The Australian Wooden Boat Festival (AWBF) has strengthened Trans-Tasman ties after exhibiting a 20-foot bi-fold travelling container, filled with boats and memorabilia, at the Auckland Wooden Boat Festival (AklWBF), held 14–16 March 2026.
AWBF was represented by a strong delegation of staff, volunteers, shipwrights and supporters from across Australia, who travelled to Auckland to participate in the festival, present the exhibition and connect with audiences and industry peers.
The exhibition, developed in partnership with the Tasmanian Derwent Class Association, showcased the revival of the iconic Derwent Class yachts, a locally designed one-design racing fleet that has sailed on the River Derwent for over a century and remains a defining part of Tasmania’s maritime heritage.
Featuring Tasmanian boatbuilders who have restored the yachts, the exhibition included The Wooden Boat Centre, Cygnet Wooden Boats, Tasmanian Shipwrights & Co., Jonathan Minnebo Design and Blue Boat Shipwright Services, alongside locally sourced timbers used in their construction.
A spotlight on emerging Tasmanian boatbuilders, including Shippies Shipwright Services and A Boat by the River, was also included, alongside Tasmanian First Nations watercraft, historic piners’ punts presented by the Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania, and stories of the west coast timber and hydro industry.
The presentation was built on a reciprocal exchange between the two festivals. In 2025, the Auckland Wooden Boat Festival presented its own container exhibition at AWBF in Hobart as part of the festival’s Pacific theme.
The Auckland Wooden Boat Festival has quickly established itself as an important emerging event in the region, with its recent festival attracting strong participation and showcasing maritime culture, craftsmanship and community on the Waitematā Harbour.
Together, the two biennial festivals, held in alternate years, are strengthening ties between Hobart and Auckland. With AWBF now in its 32nd year and the AklWBF recently delivering its second event, they form a complementary cycle that supports the sustainability of wooden boat heritage, maritime culture and industry, while also driving reciprocal tourism between the two cities.
AWBF General Manager and Festival Director Paul Stephanus said the relationship between the two festivals reflects a shared responsibility to sustain maritime culture.
“These festivals are not just events, they are platforms for knowledge transfer,” he said.
They connect boatbuilders, materials, skills and stories across generations and across borders. What we are seeing between Hobart and Auckland is a continuation of something much older, the way maritime cultures have always shared knowledge, adapted and evolved.
The success of the Auckland Wooden Boat Festival’s second event is a credit to co-founders Tony Stevenson and Michelle Khan, who, together with the New Zealand Maritime Museum, have created an impressive and growing celebration of New Zealand’s wooden boat culture.
By working together in alternate years, we are creating continuity for that exchange, supporting both the cultural and industry future of wooden boats, while also encouraging people to travel between the two.”
The exhibition will return to Hobart for the next Australian Wooden Boat Festival, 5–8 February 2027, with plans to tour the container further afield.
