Mahurangi Regatta 2024 programme

Quayside Boatyard, initial sponsor in a new Mahurangi marine industries group of Mahurangi Regatta sponsors.

2024 Regatta Day: Saturday 27 January

Marking the 47th anniversary of the regatta revival by Mahurangi Action, and welcoming a new raft of regatta sponsors, following Teak Construction’s magnificent 8th year, as principal sponsor—Quayside Boatyard leads the parade. Sailing event organiser, since 1990, is the Mahurangi Cruising Club.

24th  Edition: Available from New World Warkworth, Paper Plus Warkworth, Gull Service Station Snells Beach, and Matakana Village Books. cover Mahurangi Cruising Club

Friday Night-Race to Mahurangi

3 pm

Classic A and Modern Classics

3.05 pm

Classic B and Woollacott Series

3.10 pm

B Division – Hyslop Cup

6 pm

A Division – Barometer Trophy

Sailing Instructions

Anchorage note

Mahurangi Regatta

47th anniversary of regatta revival by Mahurangi Action
166th anniversary of the first-recorded Mahurangi Regatta
Generally held at Sullivans Bay*
*In the event of strong easterly wind and/or heavy rain, shoreside events will be cancelled.
Low tide 3 am (0.54 m above mean low-water spring tides)
High tide 9.22 am (2.69 m)
Low tide 3.34 pm (0.73 m)
High tide 9.32 pm (2.5 m)

9–9.30 am

Registrations for Classic Launch Parade now online, or muster off Scotts Landing at 10.15 am—course diagram.

important note

Entries for sailing events noted when, a week out, the forecast was for strong easterlies. In the event, all shoreside entries were taken, it is standard practice, at Sullivans Baynow taken by Mahurangi Cruising Club online only, by midnight 25 January 2024

9–11 am

No trailer launching of boats at Sullivans Bay due to foreshore erosion of beach access roadway

10.20 am

Augustin sea kayak race

10.25 am

Master of the Mahurangi

10.45 am

Classic Launch Parade—best viewed from southern half of beach

11 am

Shoreside events—swimming etc.—likely to be lower-key and even more informal than when last held, in 2021

Sailing events commence:

2024 Notice of Regatta

Sailing Instructions

vhf

channel 77

12.40 pm

Te Haupa Trophy

Mahurangi Regional Park and all 28 other region parks are smoke free. Next challenge, fossil-free, might not be quite so easy.

12.50 pm

Sailing dinghy classes – Frostbites, Mistrals and Zephyrs

1.00 pm

A-Class

1.20 pm

Mahurangi Cup, L-Classmullet boats, and Traditional Spirit Trophy

1.40 pm

Mid-Century Classics – modern classics

12.30 pm–1.30 pm

Sand sculpture. Very informal this year. Simply create where you can find a space and report to the tent when you are ready to be judged.

1.30 pm

Afternoon shoreside events—running, three-legged, sack etc.—likely to be lower-key and even more informal than when last held, in 2021

Dog-Free Regatta: The beach and picnic area at Sullivans Bay, at all times, is off-limits to dogs, as is the grassed area at Scotts Landing, but only during booked events such as the regatta. icon Mahurangi Magazine

3.30 pm–4.30 pm

No trailer retrieval of boats at Sullivans Bay is possible due to foreshore erosion of beach access roadway

 

Mahurangi Regatta prize giving and dance

Held at Scotts Landing
Revived by Mahurangi Action in 2004 in the form of a regatta ball as the grand finale of Warkworth’s 150th celebrations, then as a prize-giving dance—the traditional format—from the following year. In 2011, ex-tropical cyclone Wilma cancelled the regatta, and in 2012 a combination of mediocre weather and a lack of financial support precluded the event, but from 2014, largely thanks to the support of Auckland Council’s regional events fund, and ultimately, from 2016, thanks to the long-term commitment of a principal regatta sponsor—Teak Construction—the future of the prize-giving dance, and the regatta itself, is now secure. In 2022, on account of covid-19 and 2023 forecast for a weather bomb, cancelled the prize-giving dance for those two excruciating summers.

Also Serving the Volunteers: Rather than drive 72 kilometres there and back to Scotts Landing, in all kinds of diabolical anniversary-weekend traffic, folk volunteering at Sullivans Bay—from this regatta hence—get to nip across in style, aboard the workboat J Barry Ferguson—and vice versa, the volunteers from Scotts Landing. drone image Marek Planka

Free use of gas barbecues—no ‘bar and burgers’ since 2010

There is no longer a cash bar nor burgers for sale. From 2013, the format returned to that of the prize-giving dance that prevailed before the regatta lapsed during World War II, when it was on bring-your-own basis. This makes the event much less financially risky, particularly when wild and/or wet weather intervenes, as it did, spectacularly, in 2011 and again, in 2023.

8 am

Free morning-to-midnight Scotts Landing regatta shuttle commences operation. Primary run is the two kilometres of Ridge Road between the Charles Street crossroads and the landing, but the free shuttle will pick up and drop off anywhere within the Scotts Landing area. See below for drivers’ cell phone numbers.

5.30 pm

Free Shuckle Ferry  service from Jamieson Bay to Scotts Landing

6 pm

Free Shuckle Ferry  service from Jamieson Bay to Scotts Landing

6.30 pm

Prize-giving dance commences, with the West City Jazz Orchestra

7.30 pm

Prize giving

8 pm

—or thereabouts—prize-giving dance resumes, with the full West City Jazz Orchestra resumes

9.30 pm

Free Shuckle Ferry  return service from Scotts Landing to Jamieson Bay

10 pm

Free Shuckle Ferry  return service from Scotts Landing to Jamieson Bay

11 pm

Last dance

12 am

Last run by free regatta shuttle from Scotts Landing to either Charles or Grant street crossroads.

Seasonal plea for volunteers plea Mahurangi Magazine

Free-regatta-shuttle drivers and cells

8–10 am

TBC  +64 TBN

10 am–12 pm

TBC  +64 TBN

12–2 pm

TBC  +64 TBN

2–4 pm

TBC  +64 TBN

4–6 pm

TBC  +64 TBN

6–8 pm

TBC  +64 TBNkindly retiring stalwart Mahurangi West resident Lex Marshall, who has been risking life and limb kayaking home across the harbour, after dark

8–10 pm

TBC  +64 TBN

10 pm–midnight

TBC  +64 TBNPrincipal regatta director Cimino Cole—once the primary shuttlebus driver—having been kindly retired from this role in 2021 is back driving, but mercifully for this one shift only

Sunday morning Mahurangi Return Race

10.30 am

Classic B and Modern B

11 am

Classic A and Modern A

Sailing Instructions

 

Sunday morning-after-the-regatta breakfast

High tide 10.03 am (2.72 metres above mean low-water spring tides)

9 am

Morning-after: Panmure Yacht & Boating Club and Richmond Yacht Club meet for breakfast, and help with the clean up—barbecues on hand for other clubs, crews, and helpers!

 
Future ‘Up the Mahu!’ The 2020s will see only one more good Up-the-Mahu tide—2026. This underlines the significance of the Mahurangi River Restoration Trust’s work to restore all-tide navigability to the tidehead town of Warkworth—central government did step in to support this community-funded initiative, but, as so often the case, the project needs that little bit more.