Ian Hugh Smith has had a forty-plus year career in boatbuilding and boatbuilding education, during which he built upwards of 80 wooden boats from dinghies to yachts. He set up the Sydney Wooden Boat School in 1990 and has taught hundreds of first-timers to build their own boats. With a long-standing interest in maritime heritage he joined the emerging Australian Historical Sailing Skiff Association which builds, sails and displays traditional Aussie Open Boats and built a 6-footer The Balmain Bug and 10-footer Republic to join the growing replica fleet. In 2001-2 he built the 18-footer replica Britannia, and still sails it every Summer Saturday with the replica fleet at the Sydney Flying Squadron.