At the Auckland Wooden Boat Festival this March, visitors will have the chance to encounter a vessel that carries more than a century of working maritime tradition across the Tasman. Rosette, an Australian Couta Boat completed in 2009 by Tasmanian shipwright Jeremy Clowes, will be among the festival's standout exhibits.
Measuring 9.3 metres overall with a draught of 1.3 metres, Rosette embodies the proportions that defined the Victorian fishing fleet working the exposed waters of Bass Strait and Port Phillip Bay. She is gaff rigged, centreplate-fitted, and carries a deep hull profile, all characteristics tracing back to a single clear purpose: catching barracouta in demanding conditions and getting that catch to market ahead of the competition.
These were boats that had to earn their place. Built with strength, built for speed, and built to pay their way.
The Couta Boat's working era ran from the 1880s through to the Second World War, during which hundreds of them worked the southern Victorian coastline. Crews of two would be on the water before dawn, handlining for fish, and the race back to port was never merely a figure of speech. Arriving first meant the best market price, and that competitive instinct became inseparable from the class. Couta Boats remain one of Australia's most recognisable and keenly contested traditional racing fleets today.
Rosette sits squarely within that lineage. Designed and built by Jeremy Clowes of Cygnet Wooden Boats in Tasmania, she draws on traditional construction methods while remaining true to the working roots of the type. Carvel planking, a gaff rig, and a balanced hull form give her both the appearance and the substance of a boat built to do something real.
For New Zealand audiences, there is a familiar thread running through her story. Much as our own Mullet Boats evolved from functional workhorses into cherished racing icons, the Couta Boat traces a parallel path, shaped by the demands of weather, trade, and competition. The blend of practicality and pride that defines one class speaks equally to the other.
What sets Rosette apart in any gathering of traditional boats is something harder to manufacture than craftsmanship alone. Her working origins remain present in her lines, still readable in the way she sits and the way she is put together.
The Auckland Wooden Boat Festival takes place in mid March. For anyone who values genuine maritime heritage, fine craftsmanship, and the quiet authority of a proper working sailboat, get along and see Rosette for yourself.
