Australian Wooden Boat Festival supporter Roscoe Barnett recently made the trip to the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally in Victoria. Here, he shares his take on the weekend, from the boats to the characters and everything in between.
The Rally occurs every two years, the off year to the AWBF, and I think this one was the fifth one. What a cracker! On the previous occasions I’ve been there I have officially represented the AWBF and towed over a dinghy of some sort to display in their hard stand area, however, this time I was just there along with other Taswegians and hundreds of others. Six vessels had made the voyage from Hobart and one trailered vessel from Launceston. Remember, it’s a Classic rally so there are some of the “other” styles of vessels entered, not all wooden boats.
Safari from Hobart
Storm Boy II from Kettering
Serenity II from Kettering
Miss Tamar from Launceston
Tere from Barnes Bay
Dovetail from Franklin
Narani from Kettering
Paynesville has a population of 3,649 (as per the 2021 census) and is situated on the Gippsland Lakes about a four-hour drive from Melbourne. It is separated from Raymond Island by a waterway, the McMillan Straight, not very wide, however the island is only accessible by boat or a five-minute car ferry ride.
The Rally is organised by a small volunteer committee, with bugger all budget (with the original concept being hatched in the beer tent at an AWBF) and there are about eighty volunteers doing everything before, during and after the Rally….organised mayhem, just like the AWBF. As far as boats go, there were about 250 vessels attending the Rally, that includes vessels afloat and vessels ashore. There were numerous food stalls and other displays and retailers, you know, the engine salespeople and the boat bits and pieces people. All adding to the colour, fun and excitement.
To add even more to the weekend mix was the inaugural Gippsland Lakes Boat Show put on by the Boating Industry Association of Victoria (BIAV). There were what seemed like hundreds of fibreglass and aluminium runabouts and cruisers (in a separate area from the Rally)…and…a fishing competition to boot. But wait, there’s more, there was a community market on Saturday as well. I must say, the people of Paynesville know how to put on a weekend.
Back to the Rally. As well as the Tasmanian boats there were of course Victorian boats (no, no, not boats from the 1800’s, but boats from Victoria), vessels from New south Wales and a very smart little half cabin number representing the South Australian Wooden Boat Association.
One of the feature events on the Saturday is the Grand Parade (very similar to the AWBF Parade of Sail) where the vessels all follow a nominated one, in this case it was the Enterprize from Melbourne (with a Kettering volunteer engineer on board), down the McMillan Straight past the crowds on the shoreline with a running commentary from the old floating tin shed (which, if you were there, visited AWBF some years ago). Very spectacular I must say. There is also a Sail Past on Sunday morning just for sailing vessels.
Enterprize.
One of the other crowd pleasers is the goood old Quick and Dirty, which never fails to draw a crowd. The kids love it and the spectators always enjoy the mayhem. When the craft were launched on Sunday afternoon, if memory serves me correctly, they all floated and surprise, surprise, they all managed to complete the designated course without sinking. Mind you, after the race there were some shenanigans!
The Quick & Dirty.
As can be seen by the pictures the weather was absolutely fantastic for a Classic Boat weekend, you would never have known that on the Friday bump-in it lightly rained most of the day and on Monday for the bump-out, that’s right, you guessed it in one….it rained again, so all I can say is that God (or Hughie if you prefer) must have owned a wooden boat!
So, on Monday morning it was time to head back to Hobart. Quite an adventure when you’re not driving your own vehicle. A very early start, a lift to the train station, four hours on the train to Melbourne, half an hour on the bus to Tullamarine, then an hour and a bit flight back to Hobart. A long day to complete a wonderful weekend of boat admiration. Thank you Paynesville Classic Boat Rally. And a special thank you to my hosts.
Credit: Roscoe Barnett
For more information, visit australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au
