HISTORY

1994

The inaugural Australian Wooden Boat Festival was staged in November 1994 by enthusiastic friends Cathy Hawkins, Ian Johnston and Andy Gamlin thanks to financial assistance from the Tasmanian State Government and sponsors Hobart Marine Board, Hobart City Council, RACT Insurance, Risby timbers, Holymans, Spirit of Tasmania and ABC radio. It followed Andy’s visit to Brest’94 in Brittany in 1992.
Held over a normal two day weekend the Festival attracted huge and enthusiastic crowds, a very successful food component, a French frigate that transported a canoe from Isle de Pins (New Caledonia) and the “HM Bark Endeavour Replica” on her maiden voyage from Perth WA.
The very first day was warm, summery and held under a clear sky which complimented the 180 beautiful wooden boats in Constitution Dock. Sunday’s drizzle was a contrast in conditions but the Festival continued with music, dance, nautical demonstrations. The new event was considered an outstanding success.

1996

Also held in November, the second event was staged in 1996 in cold blustery conditions two years after the first. Never-the-less, almost 200 boats enthusiastically arrived for more celebration.
The Festival was again organized by the three founders and supported by a number of volunteers and again the public response was highly supportive. This time a modest entry fee was asked of the public to support the growing costs of staging the event.
A very interesting craft became the feature vessel of the Festival. Known as “Charlie”, a 25 foot steam driven mahogany canoe came from South Australia. Crowds were amazed at the sight of this different craft. A handful of Couta boats also arrived from Sorrento, Port Philip Bay, that provided some stiff competition for local division racing yachts.

1998

A change for the third festival in 1998 brought the Rotary Club of Salamanca into an ownership role. Appointed as Festival Director, Andy Gamlin (co-founder and formerly co-director) began organizing the Festival on a “full time” basis.
The Logan (NZ) built and beautifully restored racing yacht “Sayonara” was attracted to the Festival from Melbourne. Some incredible model boats were also brought over from Melbourne that drew a lot of public comment.
Weather again intervened and the whole weekend was affected by rain causing a downturn in the largely Tasmanian visitor numbers.

2001

New dates were established for 2001 and a 3 day event was staged to compliment the long running Royal Hobart Regatta.
The Rotary Club handed ownership to a new, stand alone organization, Australian Wooden Boat Festival Inc. with Jayne Wilson as Chair and Andy Gamlin as Festival Director.
An immediate and positive response from boat owners occurred and some 320 boats registered. The weekend was a huge success and held in warm and sunny weather for all three days. The Festival was once again featured “HM Bark Endeavour Replica” following a world tour, “Astor” of early Sydney Hobart yacht race fame and the replica of Flinder’s famous vessel of early Tasmanian discovery, “Norfolk”.
The three day format permitted a new entertainment formula, the introduction of the “Parade of Sail” and other new events, such as specially written and performed theatre.

2003

A new committee and new Festival Director for the 5th Festival in 2003 set the scene for a new format and entertainment approach.
Similar boat entries and visitor numbers enjoyed an exquisite 3 day weekend of summer weather. A beautifully restored and presented “Wraith of Odin” (ex Pittwater, Sydney) stole the show. The historic 22 foot “Tassie II” was another feature of the Festival as she was launched in front of the crowd after being brought over from Melbourne.

 

2005

Work towards the third 3 day Festival included attracting the 1874 three masted iron barque “James Craig” back to Tasmania after almost 30 years of restoration in Sydney. Another major attraction was the three replica Viking Ships transported from Denmark for the Festival. Five popular specialist boat builders from the Viking Ship Museum also joined the Festival to demonstrate boat building skills with their ‘authentic’ replica Viking tools and rope making equipment.
The response was unprecedented and some 450 boats registered followed by a similar explosion in visitor response. Accommodation in Hobart and for miles around filled to capacity with a common response that is expected to be mirrored in 2007.

2007

Andy Gamlin headed up the 2007 Festival which was held over four days for the first time. The summer weather was glorious and almost 70,000 visitors were in attendance. The event was packed with special features including HM Bark Endeavour, the replica Dutch ship Duyfken and for the first time in Australia three magnificent traditional boats from Holland. A special 'Dutch Village' was set up dockside and was very much a crowd favourite. A record 620 boats attended the festival. An extensive program of entertainment, music, demonstrations, displays, and sensational food added to the vibrancy of the event.

2009

The ever popular James Craig made a superb centre piece for the 2009 festival. She was joined by a flotilla of other Tall Ships including Enterprize, Young Endeavour, Lady Nelson and Windeward Bound. A cool and showery start to the Saturday meant that attendances were down on previous years. A new management team headed up by Rob McGuire delivered a superb event and according to many boat owners was the best yet. Billed as "The Best of Australia in the Heart of Tasmania" the event attracted record boat entries – with every state and territory represented. This included 4 amazing 18ft replica racing skiffs from Sydney and a dug-out Tiwi Island Canoe that was built specially for the Festival. An on-water program was established as well as the Community Boat Building and a Seafood Theatre being introduced as new activities for the first time.

2011

Encouraged by free entry, superb weather and free bus travel on all Metro services, a record crowd estimated to be more than 160,000 people attended the 2011 MyState Financial Australian Wooden Boat Festival – with MyState Financial becoming the first naming rights sponsor of the AWBF. The festival site was almost double that of previous years taking up the whole of the Hobart Waterfront including the massive Princes Wharf Number One Shed. Feature vessels attending the 2011 festival included the majestic Tall Ships, James Craig, Enterprize, Windeward Bound, Young Endeavour, Lady Nelson, One and All and the magnificent Princess Iluka. Also in attendance was Tacoma the fully restored fishing trawler from South Australia and Gretel 11 the famous 1970's America's Cup Challenger.

Favourable wind conditions ensured that there was a spellbinding display of sail. Rob McGuire once again headed up the management team. The theme of the festival was "Celebrating our maritime culture". Jessica Watson, the youngest person to ever sail round the world single handed, was the MyState Financial Festival Ambassador. Jessica was hugely popular with festival visitors of all ages attracting thousands of admirers where ever she went. Iain Oughtred, an internationally recognized leader in the field of small boat design and construction, was a guest speaker at the 2011 festival.

Special features included international villages from Japan and Indonesia – with the major feature of the Japanese Village being the Horshoro boat, a replica of a five hundred year old design fishing boat. The largest display of scrimshaw art ever shown in the southern hemisphere was displayed at the 2011 festival. The 2011 festival was without doubt the largest festival held to date and was acclaimed as the best so far.