It might
not have proved to be the best advertisement for it.
The 2011 Mahurangi Regatta would have been the first under the auspices of the new Auckland Council. And as such, it would have been the perfect opportunity for city hall to demonstrate that it can also do country. But given that the new council had been in operation for less than three months, the Mahurangi and Auckland Anniversary regattas were unlikely to be the best example of urban–rural collaboration possible.
In the event, it was academic.
Not entirely unexpectedly, a tropical cyclone,
Wilma, cancelled play. Forming northwest of Fiji ten days before the regatta, Cyclone Wilma killed three people in American Sämoa, inflicted major damage in Tonga, and destroyed several homes and caused widespread flooding and the evacuation of hundreds in Aotearoa.
The
decision to cancel the Mahurangi Regatta Prize-Giving and Dance was the easiest and earliest decision—it was taken some 40 hours out. Aside from the cyclone tracking very consistently over the preceding days, a near miss would likely have seen much reduced numbers come ashore at Scotts Landing, and insufficient income from the traditional bar and burgers to pay the more than $6000 required to pay for hire the marquee, barbecues, the musician’s expenses, sound equipment, portable toilets etc.
Next cancelled, at 6.55 am on regatta morning, were the shoreside events held at Sullivan Bay—the beach, kayak and rowing races—quickly followed by the small sailing boat races. Soon after the regatta cancellation was total, besides
the only yachts in the harbour were those that had arrived earlier in the week—by Friday afternoon when most would set out for Mahurangi, the weather was too wild for all but the most improvident skipper.
The Auckland Anniversary Regatta and the Mahurangi Regatta have in existence for about the same length of time. But while the
history of Auckland event is very thoroughly known, the date of the first Mahurangi Regatta was not recorded. However, as Dr Ronald 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 appears to have been held somewhat sporadically, and effectively lapsed during World War Two. But since 1977, when it was
revived by Friends of the Mahurangi, it has been an annual, and steadily more popular, event.
From as early as that recorded in the 1901 inaugural edition of the
Rodney Times, the regatta warmly embraced Auckland ‘Yachtmen’:
The ‘Heads’ is one of the most suitable places within so short a distance from Auckland for regatta purposes. It being within reach of the Auckland Yachtmen, who are certain to take advantage of the outing, and should the committee decide to make it an annual event, as indeed they have every encouragement to do.
That regatta was also recorded by Auckland-based photographer Henry Winkelmann. It features on the dust jacket of Locker’s history, published 100 years on.
Hugely enjoyed, the consensus was that it should be an annual event. The organisers, however, were less sanguine the ball’s sustainability, annually, and were inclined towards a rather longer interval. However, that year the Auckland Regional Council initiated the Mahurangi Action Plan, intended to be a five-year kick-start of riparian protection and restoration to address the harbour’s elevated sediment accumulation rate. To help launch the initiative, the action plan coordinator suggested another ball. The counter-suggestion was a prize-giving and dance, in order that admission to the event be free—so as to be inclusive, but also to reach as wide an audience as possible.
The Mahurangi prize-giving dance has proved to be enormously popular, making for an entirely family-friendly evening. It seems to be particularly appreciated by the female crewmembers—the music and dancing an attractive alternative to the all-too-male tendency to stand in clumps pontificating on the afternoon’s action on the water. The spectacle of a live orchestra—Trevor Thwaites’
Prohibition Big Band played at the ball, and all subsequent events since—clearly enthrals the younger children, and the teenagers present appeal blithely unconcerned that the music they are dancing to is of an era seven decades past.
Such is the success of the Mahurangi prize-giving dance that a common lament heard from visiting yacht crews now is the absence of comparable after-match function back in the Waitematä Harbour.
Although the regional council contributed to the costs of the first prize-giving and dance, and Rodney District Council contributed to the costs of the next, the responsibility for recruiting and deploying volunteers, and the financial risk, fell heavily on just one organisation, Friends of the Mahurangi—likewise for the four subsequent events. It has now become critical that the event be restructured along more sustainable and equitable lines.
