Classic wooden boats parade at Rotorua's Lake Rotoiti

Buzz Rathbone (left) and Grant Wallace aboard Sambuca a 24ft Mason Clipper built in 1967. Photo / Andrew Warner

Classic wooden boats will litter Lake Rotoiti this anniversary weekend.

Members of the lake's Classic and Wooden Boat Association will, for the 21st time, parade around the lake.

The association commodore Grant Wallace said it would be a good chance for the public to understand and learn more about the boats which frequented the lake.

"We bring all the wooden boats on Lake Rotoiti together, and there's a surprising number of them," Wallace said.

"We have a parade sail-by and talk about every boat as it sails past."

Wallace said there would usually be up to 100 boats in the parade.

While public involvement in the event was limited to observing, Wallace encouraged spectators to attend.

"If you want to see the sorts of boats that are popular, or to understand more about the boating on the lake."

After the parade the boats will sail to a nearby bay, accessible only by boat, for a picnic.

Boat builder Alan Craig was busy with the general maintenance and repairs of several of the wooden boats in the leadup to the parade.

Craig said he did work on most of the boats from Lake Rotoiti.

"They're all old boats. A lot are from the early 1900s to 1960s. These days they've been dragged out from all over the place and people have fallen in love with them," Craig said.

The Paengaroa builder recently spent a year refitting a boat which had been brought to New Zealand from the United States.

Craig says while many people might not think they had an interest in old classic stuff, they could still attend the parade.

"You learn a lot about what boats were around at that time. There's still a few wooden boats built these days but that's all they were built from back in the day. Today we've got aluminium, fibreglass."

The parade will take place at 10.30am on February 3 at the Okere Falls Inlet on the lake. For details see woodenboatparade.co.nz.

THE PARADE:
- At 10.30am on February 3 at the Okere Falls Inlet on Lake Rotoiti
- See woodenboatparade.co.nz
- The best viewing location on land is the reserve on SH33 adjacent to number 694, south of the Okere Falls Store