January 2013 - Australian Wooden Boat Festival

Newsletter January 2013
Greetings all,
Festival season has arrived here in Hobart with the splendid sight of the Sydney to
Hobart yachts coming up the Derwent and turning into Sullivans Cove. The crowds
are out in their thousands and, as I write this, the whole of the Hobart waterfront
is a sea of colour and excitement. The Taste Festival is bigger than ever before,
the Salamanca Market is thriving and the pubs, cafes and restaurants are full to
the gunwales. We are enjoying bright, cool and sunny weather and the forecasters tell us we can look forward to a great summer. The excitement is also ramping up here in the Festival
office, with just five weeks to go to the big event. We have to take our collective hat off to Site &
Technical Director Michael Bullock and his team, Kelvin Aldred and John Aalders. These guys have the
hideously complicated job of planning the construction and operation of a Festival site that stretches 1.3
kilometres from end to end and includes more than 80 temporary buildings, theatres and stages. As
most of the site is on public streets and docks, they’ll have just 72 hours to get all of it built and
operational in time for the official opening at 11:00 am on February 8. Meanwhile, the dock crew, led
by Dock Master Roscoe Barnett, Boat Manager Cathy Hawkins and Ian Johnstone are planning a massive
docking operation to accommodate more than 300 boats arriving on the same afternoon. It’s a very
large and complex project and if it weren’t for our Admin Angel, Bronwyn Long, it could all get very
messy. Luckily, Bronnie has a long memory and an incredible eye for detail and manages somehow to
keep all of us on the right track. Good luck with your own preparations and best wishes for a safe and
happy New Year!
- Paul Cullen, General Manager
1
Getting there is half the fun
a report by David Salter
V
ery few of the happy boat lovers
who’ll promenade along the Sullivan’s Cove dock at the 2013 MyState
Australian Wooden Boat Festival will give
any thought to how those three hundred
plus boats they’re admiring got there.
But a yacht is not a static object. It’s a
means of transport, and many of the most
interesting and historic craft on display this
year will have come a long way to be part
of the festivities.
Those journeys – “passages” is the correct
nautical term – are a credit to the dedication of the owners and crew who’ve had to
make a major investment of time, energy
and money to bring their beloved wooden
boats to Hobart. For keen offshore sailors
“getting there” is indeed half the fun, but
there’s much more to bringing a yacht from
Sydney to Hobart and back than meets the
casual eye.
Hoana is 87 years old and has had to
overcome her fair share of misfortune
before making it to Hobart for the Festival.
Indeed, for the five classic wooden boats
on the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club register
who’ll be making that demanding 1,240
mile round trip this year, their preparation
has taken more than 16 months and hundreds of intensive man-hours.
The oldest yacht in the SASC fleet heading
South is Hoana (1925), owned by Martin
van der Wal. Martin was planning only a
modest re-fit of his 30-foot gaffer for the
voyage when she was involved in a major
collision with a power boat on Sydney Harbour.
The impact of that accident popped the
deck and cabin top, and caused serious
structural damage. It has taken many
months of hard work by Martin and other
club members to restore the lovely little
yacht to seaworthiness.
2
Getting there is half the fun
…continued
Three of the SASC participants in this year’s MyState
Australian Wooden Boat Festival are veterans of the
early “golden years” of Sydney-to-Hobart racing.
Lahara, built by Jock Muir in Tasmania in 1951, has undergone a huge amount of work this year to make her
ready for the long ocean passage to Hobart. Current
owner Mike Warner has reconditioned the engine, replaced the boat’s electrics and taken on the daunting
task of painting the entire interior.
Maurie Evans, owner of the elegant Lion-classer
Malohi (1955), has gone one better. He’s installed a
complete new engine and gearbox, and spent months
on restoring the original internal carpentry while adding some new features for safety and comfort.
The famous 1965 ocean racer Mister Christian, now
owned by David Salter and Ben Gray, raced to Hobart
five times in the 1960s. More than a year has now
been spent getting the Ron Swanson double-ender
ready for the trip to the Festival. Individual projects
included replacing the drive train, reconditioning the
engine, installing a new binnacle, adding navigational
instruments and restoring the galley.
