AWBF Chair Update – Joy Phillips

As Paul shared in our previous Newsletter – at the recent AGM I was elected to serve as AWBF’s Chair, ‘taking the helm’ from one of our longest standing Board member and volunteer, Peter Higgs. It has been a delight and pleasure to work with Peter since I joined the Board in 2017. Peter has dedicated his life to working in education, the preservation of boatbuilding skills and documenting historic Australian wooden boats. We all look forward to continuing our collaborations together.

To give you the backdrop of how I find myself on the bottom of the earth, halfway around the world from where I was born… I had the pleasure of coming to Tasmania in 1996 to volunteer at the second Festival – and never left; for obvious reasons if you are a sailor and love wooden boats! It has been my good fortune to have attended each festival since, as a volunteer and/or boat owner.

Currently, I am the custodian of the Scandinavian cruising ketch designed by Aage Nielsen, Holger Danske, built by Aage Walsted in 1964. If you’d like to read more about some of my background with wooden boats, an article was recently written by our friends at Southern Wooden Boat Sailing, Signalling the Future.

I’d like to offer my sincere thanks to the outgoing Board members Peter Higgs – Chair, Chris Palmer – Secretary, Greg Hitchens – Treasurer and Malcolm Wells for sharing their personal passion and skills that have contributed such value and direction to the Australian Wooden Boat Festival over the years they’ve served on the Board. They approached their individual roles on the Board with unwavering commitment and purpose; giving considerable time, effort and consideration to the jobs at hand.

We full-heartedly welcome aboard new Board members – Mike, Michael, Sonia and Mark – who bring great skills, passion and energy to plug into AWBF.

Here’s to an exciting future ahead!

Joy Phillips – Chair
Mike Coffin – Vice Chair
Michael White – Secretary
Sonia Shimeld – Treasurer
Captain Sarah Parry AM
Jane Worrall
Bass Gamlin
Mark Chew

John Bertrand AO, Patron

Fair Winds,

Joy

AWBF Inc Chair