Fairwind is a Drascombe longboat, built in 1996 by Michael Elton, the only registered builder of Drascombe longboats in Australia. She is the fourth of nine longboats he built, and the boat is made of marine ply wood. While the not popular in Australia, it took the eye of Stef van den Hoek, the boat’s current owner, at a 2011 wooden boat festival. Looking for a boat that was easy to trail, yet would provide access to new waterways for expeditions, Stef discovered Fairwind through an advertisement in Afloat magazine.
Since finding Fairwind, Stef has spent every summer exploring the east coast of Australia from the Whitsundays to Broken Bay, the Hawkesbury, Myall Lakes, Port Stephens, Gippsland Lakes, Bateman’s Bay, Sydney Harbour, and Port Phillip. In 2019, she was in Tasmania for the Tawe Nunnegah Raid, which involves raiding 100 nautical miles of Southern Ocean, from Recherché Bay to Hobart, before exhibiting their boats at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
Fairwind is a much-loved boat that has provided Stef with many opportunities for adventure, and she plans to take the boat to the west coast soon. While not much is known about the original owner, Fairwind has been in good hands since being bought in 2011, and she has lived up to her reputation as a boat that can provide access to new and exciting waterways.
Posted by Dale Simonson on 2023-03-14 02:35:37