Australian Wooden Boat Festival

17/06/2026

Tasmanian Shipwrights & Co. 's D-Class Peri will join the fleet!⛵

The latest project to emerge from the yard of Tasmanian Shipwrights & Co. is the Derwent Class yacht Peri.

Built in 1950 by Ted Cawthorn, she has undergone a comprehensive restoration to sail once again under the Cawthorn name with Ryan and Rob Cawthorn. The work includes all new ribs, fastenings, deck beams, deck and spars. However, much of the original boat has been repaired, restored and reinstated.

She is as tight as a drum, as was always told of Ted’s D Class, and we’re excited to see her rejoin competition later this year. Final work to be completed includes an off-white topside coat, deck caulking, re-attaching the keel, rigging and antifouling.

Launching July/August 2026.

Tasmanian Shipwrights & Co. are also proudly sponsoring the Q&D - passionate builders and restorers of wooden boats based at Oyster Cove Marina in Kettering. Their commitment to craftsmanship, creativity, and passing maritime skills to the next generation makes them a perfect fit for the spirit of Quick & Dirty.

11/06/2026

✨Join the 2027 Quick & Dirty Boat Building Challenge ✨ Register your team now!

The Quick & Dirty Boat Building Challenge - Where chaotic fun meets creative craftsmanship.
For 30 years, the Quick & Dirty Boat Building Challenge has been the legendary finale of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival. What began in 1994 as a madcap race for adults has evolved into Tasmania’s most beloved celebration of creativity, ingenuity, and pure, unadulterated fun for kids on the water.

🚣 What is the Challenge? - Build. Decorate. Race.
The Quick & Dirty Challenge invites teams of students (typically aged 9–12) to take over Constitution Dock. The mission is to construct, decorate and race a vessel from basic materials over the long weekend, culminating in the highly anticipated race day on the final day of the Festival.

⛵Want to Get Involved? - Expressions of Interest are open!
No prior boat-building experience is necessary, just enthusiasm, teamwork, and a willingness to get a little dirty (and possibly wet).

⚓ Introducing Q&D Coordinater Matt Tucker
AWBF is excited to welcome Matt Tucker as the 2027 Quick & Dirty Coordinator. Matt spent his childhood years living aboard a 48ft Herreshoff ketch built by his parents, sailing many thousands of miles around New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Highlights included protesting nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll as a 10-year-old and later sailing to Antarctica with his dad and eldest brother.

Today, Matt experiments with alternative boat design and construction, including building classically styled sailing dinghies using sustainable materials such as flax and cork and building modernised Proas (sailing outriggers).

As organiser of the Quick and Dirty Boat Building Challenge, Matt brings a love for the creative and experimental and the belief that you don't need a fancy boat to have a real adventure on the water.

Please reach out to Matt Tucker at [email protected] with any questions!
More info and registrations: https://australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/quick-dirty-boat-building-challenge/

02/06/2026

Showcase Your Boat Ashore or Model Boats at AWBF 2027 - EOIS Now Open!

It’s here! Expressions of interest to display your Boat Ashore or Model Boats at the 2027 Australian Wooden Boat Festival are now open!

After opening Boats Afloat EOIs last month, it’s now time to register for Boats Ashore and Model Boats.

Displaying your wooden boat at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest celebration of maritime culture is something special. Across four vibrant days, you’ll be part of a living showcase of seafaring tradition, sharing your craft with the public and connecting with fellow boating enthusiasts.

Vessels of every size, shape and rig are welcome to apply.

https://australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/display-your-boat/

Photo credit: Alex Nicholson and Ben Cunningham.

24/05/2026

Have you registered your expression of interest yet for your Boat Afloat at AWBF 2027? We are getting excited! Are you?
✨⛵Tag your crew in the comments! ⛵✨

Photo credits: Alex Nickelson and Ben Cunningham

17/05/2026

Marine Vallee - If they could speak... Objects from the Museum of Tahiti embodying voyages and cross-cultural exchanges in Polynesia.
✨AWBF Symposium 2025✨

Dr Marine Vallée is Assistant Curator at the Te Fare Iamanaha – Musée de Tahiti et des Îles. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau.

Trained in heritage and contemporary Pacific arts (École du Louvre, University of Auckland), her research interests include history of collecting and curatorial practices, the provenance of objects and their resonance in contemporary visual arts and cultures.

She recently was the lead curator for the exhibition ‘Hōrue: Waves from the past, waves from the present – Hōrue : ’Are nō mua ra, ’Are nō teie nei’, reflecting on the history and contemporary place of surfing in French Polynesia.

Among the oldest objects held at Te Fare Iamanaha – Musée de Tahiti et des Îles are wooden boards from voyaging canoes that reflect the amazing journeys undertaken across the Pacific Ocean.

Other objects illustrate technical or material integrations resulting from the multiple voyages and exchanges that occurred throughout the region from the ‘contact’ period.

