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Iain's Unexpected Antipodean Triumph!
Australian Wooden Boat Festival, Hobart
4 days, Biannual, February 2011.

We had convinced Iain Oughtred to make just one more trip to Australia. Ian Phillips from BoatCraft Pacific offered to cover Iain’s Hobart
accommodation, while Rob McGuire and his Board of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival
looked after Iain’s travel from and back to his
home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

What if no one was interested, and no one came for the forums we had programmed each day with Iain

What if!

'What if', indeed.

I need not have worried. The forum pavilion was packed 30 minutes before Iain was to appear. Lots of questions. No one nodding off to sleep. A fabulous crowd! There were literally hundreds of people. When I
asked how many had built one of Iain’s boats, I
thought we might get 20 or so. When nearly three
quarters of the pavilion put their hands up, Iain
leaned across and observed,
‘... Ooh. I think you might have asked the
wrong question!’
Standing ovation. Queues lined up for Iain to sign their books, catalogues and copies of the current Afloat magazine which had within it a serendipitous and very good Bruce Stannard article on Iain’s life and work.

Queues awaited. And the film crew. A movie is being made on Iain’s life and work and the crew has been travelling between Europe, Scotland and Australia gathering material. And the film crew. A movie is being made on Iain’s life and work and the crew has been travelling between Europe, Scotland and Australia gathering material. There were rich pickings in Hobart!
The Princes Pier trade pavilion was jam packed the whole time.

In our area we had the BoatCraft Pacific Crew, and all the Bote Cote and Davey Bronze product range, with Mal Gahan’s great looking fire engine red, part built kit NIS 23 providing a stunning backdrop, along with a massive step by step photo board. Mal borrowed my trailer and towed his boat all the way down to Hobart from Binalong
Bay, right up in the north-east corner of the state.

...cont. >>>

Articles

The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project

Scottish Coastal Rowing Article>>>

Feather Pram & Humble Bee

Penny Fee

Tammie Norrie

News ...cont.

Iain Oughtred, as rock star, and the boat builders’ mosh pit, the signing queue!

And so it was for three long and fabulous days.
Bob Frame and wife Caroline and their excellent
boys had travelled from Christchurch in New
Zealand, and were among the first at our stand.
Bob and ‘Caro’ were our very first Oughtred kit
purchasers. They subsequently built a stunning
Tammie Norrie Yawl, which we coincidentally had
featured on our roll up kit display stand.
They also brought with them a comet’s trail of
Kiwi friends and fellow Oughtred builders. Mutual
friends Ian and Alison Milne, Eun Mara builders
from Dunedin were also over, and stayed over to
attend their second South Australian Wooden Boat
Festival.

Bob, Dougall, Gus and Caro in front of the poster panel of their fabulous kit Tammie Norrie in Hobart. We were proud to have them with us.

Ned Trewartha was one of the most interesting builders in the pavilion. He does jewel-like totally traditionally built interpretations of Iain’s designs. His centrepiece at the show was an Iain Oughtred designed Acorn 15 which was just glorious in its handmade perfection. He kindly let the film crew take it to the water, launch it, and put Iain in it to row around for the cameras. You will see it I am sure when the final film comes out in about 12 months. Ned ran popular, daily traditional boat building workshops on his stand.

Fabulous interpretation of Iain Oughtred’s ‘Elf’.

Ned is also a highly regarded luthier. His ukuleles are sought after for their really subtle, hand crafted beauty, and superb sound. There seems to be a link between great boat builders like Ned, and music. Designers, too; Iain has built dulcimers, and plays harp in all his spare time (?!)

Video

Wonder at Andrew Denman's (Andrew Denman Marine) glorious Ian Oughtred designed Caledonia Yawl