What started in 1994 as a madcap race for adults has spent three decades evolving into something far more chaotic, more creative, and arguably more important: Tasmania’s most beloved celebration of seafaring ingenuity for kids.
The Quick & Dirty Boat Building Challenge returns as the headline event of the 2027 Australian Wooden Boat Festival, and expressions of interest are now open.
The format is beautifully simple. Teams of students, typically aged 9 to 12, take over Hobart’s Constitution Dock and spend the long weekend building, decorating and racing a vessel from basic materials. No prior boat-building experience required, just enthusiasm, a willingness to work as a team, and a fairly relaxed attitude toward getting wet.
The race on the final day of the Festival is the culmination of the whole exercise, and if the last 30 years are anything to go by, expect more spectacle than seamanship.
Leading the 2027 edition is newly appointed coordinator Matt Tucker, who brings an unusual set of credentials to the role. Tucker spent his childhood living aboard a 48-foot Herreshoff ketch built by his parents, logging thousands of miles around New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. He was 10 years old when he joined a protest against nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll. He later sailed to Antarctica with his father and eldest brother.
Today Tucker experiments with alternative boat design and construction, working with sustainable materials including flax and cork, and building modernised proas, the sailing outriggers with a history stretching back across the Pacific.
His view on the Challenge cuts to its core: you don’t need a fancy boat to have a real adventure on the water. And that, my friends, is boating at its core.
Sponsoring the 2027 Q&D are Tasmanian Shipwrights & Co., wooden boat builders and restorers based at Oyster Cove Marina in Kettering. Their current project is the restoration of Peri, a Derwent Class yacht built in 1950 by Ted Cawthorn, due for relaunch in July or August 2026.
Teams can register via the AWBF website.
Join the 2027 Quick & Dirty Boat Building Challenge
