I love Wooden Boat Festivals!
Douarnenez in 1992
The first one I ever attended
Brest 1992
We decided to go to the first International Festival of Traditional Sail in Brest and Douarnenez, Brittany, France in 1992. This was a real eye-opener. Two thousand one hundred boats and a million people descended on Brest, a city about the size of Hobart for about two weeks. Every boat I'd ever read about was there. All day long boats came and went, sailing in and out of the quays for semi-organised racing on Brest Roads. In the evening all would return and the party started. Boats were grouped, there were 20 or more Essex smacks, 100 or more Breton fishing boats, 6 or 7 Thames barges, about a thousand yachts and just about all the Tall Ships in Europe. After 4 days in Brest, most of the fleet set sail together and sailed around to Douarnenez, a smaller fishing port a half day's sail South. Not having a a boat, but with a rented car, we drove to a headland halfway along and watched the fleet sail by. The headland had two other features: damaged German WWII heavy guns just fifty metres from a prehistoric stone circle alignment. Douarnenez is a great town and there were numerous vantage points from which you could watch the comings and goings of the fleet.
More Sydney Wooden Boat Festivals
Where would we be without dedicated guys like John Wood? John kept the Sydney Wooden Boat Festival going for a third, fourth and fifth time at the Dawn Fraser Pool at Balmain in 1992 and at Berry Island in 1993 and 1994, with just him and his family doing the work. Crowds of 12-15000 turned up. We had a small commercial exhibit at each show.
Hobart 1994
Tasmanian Andy Gamlin also went to Brest and got inspired. he got together with a few friends and organised the first Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart in November 1994. We took Grace Lanyon a cedar Fisher skiff and lots of stuff for a commercial display, as well as the yet-unlaunched Balmain Bug a six-footer as a private exhibit. It was a terrific show. The brand new replica Endeavour was there on its way from Fremantle to Sydney, and as it left on the last day we followed it downriver in the old Sydney Harbour ferry North Head, partying with Rob Ayliffe, Michael Storer and the team from Duck Flat Wooden Boats in South Australia. This planted a seed in the minds of our son Jordan and his mate Paul Tingey as they both joined the crew several years later.
Hobart 96
Andy Gamlin had another go, and it was even bigger and better even though the weather turned cold and wet. We again had a small commercial display featuring a strip-planked canoe, and contributed to a display by the Australian Historical Sailing Skiff Association with the ten-footer Republic alongside Graeme Ferguson's ten-footer Commonwealth as well as our Balmain Bug.
The Couta boat photo is from a later festival.
Sydney Classic and Wooden Boat Festival 1997 and later
In late 1996 John Wood was approached by the Australian National Maritime Museum, and a revived Festival took place at the Museum in Darling Harbour in October 1997. We had a commercial display in the car park area. In 1998 they moved it to Pyrmont Bay (see the above photo) with the commercial exhibits including ours in the old Wharf 7 before its redevelopment. The Sydney Classic and Wooden Boat Festival continued at the Museum with the biggest yet in 1999 largely due to the work of Dianne Fenton who was in charge of events and education programmes, and a change of date to March in 2002 and a decision to run it bi-annually alternating with Hobart. The Halvorsen Club began to get involved and their display of these iconic vessels has been a feature of every show since. The Festival in 2004 was another big one, again due to Dianne Fenton, but after that (without Dianne) 2006, 2008 and 2010 got a little smaller, and 2012 was a bit dismal. My involvement in these was as a private exhibitor with Blackwattle in 2006, and Serenity in 2010 and assisting at a stand for the Australian Historical Sailing Skiff Association, including displaying Britannia on the hard in 2004. But the decline has been stopped! See below for the big revival in 2016!
Hobart 2001 and later
I missed 1998, but flew down for the next Festival which had been moved to February 2001. My biggest memory of that one (and the only photograph I've got, courtesy of a mate on a yacht) was sailing Michael Bolton-Hall's gaff-rigged 16 footer Exit in the Hobart Regatta on the Monday. I had recently won the Historical Skiffs race at the Australia Day Regatta in Sydney in that boat, and we were going really well in the race in a rising Southerly, and I had visions of setting some sort of record by winning the two Regattas in the same boat in the same year, but the Southerly kept rising.......with no rescue boat, and the course going well down into Storm Bay we decided it was wise to pull out, and had an incredible planing ride back to the beach, surfing down waves.