The help of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development has been sought, with a first formal meeting this afternoon. The council-controlled organisation has responsibilities for the Auckland Anniversary Regatta, so it is hoped that the thoroughly complementary nature of the Mahurangi event will be recognised and supported. Pivotally, Events and Economic Development director John Law was responsible for today’s meeting. In addition to seeing the linking the regattas as a reflecting the regions rural–urban character, Mr Law sees it as an opportunity to demonstrate the connectivity by the sea concept he has long championed. As mayor of Rodney District Council, John Law immediately responded to the editor’s pitch for the boardwalk that now links Scotts Landing proper with the beach, and thus Scott Homestead. While the boardwalk was essential to the holding of the regatta ball, held in a large marquee next to the homestead, long-term it was required to facilitate access to Scotts Landing by other than private car—with the addition since of the Scotts Landing wharf, folk can now access the park by ferry, which
will one day be a regular service.
Had Cyclone Wilma not intervened, the 2011 regatta after-match function would have been a severe test of the depleted pool of volunteers. It had been made abundantly clear to the 2010 bar and burger boatswain that many of the stalwarts were volunteering for the last time. Running the event on a knife-edge and barely breaking even hadn’t helped. Nor had the tendency of the occasional guest to treat volunteers as the hired help. Then again, had the weather on 29 January 2011 been less than cataclysmic, and had the fresh team of volunteers promised weighed in…
The regatta is the only event annual that brings together the Mahurangi Harbour community. Simultaneously, it also brings together the Mahurangi’s wider community—those thousands of Aucklanders living in other parts of the region who consider Mahurangi their special place. This combined Mahurangi community essentially values the same three things: The natural harbourscape; clear, un-muddied water; and a joyous regatta.
Mahurangi Regatta, thus, is the natural opportunity to champion what by then will be seventeen years of work—including the 10 years of science that underpinned it—funded by the regional council and now by Auckland Council, to keep soil on the hills, thus out of the harbour. And epitomised by…
…the Mahurangi and Auckland Anniversary regattas: Connectivity by the sea.
Historical footnote Governor William Hobson did himself a favour, and Aucklanders a great service, when he fixed their 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.
About the Mahurangi Regatta
Format for the 2012 Mahurangi Regatta
Action on the Mahurangi
Regatta Results
For Canine Crew Members
Regatta Rules Okay
Revival of a Tradition
Regatta updates:
Master of the Mahurangi
Seeking Resurgence
Action on the Mahurangi
Regatta Results
Certificates Make Regatta
Action More Memorable
Channelling Regatta Energy into
Action on the Mahurangi
As Well As 2011 Regatta Cyclone
Wilma Whacked Yearbook
Perennial Regatta
Call for Crew
She’s a Hard Road Finding the
Perfect Regatta Sponsor
Prize-Giving and Dance
Bring-Your-Own
Connectivity Exemplar
Saved by Wilma
Regatta supporters:
Auckland Council
Buckton Consultants
CharterLink
Mason Bins
Part of a hope-based network restoring and enjoying the Mahurangi
Editor Cimino Cole
Mahurangi Club Monday 5 March 5.30 for 6–8 pm
Field Days: Open-Ground Indigenous Plants
Ghosting to the Line: Renowned marine photographer Henry Winkelmann captured the 1901 Mahurangi Regatta, in this possibly earliest extant image of the event. Winkelmann was secretary of the Warkworth-based Coastal Steamship Company, which brought hundreds of his fellow Aucklanders to the event as spectactors. Photographer Henry Winkelmann
Similar Vantage: The meeting room for today’s regatta discussion with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development major events people has a vantage similar to that used by Henry Winkelmann when he photographed Queen Street in 1905. Warkworth-based Coastal Steamship Company operated from the inshore tee on the down-harbour side. In this era of unsealed roads, the steamers were the principal means of transport between the city and the Mahurangi. Publication Changing Times
Mahurangi Regatta 1901: 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 first harbour north. Publication Changing Times
In Full Swing: The 2009 Mahurangi Regatta Prize-Giving and Dance marquee packed with dancers, thanks to Dr Trevor Thwaites and the Prohibition Big Band. The band, being essentially acoustic, is perfect for the venue and has played every fixture from the 2004 Mahurangi Regatta Ball onwards. Photographer Jason Brown