Mike Warner, owner/skipper of the
1951 Tasmanian-built sloop
Lahara, has spent close to a year
preparing her for the voyage south.
In addition to the huge amount of physical work that’s been invested in these yachts are the long hours of
planning the skippers and crews have all had to do for the voyage itself.
There’s an enormous difference between a leisurely day-trip from Kettering to a safe berth at the Festival
and spending up to three weeks at sea, including two crossings of Bass Strait and Storm Bay.
Everything needs to be carefully prepared. Radio communications, navigation systems, charts, tool kits,
spare parts, provisioning, fuel, weather forecasts, safety equipment, life rafts, first aid, emergency steering
– in fact the whole range of requirements for a safe, long-distance offshore passage.
None of these are cheap, and all take time, effort and knowledge to assemble properly.
So when you next amble past a boat at the AWBF that’s come from afar, please take a moment to silently
acknowledge the commitment, enthusiasm and plain hard work that’s gone into getting her there.
3
…with Wooden Boats
We at ABC Local Radio have been part of the AWBF since Cathy, Ian and Andy made the first one happen
all those years ago, I suspect that I have broadcast from every one. During the 2011 event I was cast adrift
into Con-Doc with Jessica Watson, who unprompted, offered that the festival was, " the most fun I've had
since I got back."
Wooden boats have long been part of my life. From Inter Cadet ‘Jericho', the heaviest and slowest boat in
the Sandy Bay fleet, which memorably won two Hobart regattas because of its huge handicap and its immunity to 40 knot sea breezes, to Fireballs Gwen 12s, OK's and Lightweight Sharpies, all the way to the unrealistic romance with the 52 foot, 22 ton 'Silver Gull'. This beautiful wishbone ketch was built during the
war years by Sydney sailing identity Harry Newton Scott. Harry and his partner Oceania (Ocey) circumnavigated the globe competing in quiz shows which were huge in the States at the time of their travels. When I
bought her she had idled on a mooring for something like sixteen years but was still fabulous. Even after a
long day of pouring thousands of dollars invisibly into her I could still sit on a river bank and admire her
lines...!
‘Silver Gull’ was built out of imported Oregon that had been purchased by the RAN in the twenties for a
gunboat; all two by fours, something like forty four foot lengths and just beautiful. I planed back her flush
decks, which unfortunately, started her leaking from then on. The main mast was a Scandinavian spruce
from a square rigger wrecked in Sydney in the 1880's and the mizzen was the Port Hacking golf club flag
pole! I know these things, even though Harry was long dead (he died aboard at 97) because, on the offchance, I dropped into the Mitchell library in Sydney and pessimistically enquired about the yacht. When
they bought out a tea-chest it was one of the most exciting moments of my life. Therein was Harry's unpublished manuscript of her story.
The Silver Gull and her ilk, with their combination of beauty and practicality, make the Wooden Boat Festival what it is: an irresistible mixture of romance, challenge and history. I can’t wait to be back amongst it
all in 2013.
Chris Wisbey will broadcast
from Constitution Dock
between 10am and midday,
Sunday, 10 February. Tune
in to 936 ABC Hobart or ABC
Northern Tasmania. Listeners outside of Tasmania can
hear him via
abc.net.au/hobart.
On Monday, 11 February,
ABC presenter Samantha
Morris will provide the commentary for the popular
Quick’n’Dirty Boat Building
Challenge.
4
SURF’S
UP
The history of surfing is fascinating and
Tasmania’s historical involvement in this
popular sport has close links with our
wooden boat building culture.
Small wooden dinghies and surf-boards
fashioned out of a ‘slab’ of timber (similar to
those pictured, right) were the essential
accessories in the many shacks and houses
that were built near Tasmania’s many fine
beaches over the past 100 years or so.
A feature of the MyState Australian Wooden
Boat Festival will be a large display of wooden surfboards used in Tasmania over past decades.
A favourite story collected by TMAG’s Elizabeth Adkins, currently the Maritime Heritage Coordinator at the Maritime Museum, came from George Bills, who is descended from Harvey Thomson, one of the original owners of a shack at Clifton Beach.
Legend has it that Harvey first surfed Clifton Beach in about 1920 with his friend Cedric Cane. Harvey and Cedric were two of
the earliest sportsmen to popularise surfing in Tasmania.
