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Website australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au | ||
The Australian Wooden Boat Festival (MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival) is a biennial event held in Hobart Tasmania celebrating wooden boats. AWBF is held concurrently with the Royal Hobart Regatta. The festival welcomes wooden boats of all sizes including wooden canoes, kayaks and dinghies as well as yachts and tall ships.
This festival is a celebration of Australia's maritime heritage as well as Tasmania's food and wines. It has a major economic benefit to the island state of Tasmania, with accommodation fully booked during the event.
AWBF is only open to boats constructed from timber*, and is widely regarded as the largest event of its type in the southern hemisphere. Indeed, it may be the world's largest boat festival only open to wooden boats.
The First Australian Wooden Boat Festival was held in 1994 (180 boats).
* An exception is tall ships, as some large tall ships that visit during the festival have steel or iron hulls.
2017 ships
The Sail Training Vessel Tenacious will be a feature vessel at AWBF 2017.
HM Bark Endeavour Replica is a major feature of each festival, though it did not attend in 2017. Other vessels that attend include the Julie Burgess, the last blue-gum fishing ketch, the HMS Lady Nelson replica, Windeward Bound and the James Craig.