Lois Ryan Australian Wooden Boat Festival
The iconic southern Tasmanian fishing smack, Storm Bay will return to Hobart for the first time in 10 years at Festival ’07. 
After a superb 10 year restoration carried out at the Tim Phillip’s Wooden Boatshop at Sorrento in Victoria, this much admired work boat will return to her home port for the Festival, and Tim says he plans to leave her here for some time.
“Storm Bay is a Tasmanian treasure and I consider it an honour to own her,” Tim says. “Very proudly she has her name with Hobart as her port of registration on her transom and that is where I want her to stay for a while.”
Storm Bay was designed and built at Battery Point in 1925 by legendary shipwright Percy Coverdale. Planked in huon pine she is 54 ft on deck with a 13 ft beam.
From the moment of her launching she was admired for her graceful lines and beauty under sail.
The Mercury newspaper announced her launching as follows “…Storm Bay is a very handsome addition to the Tasmanian fishing fleet. Looking at the smack as she stands at present she resembles a cruising yacht rather than a fishing vessel – her lines are graceful and she should prove to be speedy under sail.”
Percy Coverdale based his most famous ocean racing yacht Winston Churchill on Storm Bay. (Winston Churchill was tragically lost in the 1998 Sydney Hobart Race. )
Storm Bay was built for well known fisherman George Bridge and she stayed in the family as a working boat until her sale in 1962. After her sale she continued as a working boat, with the addition of a large dog house and with cut down rig, until Tim Phillips bought her in 1996.
George Bridge’s grandson Jim, aged 76, remembers his 26 years on her with great affection. “It was a hard life but you tend to remember only the sunny days,” he says.
“We were really proud of her and she was always well looked after. She had a beautiful huon pine deck and whenever anyone came on board we always asked if they had nails in the soles of their shoes — if they did, off they came.”
That same deck remains on her today.
“I think it is really fortunate that Tim Phillips got hold of her — it’s a wonderful thing he has done to restore her to her original condition as a sailing fishing boat,” Jim Bridge says.
Tim Phillips says 50 years ago there were dozens of similar style fishing boats working in Tasmania but today, sadly, only two or three remain with their original rig and form. One is the beautiful Casilda also to be seen at Festival’07.
“I am mindful of the proud Tasmanian heritage of Storm Bay,” Tim Phillips says. “I would never sell her to anyone outside of Tasmania. I want to make sure she will never be lost to an overseas buyer.”
