The Living Boat Trust (LBT) is an incorporated non-profit community association based in Franklin on the banks of the Huon River in southern Tasmania. It aims to maintain traditional boat building, repairing, rowing and sailing skills.

We acknowledge the traditional owners and original mariners of these magnificent waterways in southern Tasmania; the Mellukurdee of Cygnet and the Huon, the Nuenonne of Bruny, Oyster Cove and NorthWest Bay and the Lyluequonny of Recherche Bay and the south coast and are honoured to have the Aboriginal community acknowledging and participating in our ventures.

We are responsible for a number of activities:

Expeditions in various forms:

1. •The bi-annual RAID , the Tawe Nunnugah, from Cockle Creek in Tasmania’s far south to Hobart over 9 days (3 – 11 Februar 2011) in small rowing and sailing boats. We overnight in many places along the way, participate in regattas, go to musical events, have sumptuous evening meals prepared, listen to talks on pace, boating and history. We take the responsibility of holding this event with great care and we have developed a MaST approved safety management plan, which all participants must become familiar with, and some will require some basic training in rowing and sailing.
   

2. •Family sailing days or overnight camping in small boats, as part of our philosophy of keeping the art and sport of sailing alive, not to mention the peaceful enjoyment of travelling through these fantastic waterways in southern Tasmania
   

3. •Support voyages to other events which may also be overnight trips
   

The LBT has commenced courses on boatbuilding, boat maintenance, oar construction and tool making as part of our mission to promote skills and knowledge in things maritime, especially to do with traditional boats. Our first course started in January 2010 building an Iain Oughtred Acorn 12, a beautiful whitehall rowing and sailing skiff. We are planning another in June: “Assessing and repairing a chined plywood dinghy”. Ian Johnston will be the instructor for this short course on fixing a Moth dinghy that has been donated to us. We plan to offer it as a winter course starting in May/June. We are favouring Sunday afternoons at present, from 12 till 4 for about four weeks. We are looking at 4 - 5 students, each of whom will pay about $160 though this is at yet a rough figure. This course will offer participants the skills necessary to complete a repair project on a plywood wooden boat and should give course participants to look at their own projects during the course

In addition we will commence a course in oar making on Monday 10 May at 10 am in out LBT shed.

The workshop, which every Monday night is manned by enthusiastic volunteers, has been very productive. The fleet of Grebe dinghies that have been well used during the OWP have been regularly maintained. The little Huon Pine clinker dinghy Lady Jane has almost been renovated and is now being painted. The Kontiki, an Uffa Fox designed Flying Fifteen, has been renovated and launched after many years out of the water. She was actually re-launched for the second time just recently, she took on water after being hit by a log during the winter while the Huon was in flood. In addition work has been done to the Capricornia, and most impressively, the cray boat Matilda now was launched on 21 December 2009. The Swiftsure has been converted to a sailing boat with the construction of a centreboard and a rudder, thanks to design input from marine architect Murray Isles

We have been successful in our application for a Hire and Drive licence from MaST and intend to commence formal dinghy hire in the near future. We still need approval from the Huon Valley Council and Crown Lands for a change in use for our lease but this should only be a formality

We will also be seeking approval to use the Capricornia for Egg Island tours, both initiatives are to help us meet the considerable insurance premium burden (namely public liability insurance)  we face and to enable us to continue some form of OWP over the coming year

The ladies rowing group is expanding and they are rowing on Monday evenings and now Thursday mornings. They have also expressed an interest in building oars so now John Young will run such a course in May 2010. Click here for more details

Much is planned for the coming year too. While we have not yet been able to secure funding for a repeat of the OWP, we remain optimistic that this activity will continue in some form. In any case we have lots to do:

1. •The extensions to the shed, a verandah around the northern and western sides are now in progress with plans being drawn up. We were successful in a grant application from the Tasmanian Community Fund and we  are very grateful for this $10,000 contribution which will ensure the verandah is built. We have held meetings with community members to ensure our plans are in line with community wishes and after building permits are granted will be starting work. We will also be connecting three phase power to the shed and making significant alterations to the interior of the shed creating a meeting area downstairs and a members library and office mezzanine area
   

1. •An expedition to Kettering Wooden Boat Rally was held over the long weekend 6, 7 & 8 February The Capricornia sailed from Cygnet to Kettering on Friday 5 February through a 30 - 35 knot southerly and performed well during her races though her owner Pieter Lunstedt considers she is now undercanvassed. Kontiki was booked to go but is not yet ready for the relatively open water of the lower Channel just yet. More blocks need to be bought as well as adequate buoyancy and a bilge pump. The Farrier F -31 trimaran Fleetwing (still a wooden boat) also travelled from Abels Bay to Kettering and performed well, winning the official handicappers stuff up prize! The Swiftsure had developed a leak and was unable to travel (she is being investigated in the workshop). A grebe dinghy, Lightwood Bottom was towed to Kettering and Ingrid Meyer and her husband Kirk were eventually able to claim their winning ticket in the raffle at the Wooden Boat Festival a year ago. (This Wooden Boat Rally is in place of the bi-annual Wooden Boat Festival during the off year). We were blessed with wonderful weather and the Meyer family (with their two young children) had a great introduction to boating
   

1. •Dover High School are negotiating to hold an expedition in early March
   

1. •The Derwent Festival is to be held at New Norfolk on April 18 2010 and we are considering a 1 day RAID from Hobart to New Norfolk where this very successful Festival is held in both Capricornia and the new sailing Swiftsure. If enough people were keen we would be interested in planning a 4 day RAID, which could be going either way. Other boats would be welcome but they would have to be able to pass under the Bridgewater Lifting Bridge (which regrettably no longer lifts).
   

As mentioned above we operate a fleet of magnificent and original wooden boats that are a feature of the Franklin foreshore. They can be seen here, and hire charges are available here. Most have been built by the LBT in co-operation with various of the Huon cluster of schools

Project Understorey is a long held dream of the LBT, the recreation of a Tasmanian coastal trader, canvassed in the strategic plan.

In addition there are adult education style weekends on learning sailing and camping skills in the magnificent surrounds of the Huon estuary and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel area. Photos of the last sailing weekend in April can be seen here.

2009 was a busy year for the LBT with many significant achievements:

1. •The On the Water Programme, a joint effort between the Education Department Huon Cluster of Schools and the LBT, is now over and has introduced nearly 300 students from the local schools as well as home-schooled kids to rowing, sailing, safety on the water and promotes healthy activity. This culminated in the Swiftsure Regatta held in Franklin on 7 November 2009. The Huon Cluster of Schools have also just been successful in being granted $5000 by the Huon Valley Services Advisory Committee to hold the Swiftsure Regatta again in 2010.
   

1. •The third Tawe Nunnugah was held early in the year, another 10 day expedition from Recherche Bay to Hobart over nine days and involving over 50 expeditioners in many small boats. Other expeditions during the year were to Hastings Bay, a sailing weekend in April and a Friends School expedition to Mickeys Bay on Bruny and back to Dover on the mainland. Planning is underway for the next event in 2011
   

1. •The workshop maintained all of the Grebes bar one, the Black Swan, which was freshly painted for the TW 09 and indicates the amount of use the boats have had this year, worked on many other projects and gets through a huge amount of work. Many hands make light work, and it is all in good company and with good food.