Wooden Wonder Boats

Australia has a magnificent heritage with wooden boats. Early on, they were a matter of survival for our coastal settlements. Then they made possible exploration and transportation on our inland rivers. Today, they provide recreational enjoyment of all our superb waterways, and boats built of wood certainly tug at heartstrings with their unique tradition and visual appeal.

Unsurprisingly for a nation surrounded by water, there have been countless local boatbuilders whose wooden creations have worked and played whilst bringing industry and relaxation to owners and crews. Among many others, the sheer panache of timber afloat is reflected in names such as Jack and Joe Pompei, Mitchie and Alex Lacco, Charlie Tull, Gil Allbutt, Norman Wright, the Lewis Bros, the Everingham family, Cec Quilky, Phillip Heaney, the Halvorsen family, the Goldsbrough family, the John Savage family and Paul Dewhurst.

Miss Australia

Miss Australia was a special order in 1961 for successful local businessman Laurie O'Neill to famed boatbuilder Harry Hammond of Hammond Craft. Laurie wanted to race the boat in the USA and his choice of name was to show the Americans just how good an Aussie-designed and built ski/raceboat could be. 

Harry used Maple and ply in its construction and the boat was fitted with a monster 600hp supercharged Chrysler V8 supplied by Keith Black of KB Engines in the USA. It was reported that the blown V8 rocketed the big Hammond to speeds around the magic ‘ton’ - 100mph.

Harry’s son Mark had helped build the boats during the 1970s and came across Miss Australia on the NSW south coast in 2006. After some negotiation, he bought the boat and undertook a major restoration program.

Miss Australia is 18ft6in long with a beam of 6ft6in and has the classic style of twin cockpits in front of the aft engine compartment. Mark installed a new 502 Chev V8 - not quite as potent as the original supercharged Chrysler, but more than enough for pleasing performance.

Tom Foolery

Tomfoolery is a vintage 16-foot putt-putt launch owned by Martin and Pam Hall. It originated from a mid-1950s fleet of fishing boats that could be hired in the Forster/Tuncurry area. The design was very successful and reliable; local resident and boatbuilder Paul Kinney taking a mould off one and from that producing Tomfoolery in 1995. 

Martin and Pam acquired the boat during October 2007 from Ross Smith who had crafted the deck and flooring with beautiful white beech. The timber gives Tomfoolery such a classic look and, from only a short distance away, the fibreglass construction of the hull is not noticeable. The result is that the launch has all the charm and style of those wonderful putt-putt boats that graced our waterways from as far back as the 1920s.

Jasmin

Jasmin is a classic 32ft6in flybridge Halvorsen built for leading Sydney Holden dealer WT Coggins in 1962, and enjoyed by several ‘custodians’ with Jeff and his wife Lyn acquiring it in 1996. 

A one-off design by Harvey Halvorsen, Jasmin has an Oregon hull with double diagonal planking on the bottom and diagonal/horizontal planking for the topsides. A pair of Volvo 41A diesels have replaced the original Chrysler Ace petrol engines and takes the flybridge cruiser to around 15kts.

Annie Gee

This 30-foot design with a 6.5-foot beam is of a 1908 Ventnor Gold Cup raceboat; the Gold Cup one of America’s most prestigious boat races at the time. Owner Paul Dewhurst planked the hull with 14mm mahogany using cold-moulded vacuum-bagged techniques on transverse frames and longitudinal stringers, all epoxy-glued, while spotted gum was used for the keel and frames. The deck was fabricated with marine ply under Fijian mahogany featuring beech inlays. 

Streamlined air intakes and vents on the deck are beautifully made and fitted. The stem has a polished stainless steel cutwater, and angled stainless steel exhaust outlets aft on either side are works of art in themselves. The finish both internally and externally is nothing less than exquisite. Power comes from a ‘big block’ Chevrolet V8 producing around 500hp and driving through an FNR Borg Warner transmission to a four-blade propeller that was made by the well-known firm of Porters.

Folley III

Built in Sydney sometime in the 1920s by W. Holmes & Co in Lavender Bay opposite Luna Park, this 33-foot timber cruiser is just nine feet wide and draws only three feet. Owner Stephen Lake has registered her as WBL – Wooden Boat Lunacy, and some may well call him a lunatic, having brought the boat, designed in the style of a Lake Union Dream Boat, all the way from Pittwater and all on his own!

Lahara

Lahara, named after the NW monsoon wind that blows across the Gulf of Papua towards Port Moresby, is a 33-foot sloop built of Huon pine in Hobart by its designer Jock Muir. Launched in 1951, Lahara’s first task was to sail to Sydney for that year’s Sydney to Hobart in which it finished second.

Altura

At 42 feet in length and with an 8ft6in beam, this Huon pine gaff-rigged cutter was built in Tasmania in 1923. Local Ian Gough has owned Altura since 1984, but since 2001 has been doing a refit which is almost complete. Ian, his sailing friend Harry Hale, and rigger Dave, are well-known members of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and tell many a tale about the Viv Innes designed and built boat.

Helmet Diving

Heritage abounds wherever one looks on the water and indeed even under the surface. Members of the Historical Diving Society Aus-Pac demonstrated helmet diving. The Robison helmet was the only Australian made, mass produced diving helmet. Made to the pattern of the UK Heinke helmet of WWII, today less than 20 are known to exist. The difference between being under water and on land is described as being “an interesting contrast” by the exhausted exponent who could barely muster the strength to climb the ladder unaided, so encumbered was he by the weights attached to his body and the equipment per se. Thank heavens for Jacques Cousteau’s invention of SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus)!