Two men, a boat and a conversation

Sue Nettlefold, President of the Maritime Museum in Spring Bay shares with us the museum’s latest exciting building project, featuring Bernard Wilson, Bob Hunt and a Huon Pine clinker-built dinghy.

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At the beginning of 2023, boat builders Bernard Wilson and Bob Hunt began a very exciting project for inclusion into the newly revamped Maritime Museum in Spring Bay. With extensive skill and experience, they have recently completed a beautiful Huon pine clinker-built dinghy, which we have proudly installed into the front room of the Spring Bay Maritime Museum.

These two men have enjoyed building a project together, and importantly, have particularly enjoyed each other’s company. As they worked, they also spent time on revisiting their personal stories which were quite different due to a difference in age.

In a recent conversation Bob said to me,” The conversation and the project had been one of the great delights of my life. I have learnt so much from Bernard because of our age differences, and the differing nature of our early years”.

Which raises a subject close to my heart and that is the importance of this type of short-term achievable project for retired and semi-retired people in our communities. They reduce social isolation and re-establishes social connection. They also create further projects, through the wonderful conversations and problem solving that evolves over time.

I am an artist and I have seen this idea working so well in the Spring Bay Studio and Gallery, where we also work to an annual project/theme with a large exhibition of work at the end of each year. The Studio acts as a tourist attraction in the peak tourist season of January. It allows for our artist members to interact about their art with local, interstate, and international visitors,

Every Community, big or small must have spaces for people, mostly over 50 to engage in these short-term projects. They bring pride to a small community like Spring Bay where the Maritime Heritage is so much part of the story and where creativity has always been part of any story.

It is encouraging to see many of the men of our organisation engaged in small boat restorations ensuring the skills don’t disappear. It would be good to see younger men in their 40’s and 50’s becoming more engaged to protect against the loss of these skills. Skill development and conversations also bring new and more localised opportunities. Importantly they inspire men in creative ways as they transition into semi-retirement or retirement.

For now, however, our coastal communities continue to engage in skills built up over long periods of time and everyone involved is clearly the better for it.

Our organisation is three tiered. The Community Shed focusses on Boat Restoration and other small projects. The community Art Studio and Gallery on building creativity in community and our wonderful Maritime Museum focusses on celebrating all aspects of the Maritime history of the East Coast of Tasmania.

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The Maritime Museum at Spring Bay is situated right on the waterfront, next to the marina and slip-yard in the heart of Triabunna. The museum celebrates the history and maritime stories from the area, with many artefacts and boats on display. Like the AWBF, the museum is a volunteer-run association, comprising of passionate local folk that operate the museum. Visit their website for more information: https://sbmdc.org.au/

If you have a restoration project that could be of interest to the crew at the museum, please do reach out and we can point you in the right direction.

Do you have a story about a boat restoration project? Or maybe you need some technical assistance or want to check the history of your boat. If so, AHBO may be able to assist. See  https://www.heritageboatorganisations.org/contact-us

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