Auckland Updates
With less than a month to go before the inaugural Auckland Wooden Boat Festival, the program is developing fast.
Thie latest update this week, announces the “Film and Speaker Program” which covers a dozen different events over the long weekend.
Opening the festival will be inspirational sister and brother, Penny and Tony Whiting. They will share stories of their offshore adventures spanning more than 55 years, most continents and well-over over 200,000nm between them.
The orgnisers have assembled A Series of short New Zealand Films that celebrate Aotearoa New Zealand’s fascinating maritime story. They include:
Sir Hector Busby and the legacy of celestial navigation and waka carving
Kupe - voyaging by the stars
Tairāwhiti Waka Houra - building a contemporary Māori voyaging canoe
Waka is a six-part online video series produced by Tawera Productions in collaboration with E-Tangata and the New Zealand Herald as part of Tuia 250. It was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Pacific Voyaging and Navigating Waka Hourua; Non instrument and celestial navigation with Te Toki Voyaging Trust and Tagata Pasifika.
The preservation of The Daring (1863)
Roger Mills - Classic Yacht Association; classic yacht racing and adventures
A behind the scenes look at maintaining the New Zealand Maritime Museum’s vessels
No bookings required, free to attend.
These films, around 180 minutes in length in total, will play back to back on repeat from 10am-4pm at the Maritime Museum on Sat 2 March and Sun 3 March. They are free to view.
There will be a special session with Te Toki Waka Hourua, a team from Te Toki Voyaging Trust dedicated to the perpetuation of both ancestral and contemporary skills and knowledge of Pacific Voyaging and Navigating Waka Hourua.
The voyage and navigation practice stood the test of time within small pockets of the Pacific, however the vast majority of the Pacific Nation (ourselves included) kept only partial fragments through story, song, dance and prayer.
Their leaders were most fortunate to connect with others from around the Pacific to study and regain these practices under the tutelage of Pius Mau Pialug (Papa Mau) from the island of Satawal, Micronesia. His worldview saw the Pacific Ocean without delineation and this was reflected in his decision to break cultural taboos and teach outside of his own flesh and blood. These ancestral skills and knowledge systems passed on by Papa Mau is the premise of which we have based our contemporary practice.
Be inspired by stories of Nalanyi Davis as sailor, star gazer and advocate of dark skies.
She was instrumental in establishing Aotea/Great Barrier Island as an IDA International Dark Sky Sanctuary. She continues to assist numerous communities around New Zealand in their efforts to measure the darkness of their skies and establish and/or operate themselves as accredited dark sky locations.
Saturday, 2 March 2024 12:00 pm -12:50 pm at the Maritime Museum
There will be a special presentation on the vessel Ngataki, feature of the South Sea Vagabonds book by Johnny Wray by Tony Stevenson, chairman – Tino Rawa Trust, and Harold Kidd, historian and writer
Ngataki has been faithfully restored by the Tino Rawa Trust and launched on the 8th August 2014 after a four year restoration. Further restoration work has taken place taking her back to her 1933 configuration, including reinstatement of her high bulwarks and original gaff configuration. The boat is now as sound as a bell, despite her fencing-wire fastenings.
Saturday, 2 March 2024 1:00 pm -1:50 pm at the Maritime Museum
The legacy of Gerry Clark and the Totorore Voyage – Nicholas Keenleyside
Gerry Clark was an amateur ornithologist, explorer, ship’s captain and boat builder. His opening words in his book of the Totorore Expedition describe him well: “I love the sea, I love birds, I love adventure. In what better way could I indulge myself, in these latter years of my life, than to undertake an expedition in the great Southern Ocean?”
For over three years he and his volunteer crew-members explored some of the most forbidding coastlines, often in terrible weather, documenting bird life. He continued this work in expeditions to the offshore islands of Aotearoa New Zealand in his beloved home-built yacht, Totorore, until 1999 when he was lost at sea with his boat off the Antipodes Islands.
In 2017, Gerry’s daughter, Elsa, donated his archives and related objects to the New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui o Tangaroa. The collection comprises approximately six thousand items, including almost 4000 colour slides, densely detailed journals, correspondence, and expedition reports. There are ships’ logs, manuscripts, loose photographs, audio cassettes of Clark recounting the journey whilst at sea, transcripts, bird counts in notebooks and published books. The collection not only captures the courage, sense of adventure and scientific aptitude of Clark, and his colleagues, but also provides a reference point to measure change in seabird populations.
Saturday, 2 March 2024 2:00 pm 2:50 pm at the Maritime Museum
Boat restorations and maintenance on a budget
Hear from Nathan Herbert, Sam Harkin and James Dreyer who have all undertaken substantial rebuilds, restorations and maintenance on their own classic boats, and continue to use them as they were designed to be; with young family and friends. Q&A encouraged!
Saturday, 2 March 2024 3:00 pm 3:50 pm, Maritime Museum
40+ Years of Ocean Adventures with Lin Pardey
A special session with Lin Pardey (born 1944), who sailed with her husband, Larry Pardey (1939-2020) for over 40 years covering more than 200,000nm together. As writers, known for their small boat engine-free sailing, they coined the phrase, "Go Small, Go Simple, but Go Now, and have been called the "Enablers" as their example encouraged many others to set sail despite limited incomes.
Lin continues to voyage and adventure with David Haigh, while working on a new book to be published in 2024, the 7th in her cruising narrative series, and 13th book of her career.
Sunday, 3 March 2024, 10:30 am 10:55 am, Maritime Museum
Classic boats providing skills opportunity. A panel discussion with Mike Birdsall - Training Advisor, MAST and three apprentices who recently built a classic boat on display at the AWBF. MAST Academy works with learners and employers to ensure people are trained with the necessary skills and knowledge to build successful lives and businesses. Their goal is creating a centre of excellence for marine, composite and specialised technology training.
Sunday, 3 March 2024 11:00 am 11:50 am, Maritime Museum
Is there a sustainable future for classic boats?
Join the panel discussion, hosted by Classic Yacht Association deputy chair, Russell Brook as he discusses the sustainable future of classic boats with a group of panellists:
Larry Paul, Classic Yacht Charitable Trust
Tony Stevenson, Tino Rawa Trust
Peter Stone, William C Daldy Preservation Trust
Mark Chew, Southern Woodenboat Sailing & the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
Sunday, 3 March 2024, 12:00 pm 12:50 pm, Maritime Museum
Preservation of the vessel Coastal Trading vessel, Daring (1863)
A special presentation by Larry Paul on the Daring, the vessel originally recovered, with the consent of Heritage New Zealand, by the Daring Rescue Group, a group which included members of the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust.
On the 4th May 2021 the Daring was transported to Mangawhai and transferred to the control of the Managwahai Daring Trust to continue with the preservation work and to make her available for public display to assist in telling the stories of the life and culture of the times during which she was trading the coastlines of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Sunday, 3 March 2024 1:00 pm 1:50 pm, Maritime Museum.
The New Zealand Scow – a flashback to a bygone era.
The scow was once the workhorse on the New Zealand coast. This presentation is taken from a voyage undertaken by Cliff Hawkins (Bob’s late father ), on the scow, “Rangi” in 1934. With Captain R.J. (Bob) Hawkins, Maritime Museum Foundation.
Sunday, 3 March 2024. 3:00 pm 3:50 pm, Maritime Museum