The Classic Wooden Boat Association’s 25th annual boat parade and fun weekend is scheduled for February 4, 2022, Waitangi Weekend. The organisers would love to see as many classic or wooden boats of any type join the parade to make this year’s event the biggest ever. Photos: Waitemata Woodies.
The weekend kicks off on the Friday night with a Captain’s briefing dinner at the VR Rotorua Lakeside Resort. The parade starts in the Okere arm of Lake Rotoiti the next morning.
Organisers expect around 100 boats to parade past the reserve in line, very many of them historical and well-decorated wooden launches with costumed crews, as well as every other type and size of small boat imaginable – sailed, rowed or powered –including some strange ones like the vintage tiny Personal Water Craft.
A real cannon will start the parade, which will hopefully be led by one or more Maori waka.
Following the parade around Okawa Bay, the bigger boats will park up for inspection along the beach at Wairau Bay, where everyone can enjoy a picnic and the fun and games on the beachside reserve.
There will be bobbing for lollies, sack races, egg throwing, tug-o-war and the great Rotoiti Yellow Duck Hunt for the kids. For the adults, the steamboats usually do a demonstration sail-past, and the fast boats show us what they are capable of on their special course a safe distance off the beach.
By mid-morning Sunday, the strangest possible collection of floaty things will gather together on the nearby edge of Lake Rotorua to wind their way for an hour or so down the Ohau Channel to Lake Rotoiti, accompanied by the occasional water-gun fight.
Entry is free to anything that mostly floats, so you will see every type of inflatable toy and raft imaginable, including the legendary floating settee. If nothing else, float the channel in your lifejacket!
For lots of picture albums: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158740532@N05/albums
For more information contact Secretary Rachel Jamieson at info@woodenboatperade.co.nz phone 0272812101
