Mahurangi Regatta
Generally* held at Sullivans Bay
*In the event of a strong easterly forecast, at Scotts Landing
- 9.00 Entries (for sailing events and log race)
- 11.00 Beach events commence (enter by presenting at starting line)
- 12.30 Sailing events commence
- 4.00 Tug-of-war (culmination of beach events)
Mahurangi Regatta Prize-Giving & Dance
Held at Scotts Landing
- 5.30 Dinner commences (and is served all evening)
- 6.00 Cash bar opens
- 6.30 Prize-giving
- 7.30 Dance commences: Prohibition Big Band
- 10.00 Bar closes; Last Dance
Peter Cimino Cole 23 December
Although the first
Mahurangi Regatta is not recorded, it possibly dates from the establishment of Gordon Browne’s spar station in 1832, or more probably, from when HMS
Buffalo called in 1834—spoiling things, in Browne’s opinion, by paying local Mäori too much for their labours extracting kauri spars.
In any event, as Dr R H Locker writes in
Jade River: a History of the Mahurangi ‘…Joseph Gard noted in his diary that he saw the event in progress on New Year’s Day, 1858, while passing up-river on his way home from Auckland.’
The Mahurangi Regatta effectively lapsed during World War II and was only revived in 1977, by Friends of the Mahurangi, which initially chose the earliest Saturday in January with a tide convenient for boat launching, 8 January, as opposed to the traditional Boxing Day.
The popularity of the revived regatta was such that it was destined to be an annual fixture. Coincidentally,
Devonport Yacht Club, which had been racing to Mahurangi since 1966, but on the Saturday of Auckland’s anniversary weekend, that year moved its race start to the Friday evening. It took Friends of the Mahurangi and the
Sandspit Yacht Club, which organised the sailing races, until 1979 to embrace the obvious synergy.
The Mahurangi and Auckland programmes are perfectly complementary:
While the Saturday is emphatically regatta day, the Friday night race to Mahurangi can create a unique visual spectacle:
When the weather is reasonably light and clear, the fleet arrives after nightfall in a continuous, flowing red/green river of navigation lights stretching from the heads all the way back to Whangaparäoa Passage—best viewed from the editor’s rooftop deck, 100 metres above Öpahi!
Already a mecca for ‘traditional’ boats, owner of the gaff-rigged cutter
Sorceress, Peter Bailey, prevailed upon Robertson Bros. Boat Co. to donate a trophy for wooden-hulled boats of pre-1955 design: the Mahurangi Cup. The 1988 event was thus the dawn of the Mahurangi Regatta as
the classic wooden boat meet in Aotearoa.
Pete and co-conspirator Peter Oxborough consolidated this success by forming the Mahurangi Cruising Club, ahead of the 1990 regatta.
For further information e-mail the editor, or
phone 0800 mahurangi (0800 624 872).
Historical footnote Governor William Hobson did himself a favour, and Auckland a great service, when he fixed its anniversary as the Monday nearest 29 January, the date not of the city’s founding, which was in September, but the anniversary of his own arrival in Aotearoa—in the Bay of Islands!
Traditional Focus: The revived regatta attracted traditional craft from the outset but, from 1988, became a serious wooden boat meet—the shared vision of Pete Bailey and the late Peter Oxborough.
Forever a Feature: When Devonport Yacht Club commodore Martin Foster conceived the race to Mahurangi, in 1966, he was continuing a long-standing relationship between city ‘Yachtmen’ and their nearest harbour to the north. First edition of the Rodney and Otamatea Times, 1901