I missed 2003 as we were in New Zealand with the historical eighteens, but have attended every Hobart Festival since. In 2005 and 2007 we flew down on the Sunday morning and back on the Monday night. For 2009 see below.
I missed 2003 as we were in New Zealand with the historical eighteens, but have attended every Hobart Festival since. In 2005 and 2007 we flew down on the Sunday morning and back on the Monday night. For 2009 see below.
Brest 2008
Tricia and I scheduled a trip to Europe to take in the Brest and Douarnenez Festivals again. We still had a fantastic time, but we noticed a greater commercialisation of the Festival compared with the first one in 1992. There were souvenir shops where small boatbuilding businesses had displayed at the first festival and most of the larger boats (ships really) were taking out paying customers onto Brest Roads to view the goings-on. But my crewmate Dave paget came over with his family and was knocked out by the range of boats on display. I decided if I ever came back it would have to be on a boat (see below for Brest 2016).
Brest is a naval and commercial port and the boats are packed in when not out sailing. They tend to gather in groups of similar vessels, like the French fishing boats above.
On the day the fleet sailed from Brest to Douarnenez we joined British photographer John Cadd who had visited Sydney and written an article on the Sydney 18-footers for Classic Boat magazine (August 2007) on his RIB to chase the fleet, which enabled me to get this shot of one of my favourite boats, the biscine Cancalaise reaching across the Bay of Douarnenez.
Douarnenez is a smaller fishing port and a great little maritime town and they packed the boats in.
As usual the boats at the French Festivals go out sailing every day. on the left is the three-masted biscine lugger Cancalaise. Centre is the schooner Recouvrance that we had seen launched at Brest 92. On the right inessential supplies being shipped out to crews. I tried to buy a T-shirt but they were only for staff!
Hobart 2009
The Festival organisers invited four boats (Britannia, Alruth, Yendys and The Mistake) from the Historical eighteens fleet down and subsidised the trip. On the Friday morning we launched at the RYCT and sailed down the Derwent to join the fleet approaching Hobart. We headed to the back of the fleet, then set our spinnakers and sailed through the fleet with a rising Southerly breeze, one of the great moments of my sailing life.
We had three races on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday and I'm happy to report that Britannia won the series. Of the three races one was in very fresh conditions (25-30 knots), one was in a pleasant 12-15 knots and one in very light conditions. One of the rounding marks was set in Sullivan's Cove just off Kings Pier so the Festival punters could see us up close. We were joined on the fresh day by Festival organiser Cathy Hawkins whose local knowledge got us a line honours victory, over Harold Cudmore in The Mistake, but I admit that Harold had lost most of his regular crew and was sailing with a crew of backpackers! The photos below of the racing were taken by Terry Lean. The prize was a giant bottle of Sullivan's Cove whiskey from the sponsor.
Hobart 2011-15
Festivals are always better if you're on a boat, but we came down anyway for the next few without one. But I managed to get on board the Devonport ketch Julie Burgess (first image below) on the final day parade of sail in 2015, from where I took the middle image of the Tasmanian Lady Nelson sailing in company. I recommend you get onboard one of the boats in the parade of sail when you're next at the Festival. The last image shows the grouping of the Lyle hess-designed boats that I always have to check out.
Risor 2012
We visited the southern Norwegian port of Risor as part of a Northern Europe and Scandinavian holiday in 2012 for their annual Festival which has been running for many years. While not as big as I thought, it was fascinating to see all of the boats grouped according to type, the metre boats together, the Colin Archers, the motor boats and so on, all in a picturesque fishing port. There was also a number of boats being built, always bound to get my atention.
