ROSS Barnett, wooden boat restorer, is unequivocal: aluminium tinnies do not compare with the clinkers of yesteryear.

"The old wooden boats are beautiful, they are works of art in my opinion," said Ross, who more commonly goes by the moniker of Roscoe.

"You put the old clinkers next to a tinnie and they are like chalk and cheese in the beauty stakes.

"They (the clinkers) also row so beautifully.

"If God had meant for boats to be built that way he would have made the trees aluminium."

Roscoe acknowledges that the tinnie has some advantages over his beloved clinkers - but these are practical benefits, not aesthetic ones.

"Tinnies are great as runabouts, perfect if you want to just get from A to B," he said.

"They require half the maintenance of the older wooden boats.

"The clinkers are pretty much just collectors' items these days. Or they are put in the back of the shed, and only discovered when grandpa dies."

Which is where Roscoe comes in.

An immaculately restored clinker can cost a fair whack, so Roscoe has become an adept restorer of abandoned or dilapidated dinghies.

"You would be looking at around $3000 or $4000 if you had to build one yourself," he said.

"The materials are quite expensive and the labour is obviously quite intensive."

Clinker boats are built according to the old Viking method, with the planks of wood in the hull overlapping one another.

Roscoe restored his first clinker when he was living in Pittwater, on Sydney's northern beaches, in the early 1990s.

He has since moved to Hobart - a city famed for its appreciation of wooden boats - and the clinker collection has grown steadily over time. His collection now stands at seven wooden boats - all in various states of repair.

He regularly takes his collection out for the day with fellow members of the Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania - a society devoted to the preservation and restoration of old boats.

The guild formed in the early 1990s, around the same time appreciation for the clinkers was developing in Hobart.

"We'll get together, put them in the water, row around in circles and have a barbecue," said Roscoe.

"It's a chance for all of us to get together to enjoy the boats.

"It's a bit like vintage cars. People are beginning to see the older models are quite lovely."

One of Roscoe's latest restoration projects is an 11-foot (3.35m) piner's punt work boat, King Billy, that was previously used by bushmen on the rivers of the West Coast of Tasmania to access huon pine.

Next off the blocks will be a small sailing dinghy, made from Australian cedar.

Perhaps surprisingly, Roscoe hasn't had to look too far to get his hands on the clinkers.

For years he ran his own business - Roscoe's Boat Parts - which put him in contact with a number of enthusiasts.

"I met one chap who had a boat made out of Australian cedar and he mentioned to me that he was thinking of putting fibre glass on the bottom of it," he said.

"I said to him, 'whatever you do, don't fibreglass it'. And he told me that if I knew how to restore it properly then I may as well have it.

"The boats just sort of appear that way."

While Roscoe has no problem watching the boats become weathered and scratched over the years, he does have trouble parting with them.

"I never sell them and that's part of the problem," he said.

"But I need to sell one at the moment if I am to finance my next restoration project.

"It would be great to be financially independent so I didn't have to worry."

Roscoe doesn't confine his love of maritime heritage to clinkers, either: adorning the walls of his house is a comprehensive range of oars. And he collects model boats, too.

"I've got 22 model boats in various sizes, and about 43 oars all up," he said.

Underpinning Roscoe's fervour for model boats, clinkers and oars is a strong sense of duty and concern about ensuring our maritime history is not lost.

"Quite a lot of what I am trying to do is make people more aware of our maritime heritage," Roscoe said.

"The fact that these boats are no longer being constructed makes it even more important to preserve the heritage."

  • The Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania meets on the third Monday of each month at the Mariners' Cottage, 42 Napoleon St, Battery Point, at 7.30pm. New members are always welcome.