In February 2019,  the Australian Wooden Boat Festival will bring the port of Hobart in Tasmania alive once again. Every two years, some 500 wooden boats from Australia and beyond gather to celebrate the beauty and heritage of these special vessels. Over 200,000 locals and visitors to Tasmania attend the festival which will be held over four days from 8 – 11 February 2019.

 

About the Australian Wooden Boat Festival

Hobart’s historic waterfront has hosted the Australian Wooden Boat Festival since its inception in 1994. The festival has grown to be one of the island state’s major attractions with visitors returning especially for the festival. Eighty or so recreational boats will sail down across Bass Strait from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and from further across the seas. At least one is planning to sail from the USA for the 2019 event.

The festival is sponsored by local bank MyState and the Tasmanian Government. It also receives assistance from the  City of Hobart and is made possible by the participation of dozens of businesses – both providing food and beverages, as well as supplying almost every product and service for your boat.

The festival is run by a small management team and several hundred volunteers without whom it just couldn’t be done. MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival was a prize winner at the Australian Tourism Awards in 2017.

Hobart, on the River Derwent has a rich maritime heritage and is well known for the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race which starts on Boxing Day and (hopefully) finishes in time for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Tasmania’s capital city has a deep water harbour with enough room for cruise ships the size of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth at the same time. And this is only a few hundred metres from the city centre. The port is now a major centre for ocean and Antarctic research with an increasing number of countries basing their Antarctic programs in Hobart.

Festival Highlights

Each time the festival is held, a guest country is invited to participate. In 2017 a large contingent from the Netherlands were special guests and helped celebrate the arrival of explorer Abel Tasman in 1642. (The island state is named after Abel Tasman.) The King of the Netherlands sent his boat Oranje and a team of young Dutch shipwrights built a Tjotter at the Wooden Boat Centre at Franklin, Southern Tasmania with local timbers in time for the festival.

In 2019 the guest country will be the United States, and a large contingent has aleady booked to join in the fun. A group of shipwrights will build a Haven sailing boat at Franklin, again from local timbers and for display at the festival.

 

Hobart’s tall ships, the Lady Nelson, Windeward Bound and Rhona H are joined by Australia’s well known and loved historic ships including the James Craig from Sydney as well as the One and All, and the replica of the Endeavour (Captain Cook’s vessel). These vessels are open for inspection during the festival and some offer harbour cruises on the Derwent.

Local school children join in the fun by taking part in the Quick and Dirty boatbuilding event. In this popular event teams representing local high schools build a boat at the festival and then race each other by paddling around Constitution Dock in the heart of the waterfront to test their boat-building skills. (Even the prisoners at the local gaol will restore a wooden dinghy for display and sale at the 2019 festival.)

Boat owners apply for a space at the festival and all applications are considered by a committee to ensure that the festival has the best possible collection of wooden boats. Successful boats are offered a particular berth at the marine and wharf area so that the boats are set out for the best display.

This makes the festival a photographers’ paradise. Indeed, many professional photographers have visited the festival over the years, and in 2019 a photography competition sponsored by Specsavers will be held.

To top it all off there are several dozen model wooden boats of various sizes both new and old.

Here are 5 reasons to visit Hobart for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival:

1. The festival has the best collection of wooden boats in the southern hemisphere, if not the world. Around 350 boats in the water, around 150 ashore plus model boats in several locations. (Festival organisers also plan to break the world record for boats in bottles at the 2019 festival.)
2. Technical displays of traditional craft skills – timber craft, splicing, rope making and more. The Shipwrights’ Village has a full program throughout the festival with displays of timber steaming and other skills from days gone by.
3. Wooden boat heritage and traditional crafts. Tasmania is home to some of the best specialty timbers which are ideal for boat-building. These include Huon Pine, Celery-top Pine and King Billy Pine. Boats have been made here for thousands of years with local indigenous boat builders making fishing canoes from bark and grasses. These may be the oldest boats in the world and an example will be on display at the festival. Since European settlement, wooden boat repair and manufacturing has been a local industry. Many fishing and recreational boats, locally built from Tasmanian timbers will be on display at the festival. Presentations on wooden boat heritage and maintenance in the Wooden Boat Symposium have become very popular with guest speakers from around the world sharing their knowledge and passion for wooden boats.
4. Local food, wine and entertainment. Tasmania has earned an enviable reputation for producing premium quality food and beverage. Sullivan’s Cove Whisky was recently voted the best in the world. Local salmon, crayfish (lobster) scallops (try a scallop pie) are favourites and should be followed by local ice-cream. All of this can be enjoyed while listening to local musicians and performers.
5. Apart from the Wooden Boat festival, there’s so much more to do in Tasmania. Amazing beaches, the best links golf course at Barnbougle in the state’s north-east, plenty of boating opportunities, great marinas and excellent fishing. The world famous MONA also on the Derwent River has attracted many thousands of locals and visitors with its edgy art collections and displays.

Not surprisingly, visitor numbers have been on the increase recently and Tasmania has won many hearts.

So, if you like wooden boats, great quality food and premium wine and want to get away from it all to a very special island for a wonderful holiday, Tasmania should be at the top of your list.

What: MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival

Where: Hobart, Tasmania (southernmost state of Australia)

When:  8th – 11th February 2019

PS: Don’t leave it too late as accommodation in Hobart at festival time is fully booked. Ask your travel agent about getting to Hobart and book now!