Port Townsend 2013
We timed a driving tour up Highway 101 from San Francisco to Vancouver so that we could be in Port Townsend for the Festival. What a fantastic town! It rivalled Seattle until the railway chose Seattle as its terminus, and nothing much changed there until the counter-culture discovered it in the 1970's. Definitely a boating town. The Festival is held at one marina at the end of the main street, and there was a huge variety of wooden boats from dinghies and kayaks to a 100' antique motor yacht, Lotus. Each day a portion of the fleet would go out sailing and the shoreline and the balcony of the Northwest Maritime Center provided great viewing. I jumped on Dirigo II for the schooner race and helped set a gollywobbler but we couldn't catch local schooner Martha.
The first two photos below show just a portion of the marina display and a location shot looking towards the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula.
The first two photos below show just a portion of the marina display and a location shot looking towards the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula.
Port Townsend Festival always has a large number of demonstrations and lectures. Above the left ribs are going into a small dinghy, above right author Christopher Schwartz made a fascinating and entertaining lecture about the otherwise boring subject of draw boring.
Always glad to have my prejudices confirmed: two of the prettiest boats at the show were a William Garden Eel like my Tirrick and a Lyle Hess Seraffyn/Renegade like my Serenity (see MY BOATS page).
Two bigger boats: detail from the interior of 100' motor yacht Lotus, and a shot of Martha (Crowninshield), the fastest schooner in the Northwest in the Schooner Race.
Two shots of the laid-back crew of schooner Dirigo II. The Pacific Northwest is notable for the number of young people interested in traditional boats.
Sydney 2016
The Australian National maritime Museum finally got their act together and decided to make a big effort with the Classic and Wooden Boat Festival for 2016, taking advice from a board of stakeholders on which I represented the Australian Historical Sailing Skiff Association, but i have to admit that the Wooden Boat Association probably made the biggest contribution. They took over the commercial marina in Darling harbour for the weekend so that the Festival took up the whole of Darling Harbour. This meant we had to go through the swinging Pyrmont Bridge (in and out) at set times as in the shot below.
Like I said, a boat festival is always better if you take a boat, so this time I took two: Serenity our Lyle Hess 24' gaff cutter, and Britannia, historical 18-footer replica which we displayed on the hard outside the Museum's main doors with big spars rigged (including 4-part spinnaker pole). We didn't't stay on the boat overnight, the doff-doof music goes until 3am and then the drunks are rowdy until dawn.
Brest and Douarnenez 2016
We returned to the Brest and Douarnenez Festivals in 2016. This time I joined Luke Powell on his Scilly Islands Pilot Cutter Agnes. I joined the boat in Newlyn harbour near Penzance in Cornwall and ticked off an entry on the bucket list by crossing the English Channel under sail. The first shot is of Agnes in Newlyn, the second is passing through the Chenal du Four in Brittany at dawn after an overnight passage, just short of Brest.
Excuse me for repeating myself, but a boat Festival is better with a boat, and we went out sailing on the Rade du Brest every day of the four days in Brest, including a deliberately close call with the frigate replica L'Hermione. The first shot is of sailing alongside Amelie Rose, another pilot cutter built by Luke. The second is of the Biscine (3-masted lugger) La Cancalaise. The third is passing the bow of L'Hermione going in the opposite direction to approximately a thousand French boats of all sizes on 14 July, France's National Day.
We sailed pretty close to the quays as well, and always attracted applause from the thousands of spectators. Each night we rafted up with other boats amongst the old stone quays. The huge tidal range sometimes meant a climb up and down a slimy steel ladder of up to 8 metres. The third photo is of the naval part of the Port of Brest, Le Penfeld River, which was opened up to some of the larger vessels, and the public. We were also able to sail in and around there.
The French Festivals are full of formal and informal entertainment. The first is a French band, the second is the hilarious Falmouth Marine Band, of whom perhaps two or three have a rudimentary grasp of their instrument.
After 4 days and 5 nights in Brest, the Festival transferred to the fishing port of Douarnenez a long daysail down the coast. The majority of the fleet (over a thousand boats) sailed out more or less together. All but the larger ships sail through Le Tas du Poi (Pile of Peas), a series of rocks off a headland. We rafted up in the beautiful old Port du Plaisance. Unlike Brest, Douarnenez was not damaged in WWII and is a charming town.
Again we went out sailing every day, sometimes at quite close quarters and having a whale of a time observing the huge range of traditional boats under sail.
