Hydrowood Celery Top shines at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival
The Australian Wooden Boat Festival, held biannually in Hobart, has become the largest Wooden Boat Festival in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting maritime enthusiasts from around the world. A highlight of this year’s event is a handcrafted Celery Top boat born of a collaboration between Tasmania’s Wooden Boat Centre, the U.S. based North West School of Wooden Boat Building and Hydrowood. Celery Top is a worthy jewel in the crown of the festival – the fine-grained, pale, honey-coloured timber is “incredibly durable and wonderful to work with.”
Sean Koomen is the Chief Instructor at the North West School of Wooden Boat Building in Washington State. The United States is the guest country for the 2019 festival. For the past three festivals a guest country has been invited to participate including the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Japan.
Photo by Richard Bennett
Paul Cullen, General Manager of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, says that “because each of these countries has a maritime tradition that goes back a long way, it’s interesting to compare what they do and what we do here in Australia.”
Sean and his team have been working with the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin for the last ten weeks to build a wooden boat for this year’s festival.
‘As we are the guest country this year, we were looking for a design that would reflect that,’ says Mr Koomen. ‘We needed to find something we could build in ten weeks by a U.S designer. We chose a Haven 12 1/2 designed by Joel White. That’s how this particular boat came to be.’
The boat is made from reclaimed Tasmanian Celery Top, which was donated as a sponsorship deal by Hydrowood.
Photo by Richard Bennett
Celery Top has long been coveted by furniture makers. It is an outstanding timber for external use. It is durable under extreme weather conditions. Not only is this iconic Tasmanian timber perfect for decking, cladding and outdoor furniture, it is a beautiful timber for boat building.
"Celery Top really is a beautiful timber,’ says Mr Koomen. ‘It’s the first time I’ve worked with Tasmanian timbers. I knew it was an incredibly durable wood but it’s wonderful to work with. It carves and saws beautifully and it steam bends really well. It finishes beautifully with varnish too. It’s a really good boat building timber."
‘We thought a boat building project was a great way to build momentum leading up to the festival,’ says Mr Koomen.
The boat was auctioned on at the Festival for $28,500 to a local Tasmanian purchaser. The proceeds will contribute to the Wooden Boat Festival itself to support the overall project.
Photo by Richard Bennett