This presentation highlights heritage objects reflecting on navigating endeavours, as well as circumnavigations and whaling voyages across the archipelagos of today’s French Polynesia. These objects bear in their biographies, sometimes even in their materiality, marks of cross-cultural exchanges.

Click on the link to watch the presentation by Marine during the AWBF Symposium 2025.

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15/05/2026

⛵Join the Journey ⛵
Tawe Nunnugah 2027 EOIs Now Open ✨

Every two years, the Living Boat Trust leads a fully catered ten-day small boat expedition through the waterways of southern Tasmania, arriving in Hobart for the opening of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

Known as tawe nunnugah, meaning “travelling by canoe” in the language of the Melukerdee people, the voyage honours a long tradition of moving across these waters, connecting past and present.

First held in 2007, the 2027 expedition marks the 10th Tawe Nunnugah, a milestone for this much-loved journey. Crews can take part in their own boats or aboard the Trust’s fleet, with a four-day return journey to Franklin following the Festival.

The Living Boat Trust is now inviting expressions of interest. There’s a rich archive of past Raids online, including interviews filmed by Matt Conboy, offering a glimpse into the experience for those considering the journey.

Organised entirely by volunteers, the Raids also support the Living Boat Trust’s ongoing work preserving maritime heritage.

More Info and EOI here 👉 https://livingboattrust.org.au/tawe-nunnugah-2027/?mc_cid=3ad8121230&mc_eid=a8cd2679c2

10/05/2026

📚The Book Barge 📚
Do you have any sea-themed books to donate?

We are so pleased to welcome back Community Partner – The Children’s Charity for a second festival, presenting The Book Barge at the Little Sailors Village! A quiet reading space for children and families to pause, escape and enjoy sea-themed stories.

You can help grow The Book Barge library by donating quality, pre-loved sea-themed children’s books during Variety’s Monster May book drive. Drop donations at Shiploads stores statewide, with books collected by Variety volunteers and brought to the festival.

Don’t miss the Variety Monster Book Fair on 4–5 July at Princes Wharf 1, and keep an eye out for The Book Barge at AWBF 2027.

08/05/2026

⛴ TasPorts Community Grants Now Open ⛴
✨Bring your maritime community ideas to life✨

AWBF Principal Partner TasPorts has launched a refreshed Community Grant Program, offering grants of up to $25,000 to support community-led projects across Tasmania.

The updated program focuses on initiatives that celebrate maritime culture, protect coastal environments and strengthen connections within port communities.

This is a great opportunity for organisations, groups and creatives working in and around our maritime spaces to bring ideas to life.

A recent example is the Lady Nelson Tall Ship, which delivered a series of youth voyages on the River Derwent, giving local secondary students the chance to learn how to sail a historic vessel. The initiative is helping young people experience Tasmania’s maritime heritage firsthand while opening pathways to future maritime careers.

Applications are open until 31 May. Find out more via the TasPorts website 👉 https://tasports.com.au/grant-program?mc_cid=3ad8121230&mc_eid=a8cd2679c2

Watch this video of what the TasPorts community grant achieved on board Lady Nelson 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_nQtsTn64I

The TasPorts Community Grant Program is our way of investing in the people and places that keep Tasmania strong. Each year, we provide funding to support community groups, organisations and events that make a real difference in the regions we serve.

03/05/2026

Little Sailors Inspired by Big Boats
✨The Little Sailors Village Returns✨

AWBF is excited to announce that The Little Sailors Village will return in 2027, presented for a third festival by Program Partner The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel. A hands-on space for children and families on Parliament Lawns, it is designed to spark curiosity, a love of making, and of course, boats!

Returning from 6–8 February 2027, The Old Woolstore Little Sailors Village is free to attend and designed for children from toddlers to tweens. Children can build their own Huon pine boat models with Woodcraft Guild Tasmania, design and race solar-powered boats, or take part in the My First Boat program alongside a parent or guardian — early steps into the world of boatbuilding.

With school holidays on, we took a group of young would-be sailors into a working boat shed in the Huon Valley, a glimpse of where those first steps can lead. There, beneath the 40-foot pilot cutter Tarkine, currently being built from scratch by Iefke van Gogh and Matt Morris of A boat by the river , the pathway from small builds to full-scale boats came to life. With the boat now in its final stages, Tarkine will be exhibited ashore for the first time at the 2027 festival.

From big boats to small builds, the popular Japanese Kumundar Gujo Sailing Ship and Jungle Gym Workshops will return and expand in 2027, offering a deeper hands-on making experience. The Mariner’s Makerspace and The Book Barge will also return, alongside pirate dress-ups and other hands-on activities for children and families, with even more to be announced when the full program is released in November 2026.

For some, The Little Sailors Village might spark a lifelong connection to boats. For others, it’s about confidence, creativity and fun. Either way, it’s where it starts!

We couldn’t bring The Little Sailors Village to life without the ongoing support of The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, and we’re grateful to have them on board once again for 2027.