It was the third time we visited Brest and Douarnenez and I think the best. Will we do it again? Maybe, maybe not, but we have some wonderful memories of such a special place and group of people.
Hobart 2017
We towed our historical 18-footer replica Britannia down to Tasmania a second time for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart in 2017. We were not going to sail this time but we rigged the big rig spars and displayed her on the hard, taking up a fair bit of room with the 39 feet (just under 12m) of spinnaker pole in 4 parts, and the boom extending 13'6" (4.1m) past the transom.
Naturally I gravitated towards the Lyle Hess-designed boats on display (see below). The Dutch were the selected nation to have their maritime heritage highlighted, and several Dutch boats made the trip. I spent most of my time however manning a stand to sell my book The Open Boat which had just been published, and didn't get to see as much as I normally would.
The Hobart show is always worth the trip, with a large selection of boats on display and other interesting exhibits and plenty of great food. The "Rusty Nuts Engine Rebuilders Co" always have a great display of vintage engines. The last photo is of Britannia loaded up near our digs in Battery Point for the trip home, c300 km to Devonport to catch the overnight ferry to Melbourne, then 900km to Sydney.
There's a brief video of Britannia at the festival on the Ian Smith Boats channel on YouTube at youtu.be/DrpTdPRysT4
Toronto Heritage Afloat (Lake Macquarie NSW) 1995-2017
This was a great little festival held over the Easter weekend at Toronto from the mid-1990's to recently, but unfortunately is no more. They always seemed to struggle, starting and stopping again every few years, but we went most times it was held between 1995 and 2017 with a variety of boats and always were warmly welcomed by the locals and always enjoyed ourselves. We've taken The Balmain Bug (6-footer), the 10-footer Republic, the 18-footer Britannia , our rowing boat Grace Lanyon and in 2015 and 2017 sailed up the coast in our Lyle hess cutter Serenity (see the MY BOATS Page) and visited the festival in the course of a sailing holiday on the beautiful Lake Macquarie.
Port Townsend 2017
We revisited Port Townsend for the 2017 festival as we had enjoyed it so much 4 years earlier (this festival is held annually).
I ran a presentation on the origin and evolution of the Australian 18-footers on two consecutive days, but managed to get out on the water on the last day on the schooner Martha which I had admired so much 4 years before from another schooner when she beat the fleet home by a whole leg of the course.
We were invited by our friend the late great Brion Toss. I spent most of the time taking photos of the amazing vessels all around us, but had to stop every now and again to turn a winch.
Paynesville 2018
Paynesville is a small town on the Gippsland Lakes. They held their first Classic Boat Rally in 2016, but we were not aware of it then. In 2018 I was invited to speak at the Geelong Wooden Boat Festival which has been held every 2 years for longer, and as the Paynesville Rally was scheduled for the weekend before Geelong we decided to take in both. Paynesville just blew us away, it's the most enjoyable small boat festival we've been to, a great location, friendly locals and great sailing waters. We towed Britannia down by road, taking our time on the coast road (about 700km). The first shot shows Britannia at about the halfway point where we stopped for the night at Narooma. That's Montague Island in the distance. The second shot shows Britannia sailing in the distance with some of the other boats on the beach near the launching ramp.
It was just two days, but the weather was kind and we picked up a few locals to cover shortage of crew. On the first day there was a Parade of sail, and the second day there was a parade of all boats. We sailed out into Lake Victoria, then back and sailed with a following breeze into the Macmillan Strait, the narrow channel that separates the main town from Raymond Island. It was only our second rig, but we still managed to attract a bit of attention.
Geelong 2018
We continued our road trip and stayed with friends in Melbourne but still arrived early for the Geelong Festival so we had a look around the fascinating Bellarine Peninsula. The Geelong Festival has been going for some years every second year, I think this one was about the seventh. It's held at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club.
Two other Sydney historical 18-footer replicas joined us, Yendys and Australia IV. On the Saturday we went out for an unorganised sail in a light breeze on Corio Bay with our big rigs and managed to display our biggest spinnakers and our ringtails. I was the guest speaker at the Festival dinner at the Club on the Saturday night, and had a similar presentation on the origin and evolution of Australian 18-footers to that I did in Sydney in 2016 and Port Townsend in 2017.
