium with interesting speakers following the official opening by the Governor of Tasmania. Of course, there will also be the usual music and entertainment and more exciting things to do.

Sunday will see the Wrest Point Cup which is described as a Tasmanian Trading Ketch review, skiff races, mini-boats and dinghies for the kids. There are also more engaging speakers at the Symposium and you can check them out on the website.

And the fun doesn’t stop there. On Monday there are still heaps of things happening both on the water and off. You can download the entire 16-page program here.

Late news tells us that unfortunately the tall ships James Craig and Endeavour will not be making it to the Australian Wooden Boat Festival this year as both ships struck some extremely bad weather on their journeys from Sydney.

James Craig had to take refuge in Jervis Bay. She then returned to sea and headed back north and at the time of writing was in Pittwater.

Endeavour hit rough weather off the NSW coast and on Saturday had to have a crew member airlifted off by helicopter due to severe sea sickness. On Monday (February 2) she broke a spritsail yard and the difficult decision was made to turn back.