If you have considered putting in an entry, but are feeling a little ambivalent, have a watch of this talk given by the Festival Director Paul Stephanus at the recent Auckland Festival in March. It’s a whirlwind account of the scale and breadth of one of the most successful gathering of timber craft anywhere in the world.

With registrations due to open later this month for the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival, we thought it might be a good time to have a chat with the Festival Director and General Manager Paul Stephanus about his philosophy on the event, why you should make the effort to attend and the process for registering your boat.