Harvey Thompson was originally from Sydney and, although admitted to the bar there, decided to take up farming land near
Roma, Queensland. However, one of the worst droughts recorded at that time drove him off the land and down to Tasmania
where he eventually became a director of IXL. Harvey used hoop pine from a table-top and shaped it into a board.
Typical of Tasmanian boards at that time it was a paipo-style board. The paipo board is among the oldest forms of board
surfing. Captain Cook reported that he saw the villagers riding them when he visited Hawaii in 1778. Those boards were
about 3' to 6' and were ridden prone, either on the belly or on the knees.
Other European mariners reported both Tahitians and Hawaiians surfing either standing up or in the prone position since the
late 1700s. It is understood that both methods of board riding were part of traditional life for hundreds of years before that.
Tasmanian surfers using these paipo boards would catch a wave and surf in, also prone, straight to shore. They called it
'shooting the waves'. The paipo boards were known locally as ‘body-boards’ or ‘belly-boards’.
This style of wooden surfboard was used exclusively in Tasmania from around 1890 up until the 1950s when the ‘standing’
method of board riding took off. Both methods of board riding are still enjoyed by surfers to this day.
Among the surfboards on display at the MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival is a collection from George Bill’s family
‘home-made’ boards spanning three generations. The distinctive boards in the picture are from George’s collection. Some
of these boards are still in use today.
As well as Harvey Thompson’s original hoop-pine board, three others owned by the family will be on display. One from the
1940s (just after the war) used by George's mother Sue; another from the 1950s made of marine ply by his father Nigel for
his brother David, and yet another one made by Nigel for his wife Sue.
Sue still surfed on this board until giving it away just a few years ago at the age of 82!
However, there is much more than a simple static display of historical and interesting wooden surfboards at the MyState
Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
Forums with surfboard makers and surfboard shapers hosted by Tasmanian surfing legends Michael (Mick) Lawrence and
Ronnie McCulloch will be held in the Princes Wharf 1 Theatrette. Fascinating and entertaining discussions are expected - so
check your festival program for details.
5
FROM RUSSIA
WITH LOVE
You may remember our feature in the November issue about
an extraordinary feat of seamanship from the crew of the
Viking replica ship Rusich. Captain Sergey Sinelnik and a
handful of volunteers have sailed this amazing wooden ship
all the way from Russia to Australia, calling at Darwin, Torres
Strait, Cairns, Gladstone and Brisbane. Here’s an update..
The Viking replica ship Rusich is now lying at Brisbane, having paused in her 7,000 nautical mile journey from Russia to Australia. The largely self-funded expedition had to fly home to renew support and
visas and are now back in Australia trying to make the final legs: Brisbane to Sydney and Sydney to
Hobart. Captain Sergey tells us that they are desperately short of sponsorship money and finding it a
real struggle to keep the expedition going. He’s calling for expressions of interest from anyone who
would like to join them for all of part of the journey as paying passengers. This could be the adventure
of a lifetime for a young sailor (or an old one, come to think of it). If you would like to get in contact
with the Rusich, drop us an email here at the AWBF office and we’ll put you in touch.
Captain Sergey is also looking for a loan - if you can supply an in-date life raft sufficient for a crew of
6-8 to replace the Rusich’s outdated one, it will be returned when the ship reaches Hobart and you will
have helped make this truly amazing journey possible.
Just a little further south you will find ….
…... another exciting possibility for those planning to attend the AWBF.
Sail or drive a little further south and visit the Kermandie Hotel and Marina.
Situated just 45 minutes drive south from Hobart at Port Huon, the Kermandie Hotel and Marina has
so much to offer visitors. For example, you can bring your boat down and stay aboard in the marina,
or enjoy three and a half star accommodation in the boutique hotel. The hotel’s Sass restaurant
offers fine dining, there is a well-stocked bottleshop, and it is a pleasant drive to Hobart for the
festival.
For more information contact Tony on 0411057362 or email tony@kermandie.com.au
6
by Des Clark
I have been associated with the Lindisfarne Sailing Club in Hobart for a number of years.
It is primarily a junior sailing club aimed at attracting young people and families to the pleasures of sailing and
yacht racing. The club has produced a large number of champion sailors over the years.
