It’s amazing that yachts which require so many crew, so much expertise, not to mention so many dollars to run them, have become such a flourishing class in Europe and the USA.

With a small sum of money collected by the sale of his belongings and contributions from his family, Speck set off from Hamburg on 13 May 1932, when Hitler was almost unknown. Armed with a kayak, two paddles, a camera, film, clothing, a pistol, he paddled down the Danube towards the Mediterranean.

Most sailors know Knud Reimers’ Tumlaren sailed in Australia since 1937. But it’s just one boat in a huge folio of successful designs over six decades. Here’s a look at Reimers and his boats.

With the AFL frantically juggling to rearrange fixtures, this second story from Russell Kenery’s Book “Curious Voyages” is perhaps a reminder - in order to live our lives to the full, rather than just exist, we need to accept a certain degree of risk.

Today we talk with the three most active members of the YVONNE 97 syndicate, about the restoration of Port Phillip’s famous Tumlaren. And like so many of the best wooden boat stories, its not really about the craft, its more about the people, the friendships and the philosophies embedded into the project. Sit back, enjoy, and hopefully be inspired.

With all the justifiable doom and gloom around this week’s release of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report I thought it would be good to think about what changes could be made in our area of interest.

In the second-hand bookshops I sometimes frequent, I’ve noticed that the “Maritime” section is often very close to the “Mountaineering” books. It’s not an alphabetical thing. I think it’s just that the bookshop owners believe that the two disciplines have a lot in common, (too much fresh air, an element of danger, isolation, fear etc) and so a potential shopper who is interested in one, might well be interested in the other.

The IOC is constantly re-jigging its position on gender that bubbles under the surface of their sporting ideals.

Historic Workboats Are An Endangered Species, But This Little Tasmanian Has Remained Remarkably Intact For Over 100 Years. I’ve always been attracted to that place in sailing where working boats and sailing “yachts” intersect.

OK, I’ll lay my cards on the table… I’ve got a vested interest in this one! There aren’t many Philip Rhodes Designed boats in Australia.

in the 50’s &60’s new lightweight inexpensive dinghy classes for kids and teenagers were on drawing boards or being developed in boatbuilders sheds and beachside sailing clubs were starting up all over Australia. This was only made possible by significant technical developments with ply sheet, moulded timber fabrication and resin glues used in aircraft in the 1930’s

Lone sailor Bernard Gilboy’s small boat voyage, in 1882, was perhaps the most daring undertaking on the world’s biggest ocean. Yet, when departing San Francisco, the Customs Certificate read, “starts on a voyage of pleasure for Australia.”

“I have included a photo taken from leeward just after the start with MORNA leading the fleet, SAGA is just to windward of her, but further to leeward and astern of MORNA is a staysail schooner with a wishbone rig on the foremast.”

A historic ship that starred in a blockbuster movie, carried the Olympic flame and set pearl shell records is set to be restored after sinking in Darwin in 2016.

Shackleton’s Captain uses Hurley’s original footage and embellishes it with a cast of modern actors, experts and graphics to explain how important Frank Worsley, the Endurance’s captain was to the expedition.

It’s hard to believe it, but in England, the Classic Yachting fraternity is slap bang in the middle of its biggest week of the year.

When Charles Carruthers accepts an invitation for a yachting and duck-shooting trip to the Frisian Islands from Arthur Davies, an old chum from his Oxford days, he has no idea their holiday will become a daredevil investigation into a German plot to invade Britain.

Tom’s style is quiet and laid back, but he lures you into his world, speaking in what I imaging is soft Connecticut accent, with knowledge and authority on the world of East Coast American Classic Yacht Sailing.

The Wharram Catamaran has always held a fascination not because its a thing of beauty but because they reek of the promise of adventure. And not a modern day adventure clutching a GPS and Sat Phone, but a 1960’s hippy adventure with free love, tropical islands bare tanned skin, and the rejection of boundaries imposed by a disapproving society.

One of the great pleasures of curating this website occurs, when histories overlap and the threads and webs of wooden boat sailing from different eras begin to form a moth eaten brocade, all the more beautiful for its holes and faded colours.