Australians and Kiwis are the best of friends and the most convivial of foes, and the 2025 Festival is a chance to unite across the blustery Tasman Sea and share our distinctive but interwoven maritime heritage.
Join us in welcoming Te Karangatahi, Australia’s first and only traditionally carved Māori waka taua (single hulled war canoe). And get your betting ledgers out because Auckland’s Ngataki will join the fleet of storied New Zealand vessels and sail once again beside Hobart’s Te Rapunga in their first meeting since the 1934 trans-Tasman.
And from New Zealand, we launch into the wider Pacific, presenting navigators, artists, curators, intrepid explorers and maritime artisans from across the region to share their work at our Pacific Seafarers Precinct and across the Festival site.
Our Boats Afloat program will present throngs of vessels with links to the Pacific. The Little Sailors Village will feature the Australian debut of the Japanese kumundar wooden jungle gym. Maritime trades will again be on show at Shipwrights Village. The Maritime Marketplace will be abuzz with commerce. We’re expanding our Film Festival and are returning the ever-popular Wooden Boat Symposium, delving deeply into topics of boatbuilding, craft, navigation, (mis)adventure, and history.
Hulking windjammers will descend on Sullivans Cove during the Parade of Sail. Nimble Derwent Class yachts and swift proa will dash from wharf to wharf. In Constitution Dock, families and children of all ages can paddle boats of every shape and size, culminating in the frenetic Quick & Dirty Boatbuilding Race.
In 2025, we’re casting the net wide, as wide as we possibly can, to share the absolute joy and positivity of this Festival with our neighbours from the Pacific and around the globe. A place of pilgrimage and an absolute pleasure, the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival has something for everyone.
Festival Poster
The 2025 AWBF poster is a collaboration between Aotearoa / New Zealand artists Michel Tuffery and Tony Blake. Tony’s painting depicts a Māori waka unau off the coast of Moutohorā Island sailing alongside HMB Endeavour, with famed Tahitian navigator Tupaia on board. The waka’s sail is modelled after the sail Te Rā, made of woven flax and the only known traditional Māori sail still in existence.
The letters by Michel are from a series of intricately carved woodblock prints with seafaring motifs. See what you can find! Don’t miss the chance to watch Michel in action at the Pacific Seafarers Precinct, where he’ll be running an upeti woodblock 5 Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025 print workshop for all ages.