Lindisfarne has been the home of the Heron Class Sailing Dinghy but the club also sails NS14s, a good fleet of
Sabres and very recently an ‘instant fleet’ of Firebugs, all built at the club and with more underway.
I have noticed that even though the club conducts children’s learn to sail programmes each season, starting
out with about 30 students, they don’t stay interested and the Club is lucky to retain even one sailor! This happens each year and it’s the same story at other clubs. Mum and Dad drop off their kids at the club and head
off to get a cup of coffee. Later they pick up their child and shove off - there is no interaction with Club members or activities.
Then I read an article that captured my interest about Firebug building at sailing clubs and with the help of my
son and family, talked to the Club who picked up the project with a very positive attitude. The Commodore,
Vice Commodore and several members enthusiastically formulated a plan to build these ‘Bugs. We wanted the
cost to be very low and we wanted to build at least 12 boats.
The Club offer was that if families spent $1200 we would help them build a Firebug to a sail-away stage, provide a free lifejacket and free boat storage at the club for one season. Plus we would give these kids free sail
training lessons.
Several members campaigned the Build-a-‘Bug Scheme at schools and shopping centres and we quickly got
together a list of keen families. We also tried to get some level of funding but sadly no Government department seemed interested and that was hard to believe!
But fortunately others could see the light:
● The Bellerive Yacht Club donated the lifejackets.
● Denman Marine gave us a good deal on Gaboon plywood, imported from France (which is the
best quality plywood that I have ever used).
● Storm Bay Sails were very community minded and very patient, letting the kids design their
own colours and shapes and looked after us with a special price.
● Peter Johnson Ship Chandlers were very supportive and gave us good discounts.
7
Construction took just three months. This was quite an achievement and would not have happened without the huge amount of
help from club members, the Commodore and Vice Commodore
who put in many hours outside of the building programme, machining timber and ordering tube for masts and booms and the
associated fittings. The clever design and detailing of John Spencer and Peter Tait also played a large part in the success of the
program – the FireBug design is optimised for amateur construction.
We built five jigs and made steel patterns for all the cut-outs. We
started building inside the Club building on wet days. The kids
proved to be quick learners at handling tools and one Mum and
Grand Mother team cut the plywood for the bottom and sides and glued them onto the frame in one
session! Excitement built as launch day approached. Some of the children were beside themselves with
anticipation, especially the younger ones. There were life changing experiences going on.
Launch day was a biggie – one by one the boats were launched and sailed off by rather nervous firsttime-skippers and it was a day to remember!
The Firebug group have proved to be exactly what was needed for our Club. The kids are enjoying the
learn to sail programme and are doing very well. They mainly sail in the sheltered bay at present but we
did tow them out of the bay and down river to the Bellerive Yacht Clubs Crown Series where our Firebugs entertained the crowd with their enthusiasm for their self- made boats and beautifully coloured
sails. The boats just looked magnificent!
On the day the light breeze built up to around 25 knots but our kids took it all in their stride. A few capsized and a bit of damage was done to the boats. When we finally towed them back to Lindisfarne the
kids were saturated, some of the parents too, but they had a great adventure and haven’t stopped talking about it.
These children have now adopted the club like a second home, a place to have fun, whether it be sailing,
swimming or jumping off the jetties. They have all become really good mates and are having a ball. They
don’t want to leave after sailing which is really great. The club in general and all the new members are
very happy. The kids have real ownership of their boats and are really proud of them.
For me it has been a heart warming experience and I am delighted to have had the opportunity to take
part and with the way it has worked out so far. I would like to thank all those who provided so much support. And we would like to thank Peter Tait from FireBug Yachts for assisting us so much with this building programme.
Happy Sailing
Des Clark
Lindisfarne Sailing Club’s
fleet of Firebugs
8
ALL BOOKINGS
Website: www.hobartwalkingtours.com.au
Phone: 0413 383 207
AUSTRALIAN WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL: WALKING TOURS
FESTIVAL TOUR DATES: FEBRUARY SAT 9TH, SUN 10TH, MON 11TH
TOUR INFORMATION
About
Your Tour
What makes one boat a ketch and another a yawl?
What’s the difference between a brig and a brigantine?
