It has been great living on Sanctum in the wooden boat capital of Australia for the last 10 months.
Living on board in Cygnet and surrounds we are among so many wooden boats both loved and unloved.
Tasmania really is the land of love for wooden boats. There are still new vessels being built, old ones rebuilt from the few frames boards that have remained from rotting carcasses retrieved from the mud.
But there is such a mix of personalities and wallet sizes to go with that. Skilled shipwrights abound with others having carpentry, joinery, and building backgrounds changing gears, and moving into wooden boats.
Many of the vessels that travel down from the mainland are extremely well kept with one we spoke to having had 2 shipwrights full-time for 9 years doing the restoration of an old sydney pilot cutter. It still has one person full-time maintaining the vessel.
At the other end of the spectrum are some of the locals that have had their labours of love in the backyard or a shed rebuilding them for the past 9 years and launching just before the show.
There are so many different boats as can be seen from the drone shot I took of the parade of sail. From an old 18ft skiff to the ferry Radar which I remember from my youth in Sydney where you could go out on the afternoon cruise and bet on the 18th skiff races.
Chris Canty was on board the James Craig as was an American gentleman we spoke to who was a paying passenger stating that Australia was the last place in the world where you could book a berth and be part of the crew on a square rigger doing 700 nm passage.
Gretel II is here and as we recently found out is the last of the wooden 12-metre yachts built.
Sail, steam, diesel, and electric there is a wooden boat to suit everyone’s preference for propulsion.
John Eastway’prior boat Eagle was here again and we spotted it in Kettering before we flew out for work this week.
If you want to enjoy a festival of boating where the theme is not selling then the Wooden boat festival makes a great addition to the calendar and while you’re at it explore beautiful Tasmania.
I will add though there are a lot of For Sale signs on the exhibits so they are ready to be passed on to their new custodians.
Evan Hodge & Kelly Nunn-Clark
SV Sanctum
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