Auckland Wooden Boat Festival 2026 Showcases 200 Home-Built and Restored Craft

More than 200 boats were on display both on and off the water, from classic yachts and kauri launches to dinghies, waka, and home-built craft at the 2026 Auckland Wooden Boat Festival, which wrapped up on 15 March across the city's inner waterfront. Boating New Zealand photographer Roger Mills attended and captured a wide range of standout wooden boats, with the magazine's photo gallery published five days after the festival closed.

The festival returned to the waterfront across four iconic venues: Viaduct Events Centre, Jellicoe Harbour, the New Zealand Maritime Museum, and Percy Vos Boat Shed. It was the second edition of an event that, two years earlier, had drawn 11,600 visitors to the same waterfront for its inaugural run. In 2026, event organisers aimed to attract an ever-larger fleet of on-water exhibitors, alongside existing and new wooden boat enthusiasts.

For anyone who builds or restores in their own shed, the home-built and restoration presence was the real draw. Across the three days, organisers hosted more than 110 boats on the water and a further 80 vessels on land, with over 60 model boats displayed inside the Viaduct Events Centre, alongside exhibitors, hands-on activities, and a two-day seminar programme. The fleet ranged from clinker dinghies and lake boats to canoes and the returning A class yacht fleet. A live wooden boat build ran during the festival, giving visitors a chance to see traditional skills in action.

Among the most talked-about arrivals were two historic scows. Jane Gifford and Ted Ashby were both confirmed, offering a rare opportunity to see these flat-bottomed working vessels together and to reflect on the role scows played in shaping New Zealand's coastal economy. Also present was Vega, an 80-year-old ketch built in Whangārei and launched in 1949 that later became known internationally through its involvement in environmental and peace activism, operating at times as Greenpeace III on voyages against nuclear testing and whaling.

One of the highlights was the fully restored Percy Vos Boat Yard, open to the public for the weekend, where visitors could experience Māori and Pacific waka building as a living tradition, including the final stages of a waka hourua being crafted by master carvers and artists. The New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School also built a kauri clinker Frostbite dinghy live on site.

Festival co-director Michelle Khan-Stevenson said the event offers boat enthusiasts a rare opportunity. "Bringing boats, skills and traditions together in one place and on the water allows people to experience wooden boat culture in real depth, from sailing and restoration to the knowledge shared by owners and builders. For anyone passionate about wooden boats, it's a chance to see exceptional design and seamanship up close, and to talk directly with the people who build, sail and care for them."

New Zealand's classic boat fleet is believed to be the largest fleet of original boats still sailing in the world, a fact that gives festivals like this one uncommon weight. Demand exceeded available space ahead of the event, with the festival committee reviewing Expressions of Interest and allocating confirmed berths and waiting list positions, a telling sign of how deep the wooden boat building community runs in Aotearoa. Many boats were open for boarding, offering a rare, hands-on experience that no photo gallery, however comprehensive, fully replicates.