Learn all about the differences between the various types of
boats and ships on display. Take a walking tour of the
Wooden Boat Festival, learn about wooden ships & boats
and hear the fascinating stories that go with many of the
vessels:
· Which replica ship had its original ship burned to the
waterline on an island after the crew insulted the island
chief’s wife?
· Which wooden boat is owned by a world famous chef
who had it custom built here in Tasmania out of
Tasmanian timber?
· Do you know the difference between a ship & a boat?
· Discover many more fascinating facts about wooden
boats and ships.
Duration
1 hour
Times
10am 12pm 2pm 4pm 6pm
Starting
From
All tours start from the Main Information Tent
(located at No’ 16 on the festival map)
in front of the building with the wind turbines
Cost
Adults: $20
How To
Book
Your
Guide
Children: $15 (under 16)
Max 15 people per tour book in advance to avoid disappointment
Book & pay in advance online:
www.hobartwalkingtours.com.au
Or book on the day & pay cash
Phone or text: 0413 383 207
Robyn Everist is the owner of Hobart Walking Tours. She
is an experienced guide, loves Hobart and walking
everywhere and is skilled in sharing the stories and history
of Hobart with others. Robyn is a keen volunteer crew
member on the Lady Nelson and has an addiction to Tall
Ships which she pursues with a passion.
Qualified: Cert 4 Tourism (Guiding); First Aid; Insured.
ALL BOOKINGS: www.hobartwalkingtours.com.au
- Phone: 0413 383 207
9
Light up the Derwent
Calling all boat-owners,
yachties, lovers of fairy lights,
water-goers, sailors, shipmates
…. join us on a magical parade
of sail lights
Celebrate 40 years of Wrest Point and join the Lady Nelson as she
leads an illuminated parade of boats.
What
When
Time
Raft up
Light up the Derwent - parade of sail under lights
Friday 25th January 2013; Australia Day Eve
5pm raft up for BBQ/picnic
Sail by Wrest Point around 9pm
To be announced later, weather dependent
Prizes for the best lit boats include:
1st Prize
2nd Prize
3rd Prize
Night for 2 at Wrest Point in an Exec Suite (including bottle of Sparkling on arrival and
breakfast next morning) PLUS dinner at Point Revolving to the value of $300
Dinner for 2 in Point Revolving to value of $300
Dinner to 2 in Pier One to value of $150.
Expressions of interest and further details email ryct@ryct.org.au by 17 January 2013
Boat Builder Ian Johnston has been working with Workskills, an organisation devoted to getting long-term unemployed people
into the workforce by building new skills. The team members learn building trades and construction at a purpose-built Red
Shed at the Hobart Showgrounds. This year, they are going to be part of the MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival, as
they complete construction of two Gloucester Gull rowing dories on the Festival site. Daryl Peebles reports on how it’s going…
Boat builders making great progress
We had a great email from Martin (Workskills) informing us that all the participants are ‘loving it’, and of course
they all want to be boat builders now. Martin even commented, “I think I do, too!”
“As I've mentioned previously, Ian Johnston has been a pleasure to work with - very relaxed with the guys, and full
of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm,” Martin said.
“The boats are making excellent progress, with one getting close to the paint stage and the other almost
structurally complete. Anthony has done the majority of the work so far on the New Norfolk boat, and a bit of
competition between the two boats has added to the fun.
“There are some great skills being learnt in amongst the enjoyment - traditional woodworking skills, using hand
tools and REAL timbers (Mmmmm, I can smell the Huon Pine while I type!), along with the use of modern power
tools and materials - ply, epoxy, resins, etc. Plenty of employability and general life skills as well - listening,
learning and lots of patience!, Martin said. Martin and the teams will be at the MyState Australian Wooden Boat
Festival from 8 to11 February 2013 adding the finishing touches to their boats and displaying the new-found skills
of the team members.
10
The Derwent Gift
Dorade and Stormy Weather are names synonymous
with the glory days of classic yacht design in the
1930s. Designed by the now famous company of
Sparkman & Stephens, who went on to design many
of the American’s Cup yachts and became one of the
most respected and sought after designers of classic
yachts in the yachting world.
Here in Australia we have two of these early classics
from the same era and designers.
