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The Auckland Wooden Boat Festival will return to Auckland’s waterfront from March 13-15, 2026, celebrating traditional boatbuilding, maritime heritage and hands-on experiences.
Free to attend, the festival will take place across the Viaduct Events Centre, Jellicoe Harbour, the New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa and the historic Percy Vos Boat Yard.
Part of Moana Auckland – New Zealand’s Ocean Festival – the event is supported by Auckland Council Events.
Visitors will be able to see traditional wooden boatbuilding techniques in action, including demonstrations at the Percy Vos Boat Yard, Auckland’s oldest surviving wooden boatyard.
The New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School will build a kauri clinker Frostbite dinghy live on site, while master carvers will complete the final stages of a waka hourua.
Along Halsey Street Wharf, boatbuilders will demonstrate techniques such as steam bending and roving, while the Auckland Steam Engine Society will operate historic machinery.
The onshore programme at the Viaduct Events Centre will include live music, demonstrations and marine displays.
Visitors will be able to see antique steam and outboard engines, sailmaking demonstrations and model boats, as well as view the Logan family’s historic boatbuilding tool collection.
Marine bookseller Boat Books will also host authors and showcase maritime publications.
More than 200 vessels are expected on the water across the weekend.
Among them is Vega, the 1946 wooden ketch that sailed to Mururoa Atoll in protest against nuclear testing and later campaigned internationally as Greenpeace III.
Festivalgoers will also be able to board the steam launch SS Puke for a one-way trip between the Maritime Museum and the festival hub, subject to capacity.
The New Zealand Maritime Museum will also offer ticketed heritage sailings, including a sunset cruise aboard the heritage scow Ted Ashby on Friday evening.
Family activities will include the Kids Zone at the Viaduct Events Centre, hosted by the New Zealand Maritime Museum, featuring crafts, storytelling and interactive activities.
The Tāngata Moana Mātauranga pop-up exhibition will also explore Pacific oceanic connections and the relationship between Pacific communities and the moana.
Across the weekend, a programme of short films, talks and seminars delivered in partnership with the New Zealand Maritime Museum will explore navigation, restoration and maritime history.
Visitors will also be able to learn about marine industry careers and meet specialists on board the heritage tugboat William C Daldy.
