Wooden boats are where music, master craftsmanship, and math merge into forms that can carry us beyond the horizon while holding us—buoyant as the womb. The stories born and life inspired are legends. Let’s keep them alive.
Here are a few of my favorite photos of wooden boats while on boats in New Zealand, Denmark, Port Townsend, Australia, and Netherlands.
All images ©Kaci Cronkhite.
Two of the exquisitely maintained traditional classic boats of New Zealand. I took this shot during the Trillium Trust Regatta 2018. When in Auckland, be sure to visit the public waterfront dock devoted to classic yachts. Display placards describe each boat's history.
The Old Boat Association of Denmark (DFAEL) and Copenhagen Amateur Sail Club (KAS) compete in friendly sail races every Thursday in summer off the shores of Copenhagen. Over the years, I've had the chance to see Spidsgatters, Folkboats, 6Ms, Dragons, Tumlarens and other classic Scandinavian designs... sometimes, like here, while sailing as crew on PAX's sister ship, Henrik Effersoe's beautiful 38m2 Spidsgatter BEL AMI.
MURRELET sailing off Port Townsend, Washington (USA). Built and sailed by Bertram Levy. I took this shot aboard PAX in the summer of 2022. .
A stunning shot of BRITTANIA (1919) taken while I was sailing with friends in the 2019 Parade of Sail off Hobart, Tasmania. During the Parade, the River Derwent teems with hundreds of wooden boats of all shapes and sizes. This is the first event of the biannual, 4-day Australian Wooden Boat Festival held odd years, February. Remember: That's summer down under!
One of the many traditional Dutch Skûtsje we met in the canals of Frisia and North Holland in 2022. Each was uniquely painted and/or carved. Sizes ranged from about 25' to over 100'. Beamy with shallow drafts and rigged with giant leeboards these boats were built for heavy cargo, wild winds, and shifting sands of the tidal islands of Netherlands. Gorgeous!