Left: Sparkman & Stephens designed yacht
‘Sirocco’ taking the line at Battery Point, Hobart
You can imagine the surprise when the young team of Rod Sparkman and Olin Stephens, then in their
early twenties, received their first overseas commission, not from Europe or the USA but from Tasmania!
The first design, Landfall, was commissioned by Guy Rex. She was designed in 1934 and built in 1935 by
Percy Coverdale of Battery Point Boatyards.
Landfall was followed by Sirocco, commissioned by Charles Davies, designed in 1938 and built in 1939 by
Taylor Brothers, also of Battery Point.
They were both built of Huon pine and other fine timbers. They had very similar lengths, 44ft and were
both designed to be cutting edge racing yachts. Both competed in different Sydney/Hobart races over the
years.
Both left Tasmanian shores early in the mid-1940s for various locations on the mainland, never to meet
again, until…..
“The Derwent Gift” is the brainchild of Ken Lewis, local sailor and catering identity who thought how
wonderful it would be to give back to the community, what the Derwent has given us, that is, superbly
crafted classic yachts and the talented sailors who raced them in a recreation of racing on Hobart’s River
Derwent for everyone to relive and enjoy.
Sirocco has made her way home and is now based in Hobart.
Landfall is based in Sydney and will be making her way down the coast, across Bass Strait, through Storm
Bay and up the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. Reunited after more than half a century, these two yachts will
match race on the Derwent, following a course similar to that of the early 40s and helmed by renowned
veteran yachtsmen.
On the sidelines of the course will be other classic boats, yachts and old salts recreating a bygone scene of
the glamorous heyday of yachting in Tasmania. The challenge of “The Derwent Gift” will be held in the
first week of February, following which both yachts will be on show at the MyState Australian Wooden
Boat Festival.
A warm invitation is extended to all veteran sailors and vintage craft of the ‘30s and ‘40s to be a part of
this nostalgic event. Those interested can contact Krystina Mackintosh at yachtsirocco@bigpond.com
11
Ships ahoy!
Notorious is the remarkable replica 15th Century
Portuguese caravel built in Victoria by Graeme
Wylie and bound for the MyState Australian
Wooden Boat Festival.
A message has just arrived by email from Felicite
Wylie aboard the caravel telling us they are now
making their way south.
Felicite writes, “We have had a wonderful twoweek sojourn in the Kent and Furneaux Groups,
arriving at the Port of Dalrymple on 19th
December.
We depart this afternoon for Launceston,
intending to spend a few days restocking and
enjoying the festive season.”
Notorious - now in Tasmanian waters and sailing south!
Then, of course, it’s on for Hobart!
The Birth of the Huon Kelly
at the Wooden Boat Centre
in Franklin Tasmania 2006
The Huon Kelly was constructed by students at the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin, Tasmania.
The students who constructed the wooden boat qualified in a two-year Diploma of Traditional Wooden
Boat building course. The wooden boat building diploma course commenced in August 2004 and
completed in March 2006.
One of our AWBF volunteers, Kelvin Aldred, financed the building project and was a student of the
course to construct the vessel. The Huon Kelly had over 16,000 hours of construction time by the
students. She is 30 feet long, 10 foot beam and draws 4 foot 6 inches. She carries 2.5 ton of lead
ballast and a full deep keel.
The Huon Kelly was carvel planked and caulked in 1,200 year old Huon Pine from the west coast of
Tasmania. The wheelhouse features Celery Top Pine, Huon Pine, Myrtle and King Billy beam straps.
Off white satin paint work accentuates the beautiful Tasmanian timbers and finish. The head is an
electronic system and incorporates a hot shower and finished in Huon Pine.
Galley fit out is Huon Pine with Tasmanian Blackwood bench tops. Twin stainless steel sinks, two-burner
gas hotplates, gas oven and 120 litre fridge/ freezer complete a practical gallery of ample head room.
She is centrally heated with a 9.2 kilowatt system supplying heat to the wheelhouse, galley, and under
the double v berth for added comfort.
She is equipped with a 54 hp diesel 4 cylinder engine swinging a 19 inch x 14 three blade bronze
propeller. Her instruments include auto pilot with remote control, GPS, duel engine controls,
instruments, hydraulic steering and tiller steering.