On the Sunday there was organised racing, so we joined the fleet way out on Corio Bay racing against yachts of all sizes in a fresh (and cold!) breeze. On the Monday we were the only Sydney boat to go out, and we took a few locals with us. The Couta boats pictured below are always a feature at this festival, most of them being based across Port Phillip Bay at Sorrento, but there is a local fleet at Queenscliff also.
On the Sunday there was organised racing, so we joined the fleet way out on Corio Bay racing against yachts of all sizes in a fresh (and cold!) breeze. On the Monday we were the only Sydney boat to go out, and we took a few locals with us. The Couta boats pictured below are always a feature at this festival, most of them being based across Port Phillip Bay at Sorrento, but there is a local fleet at Queenscliff also.
Sydney 2018
Building on the success of 2016, the Sydney Classic and Wooden Boat Festival at the Australian National Maritime Museum for 2018 was bigger and better. Once more taking over the marina in Cockle Bay as well as the main Museum site, boat numbers and crowds were up. it is unfortunate that the 2020 Festival was cancelled because of Covid, and the Museum have announced that they will not proceed with any more Festivals, so the history of Sydney Wooden Boat Festivals since 1990 has come to an end.
Above: Halvorsen cruisers have long been a big part of the Sydney Festivals, and they are always moored together on a dedicated pontoon. The closest boat in the other shot above is Kelpie, launched in 1888 and restored in the early 1990's by owner John Wood, the original backer of the Sydney Wooden Boat Festival, employing shipwright Rick Wood to do the work. The boat is now lovingly cared for by new owners.
We displayed Serenity again afloat, and assisted Admiral Don Buckley to display the historical 18-footer Yendys on the hard outside the Museum entrance.
We displayed Serenity again afloat, and assisted Admiral Don Buckley to display the historical 18-footer Yendys on the hard outside the Museum entrance.
The first boat below is Sao, also restored by Rick Wood. I assisted to fit new grown floors about 2005.
The boats like Serenity that were displayed in Cockle Bay marina had to go through the old opening Pyrmont Bridge at set times. A friend took this shot from the Bridge.
Hobart 2019
I was planning to trail Britannia down to Hobart again and display her on the hard as we did in 2017, but Festival Dockmaster and old mate Ross Barnett challenged me to convince some more 18's to come and sail. Harold Cudmore and his Yendys crew were keen to come and so was the crew of Top Weight.
We launched the boats off the trailers at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in Sandy Bay and sailed around to Sullivan's Cove, the site of the Festival. As I reported in the section on the last time we sailed here in 2009 the plan was to sail down Storm Bay and join the fleet sailing up to the Festival site, but unfortunately the wind was blowing from the North-West strong and blustery, and we deemed it prudent to simply sail around the coast rather than go downwind to the fleet and have a long difficult and dangerous work back. All 3 boats tied up together, and we dropped sails and left the boats afloat each evening. We sailed out to race each day.
We still had plenty of time to look around the Festival. As always I seem to be drawn to the gathering of Lyle Hess boats pictured below.
We still had plenty of time to look around the Festival. As always I seem to be drawn to the gathering of Lyle Hess boats pictured below.
I was booked to speak at the Festival Symposium on the origin and evolution of the Australian 18-Footer, and was pleased to find an over-capacity audience. The featured nation this Festival was the USA, and many of the visiting Americans attended having heard of the 18-footers.
I also had a book launch for my second book Wooden Boatbuilding- The Sydney Wooden Boat School Manuals in the authors' room on the Elizabeth Pier. Old friend Lin Pardey did the honours in launching the book. Jon Wilson the founder of Woodenboat Magazine bought a copy of each of my books and has convinced the Woodenboat Store to stock them.
