With registrations due to open later this month for the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival, we thought it might be a good time to have a chat with the Festival Director and General Manager Paul Stephanus about his philosophy on the event, why you should make the effort to attend and the process for registering your boat.

Six engaging speaker sessions will take place each day at the Maritime Museum, with films playing on rotation all weekend long. All are invited to join the celebration! Entry is free but bookings are recommended.

Each of these boats has an inter-generational story to tell. They were handcrafted in a time when we still made things with our hands. Some carried across oceans some were traders serving communities up and down our coasts. They were our transport and our recreation.

As you can see from Paul’s films, sailing a Tall Ship like DUYFKEN isn’t for everyone, but is your the sort of person who likes a bit of adventure, doesn’t need to wash three times a day, and understands the meaning of teamwork then get involved!

Almost exactly three months after we had left Sydney, on 22 April I stood on Georges Head to watch ANITRA V sail back through the Heads after a voyage of seven days from Kettering. It was an emotional moment to see my boat returning to Sydney.

FELUCCA shows a number of features that are rare in Moths, including reverse clinker construction, a dished cockpit, flat foredeck (no centre hump) and a rear tank.

So we have Andrew’s interpretation of reality rather than reality itself. His feelings and emotions are woven through these pictures like threads in a tapestry. This is not something a documentary photographer does lightly. It throws your work wide open to judgement.

What I find endlessly remarkable about this Festival is that it is held together by the power of a very simple idea – the beauty and promise of wooden boats. To some this is a promise of adventure; to others a promise of comradery, history, craftsmanship, or simple relaxation.

For those of us lucky enough to be attending next years festival, the live symposium provides a level of scholarship and intellect rarely applied to the world of wooden boats. The program is now out!

A film about a rough, old school sawmill that produces some of the world’s finest timber, including the uniquely Tasmanian Huon Pine.

Former Chair of the AWBF, Peter Higgs once described the Festival as an elephant on roller skates, zooming down a hill. In the words of the current General Manager Paul Stephanus… “Well, we are are now almost seven months out from the big day, and the beast is well and truly picking up momentum.“

There is a varied and enriching selection of events on offer, that brings to live the wooden boat building and associated crafts of the Huon Valley and the Channel Region South of Hobart.

Last week it was wonderful news to hear that Joy Phillips was elected Chair of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, the largest celebration of wooden boats and maritime culture in the southern hemisphere.

Salar 40s were designed to be safe, comfortable, and seaworthy, and to travel long distances. ‘A round the world yacht’ was the marketing slogan when the boat was built, and it wasn’t just hot air.

The greatest celebration of Wooden Boats and Maritime Culture on the planet*, welcomes you attend the 2021 Maritime Trail.