12
continued …..
wind
The Birth of the Huon Kelly
at the Wooden Boat Centre
in Franklin Tasmania 2006
continued
Mast and boom timber is clear grain Oregon. The mast was constructed in 6 metre lengths of Oregon
and made up in 5 sections, hollow to include electrical cabling. She is mast stepped with a full sloop rig.
Mast step through galley is constructed from Tasmanian Blue Gum and secured on a hand crafted
wooden keel. The single length keel is 22 feet long, 7 inches thick and 22 inches wide. The keel was
cut from a tree in the Huon Valley of Tasmania over 80 metres tall. The students used a Lucas Mill to
cut the rough sawn keel and shaped it by hand swinging hand held adzes between their legs.
The final result was a fine pencil line of accuracy. The cock pit and deck are laid in ¾ inch thick teak,
naturally finished and bleached by sea water.
The design of the boat is a Cloudy Bay 30, named after the wonderful bay on Bruny Island, Tasmania.
,
Her name is “The Huon Kelly”. The Huon refers to the Huon pine timber in most of the construction,
and the boat was built in the Huon Valley. The Kelly is after James Kelly, born in 1791 and who
discovered Tasmania’s West Coast Macquarie Harbour and the remote Gordon River.
Kelvin writes, “The traditional boat building diploma course was a life time experience for me.
“The Huon Kelly is testimony to Tasmania’s wonderful world recognised boat building timbers.
“They will be cherished by future generations of Tasmanian wooden boat builders and shipwrights.”
13
Special museum displays during the
MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival
NARRYNA HERITAGE MUSEUM
Cabin and campaign furniture: Antiques for
Modernists
Georgian furniture is generally admired for its
slender, classical, versatile forms.
The Georgians took portability and demountability
to the maximum when they designed furniture for
travel either in ship’s cabins or on military
campaign throughout their emerging empire.
Explore the ingenuity that makes cabin and
campaign furniture antiques for modernists in this
wide-ranging exhibition put together from private
collections especially for the AWBF.
The exhibition is at Narryna, the elegant Georgian
town house of ship’s captain, India-China trader,
merchant and boat builder, Captain Andrew Haig.
Above: First-class campaign
furniture by John Shepherd of
London c1870, Private collection.
Narryna also contains a rich colonial collection
reflecting the maritime and trade associations of
Salamanca Place and Battery Point.
We are looking for a special kind of volunteer for the 2013
MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival. We want to do
a comprehensive survey of Festival attendees and participants to ensure that what we offer at future Festivals meets
their expectations.
To do this well, we will be recruiting a team of volunteers
chosen specifically for the task. These may simply be
gregarious folk who enjoy meeting and talking with people,
experienced marketing types or students of the fine art of
data collection.
If you fall in to any of these categories - or if you know
somebody who does fit the description and would like to
‘come aboard’, please contact our Volunteer Manager, Annette Ritchie, through the AWBF office on 6223 3375.
14
Special museum displays during the
MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival
MARKREE HOUSE MUSEUM and GARDEN
Kid’s toy boats and pond yachts: A Heritage of Play
Get ‘em while they’re young!
Henry Baldwin’s engineering career in the Wooden Ship Building Yards at Glenorchy and Tasmanian
railways was ‘fixed’ by the toys he played with as a child: rudimentary wooden boats made by his father Cecil in the workshop under their house, Markree, and the latest tin toys from 1920s Britain, Germany and Japan.
This rich collection has been supplemented by an exquisite collection of Huon Pine, Kauri and Cedar
pond yachts from the George Burrows collection to present A Heritage of Play.
Markree, the home of Henry Baldwin (1919-2007) is a 1926 Arts and Crafts Movement house and
garden and hidden gem of inner city Hobart.
Left:
Henry Baldwin almost
washed overboard c 1925,
photographer unknown,
Markree collection
GETTING THERE
Both houses 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
daily throughout the festival
Narryna Heritage Museum
103 Hampden Road
Battery Point (03) 6211 2791
Adult $10
Concession $8
Child (non-student) $4
Markree House Museum and Garden
145 Hampden Road (enter from Davey Street)
Hobart (03) 6211 4177
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