More than 500 boats were displayed on land and in the water at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in February. The biannual event covers the sprawling waterfront of Hobart, in the island state of Tasmania.
The crew was composed of eight students from the Fosen Folkhøgskole (folk school) in Rissa, which offers yearlong courses in the traditional folk arts including boatbuilding, sailing, farming, self-sufficiency, and crafts. The sailing students sail throughout the winter in a fleet of Fosen-built Åfjørd’s boats including four-oared færings and larger fembørings.
Leo Goolden, a native of England who learned boatbuilding in yards in Bristol and Cornwall, wrote in WB No. 266 about the daunting task of replacing the 48′ LOA yacht’s timber keel.
The 43′ Penbo trawler-yacht ACADIA, launched as ADAGIO in 1969, was refurbished and reconfigured by Thomas Townsend Custom Woodworking and relaunched in 2008. She evokes Townsend’s signature aesthetic: spare and clean deck and interior arrangements, with an emphasis on functionality and keeping dry.