We are sometimes asked: The Wooden Boat Festival is four days long, once every two years, right?  So what do you do all the rest of that time? Gosh, where do we start? When the festival is going full blast, you’ll see around 400 volunteers on deck – parking boats, staffing counters, collecting data, managing […]

Whilst the countdown to the MyState Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival in 2019 is certainly on, I would like to pause to reflect for a moment on some of the extraordinary effort and support that goes into producing this wonderful event.  Our management team, headed up by General Manager Paul Cullen, now has “all hands […]

What you do after the MyState Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival? Tasmania is blessed with some of the finest cruising grounds in the world. One of the best is the remarkable D’Entrecasteaux Channel, the waterway between the south-east coast of mainland Tasmania and Bruny Island. The northern end of the Channel commences at the mouth […]

There is an enduring fascination with the traditional crafts and skills that have been essential to the art of wooden boat building over centuries.  Many of these skills will be on display with lively demonstrations and discussions at the Blundstone Shipwrights’ Village – a popular part of the MyState Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival. Steaming […]

KRAIT is a wooden fishing boat built in Japan in 1934.  The boat holds a special place in Australia’s wartime history because of its involvement with Operation Jaywick and the Z Special Unit in World War II. Operation Jaywick was a raid on Singapore Harbour undertaken in September 1943.  KRAIT was used as an Australian […]

Wooden boats come in all sizes and there’s no lack of competitive spirit, even when your racing yacht is just one metre long.  Radio-controlled sailing is a popular sport and has the advantage of a reasonably low entry cost and internationally recognised standards.  Many a fine sailor has learned their lessons on the water with […]

Stuart Beltz, grandson of the renowned Tasmanian boat-builder Ron Beltz, recently returned from New Zealand where he helped the current owners of one of Ron’s sea-going wooden boats, Mavourneen, prepare her for the journey across the Tasman and down to Hobart for the 2019 MyState Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival. The proud owners of Mavourneen, […]

Pieter van der Woude’s cruise operation in Tasmania’s Southwest Wilderness is about much more than just seeing this wild, pristine landscape. This guided experience offers a deep immersion in the wilderness.   The expert guiding team shows visitors the real Tasmanian wilderness and all its brutal beauty through storytelling, interpretation and knowledge. The part of […]