Each day we sailed the wind was blustery and strong, with heavy rain squalls on the second day. on the third day we were tacking in towards the turning mark placed off Sullivan's Cove so patrons could watch part of the race when a sudden loud bang got us concerned. Photographer the late Paul Gilbert happened to be shooting us from a motor launch across our bows when it happened. A bolt holding the strap eye under the bumpkin that held the intermediate bobstay had sheered but the bent eye was still just holding on. The No4 jib was shackled to the corresponding strap eye on top of the bumpkin, and was bending the middle of the bumpkin up and threatening to break it with little resistance from the intermediate bobstay. We eased sails and asked a passing yacht to radio for one of the Festival RIB's to come and get us, as the route home was directly to windward. The photos below show the moments immediately after the bolt sheered.
I also had a book launch for my second book Wooden Boatbuilding- The Sydney Wooden Boat School Manuals in the authors' room on the Elizabeth Pier. Old friend Lin Pardey did the honours in launching the book. Jon Wilson the founder of Woodenboat Magazine bought a copy of each of my books and has convinced the Woodenboat Store to stock them.
Each day we sailed the wind was blustery and strong, with heavy rain squalls on the second day. on the third day we were tacking in towards the turning mark placed off Sullivan's Cove so patrons could watch part of the race when a sudden loud bang got us concerned. Photographer the late Paul Gilbert happened to be shooting us from a motor launch across our bows when it happened. A bolt holding the strap eye under the bumpkin that held the intermediate bobstay had sheered but the bent eye was still just holding on. The No4 jib was shackled to the corresponding strap eye on top of the bumpkin, and was bending the middle of the bumpkin up and threatening to break it with little resistance from the intermediate bobstay. We eased sails and asked a passing yacht to radio for one of the Festival RIB's to come and get us, as the route home was directly to windward. The photos below show the moments immediately after the bolt sheered.
We jury-rigged the bumpkin for the delivery trip back to the RYCT on the Monday to load the boats for the trip home. While we had a great time, we were lucky in the prevailing conditions that none of our boats swam. It's a long way to any beach and the water is cold. I know why 18-footers never took off there. We are unlikely to sail there again, but I did intend to display on the hard for the cancelled 2021 Festival, and we will be back for the one in 2023.
A short video of our trip with onboard GoPro footage is on the Ian Smith Boats channel on Youtube at youtu.be/SjvLXDDRBTQ
A short video of our trip with onboard GoPro footage is on the Ian Smith Boats channel on Youtube at youtu.be/SjvLXDDRBTQ
Paynesville 2020
Having had such a great time at Paynesville in 2018 we decided to go back for 2020. It was as good as we expected. The breeze on both days was even lighter than the previous time but with our No1 rig set we managed to move along most of the time in the flat water. The shot below shows us working upwind along Macmillan Strait passing the famous outboard-powered shed with a rock and roll band playing on the verandah!
Two of my favourite boats at the rally were the local boat Fancy, a clinker centreboard well over a hundred years old, and Acrospire from Melbourne which normally sails on the Albert Lake.
Old mate Chris Dicker restored Jock Muir's Westwind (below), cruised it about a lot and then settled in Paynesville at his property "Anchor Downs". The boat with the locally typical shelter hood is a remaining example of the double-ended net boats of which there were once many on the Lakes, but quite a few still exist.
Having had such great fun in 2018 sailing down the Macmillan Strait with everything up we decided to try it again. Our timing was out however and we were asked to stop. We dropped spinnaker and ringtail but ran out of water trying to stay off the course and ran onto the mud. We were towed off and sailed back out into Lake Victoria and tried it again later but the wind was too shy to carry spinnaker and ringtail so we dropped them. We had another go from the other direction on the Sunday with the wind coming the other way, but had to strike everything in a hurry when the Raymond Island cable ferry started up just as we approached. With a light breeze it was all good fun. The photo of the crew in action was given to us by a local whose name we did not catch, sorry mate.
A 12-minute video of this Rally is on the Ian Smith Boats channel on YouTube at youtu.be/mIiwfb1xwCM and it contains plenty of footage of the range of boats attending the Rally as well as shots of Britannia from the shore and onboard.
A 12-minute video of this Rally is on the Ian Smith Boats channel on YouTube at youtu.be/mIiwfb1xwCM and it contains plenty of footage of the range of boats attending the Rally as well as shots of Britannia from the shore and onboard.