Mahurangi Regatta

End of the golden big-band era

Mahurangi Regatta 2026

author Cimino
work-in-progress published 20251026

Don’t need no palace paved with gold
Don’t need more cash than banks can hold

Jon Hendricks, lyrics | Neal Hefti, music—for the Count Basie instrumental titled Li’l Darlin’ , The Atomic Mr. Basie , 1958

And the First Will Be Last: First deployment of the marquee bought primarily to ensure the sustainability of jazz-orchestra finale of the sublime, egalitarian institution that is the Mahu­rangi Regatta. Light rain confirmed, if any further confirmation was need, the necessity of providing shelter for the almost too-cheap-to-meter West City Jazz Orchestra which, in an earlier guise, and for pennies, played a pivotal role in the 2004 revival of an aftermatch tradition that had endured until interrupted by World War II. Ironically—there are  other words for it, but the Mahurangi Regatta has strenuously striven to be family-friendly—2024 proved to be the last where the organisers had the de­ter­mi­na­tion to recreate, each year, a fleeting glimpse of how a collaborative, positively collegial , civilisation might comport itself. photographer Nicola Devine

What had been trusted, in 2025, was an exception, appears set to become the inglorious norm. Thus, in 2026, the Mahurangi Regatta will again take place without the stella West City Jazz Orchestra to complete the day in sublime style, as it had done since it was the icing on the cake on the 2004 revival of the traditional prize-giving dance, which had lapsed during World War II.

Below is the programme for the traditional shoreside events held at Sullivans Bay, in­ter­spersed with links to the classic motor-and-sailing-yacht events.

2026 Mahurangi Regatta programme

Mahurangi Regatta Inc. update Unshared ahead of the 2025 Mahurangi Action Inc. annual general meeting, was the adamant opposition by Mahurangi Cruising Club members to even exploring how well renaming and re­pur­pos­ing Mahurangi Action as Mahurangi Regatta Inc. might work for the many or­gan­i­sa­tions involved, which include the Classic Yacht Assoc., Mahurangi East Residents and Ratepayers Assoc., Mahurangi West Hall and Reserve Inc. not to mention at least 14 visiting yacht and boating clubs, Auckland Anniversary Regatta Inc., and the Auckland Council. The final substantive con­tri­bu­tion of Cimino Cole was the annual multiheaded mission of lodging the funding application with Auckland Council’s regional events fund, on 27 June 2025. The application was successful in securing $6000 towards the costs of the 2026 event.
To be continued…
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Craving a Mahurangi Minnie the Moocher In the movie version, a Mahurangi Minnie the Moocher , equally infectious, is introduced, and within two or three summers becomes the most an­tic­i­pated number belted out by the West City Jazz Orchestra, of a regatta evening. Left until 11.00 pm, the Mahurangi Regatta anthem has provided all the incentive needed to keep the long-in-the-tooth from drifting previous toward their berths, afloat or ashore—even a few children are treated to a rare, indulged, up-with-the-olds- ’til-midnight treat. Then, signalling it’s time for all think of sleep, Neal Hefti – Count Basie’s sublime Li’l Darlin’ —positively punched  out earlier in the evening—is repeated, but as an achingly lilting lullaby. While not every summer, regular regatta-goers will re­mem­ber Li’l Darlin’  as the slower, more circumspect piece sometimes played. Its inclusion was the result, earlier in the Mahurangi Regatta big-band era, of one regatta-goer being honoured with an invitation to nominate a number to be rehearsed, possibly to celebrate a milestone birthday—Li’l Darlin’  was unequivocally it .

Successfully commissioning the writing of a Mahurangi Minnie the Moocher  would require a miraculously, serially serendipitous sequence of circumstances, and monstrous talent. Organic anthems don’t grow on gmo trees. Masterpieces, however, have   been commissioned, Li’l Darlin’  and Rhapsody in Blue  being just two famous examples, although the later miracle must be as far away from an exuberant, sing­along-able, massed-voices anthem as could be imagined. If this impossible craving was somehow provisioned, and picked up where the mighty Dr Trevor Thwaites’ mag­nif­i­cently craven Minnie the Moocher  left off, in 2024, it might be believed that there is yet hope for miracles, mutually respectful democracy, and Mahurangi—never mind precisely how  miniscule.
To be further footnoted…
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‹ Renaming as Mahurangi Regatta Inc.   |  Marquee gallery ›

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