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Harbour to establish the foundations of what became the city of Auckland, the occasion was marked by an impromptu regatta. Over the past 180 years the city has continued to celebrate its birthday with a formal regatta on the Monday public holiday. The Mahurangi Regatta, held on the Saturday, has a shorter and
more anarchic history. This year was its 43rd running, although there is documentary evidence of boats racing on the Mahurangi River as far back as 1858. The current Mahurangi Regatta began in 1977 as a casual beach
picnic organised by a group of river activists called the Friends of the Mahurangi. ‘The idea was that they should be seen to be doing something other than just objecting to things,’ says lawyer Hugh Gladwell, who continues campaigning to protect the river. In 1988 the regatta became the flagship event of the Mahurangi
Cruising Club, which was established when Gladwell, Peter Oxborough and Peter Bailey gathered around a campfire and decided a kind of anti-yacht club was now required. ‘We didn’t want anything to do with the dreadful things that are usually associated with yacht clubs like annual accounts, committees and paperwork. ‘Our club would operate in a completely haphazard manner. And
it would have no assets at all, so it could be wound up in five minutes if everybody got sick of it.’ The club appropriated a large tree stump in the grounds of a
historic inn on the banks of the river as its ‘premises’. The tree stump also served as the trophy cabinet, where the Mahurangi Cup, donated by the local Robertson boatyard, was deposited in pride of place during the prizegiving. Competition for the trophy was stiff, although, in keeping with
the finest traditions of the club, the handicapping system was mys- terious and the results usually a matter of dispute. ‘The organisation is fairly shambolic,’ Gladwell admitted in a magazine interview some years ago. ‘If the results blow away we make them up afterwards.’ Tragically the club’s tree stump HQ was removed by the park authorities. The prizegiving is now held in a marquee, where the
24 SEAHORSE
formalities are short and to the point to allow revellers to get on and party to the music of a swing band. Night falls on a huge crowd pic- nicking under the trees to the big-band sound of the 1930s, against a backdrop of lights from hundreds of boats anchored in the bay. Despite, or more likely because of, the event’s anti-establishment
nature, it has grown from strength to strength – and with the enthu- siastic support of the establishment Auckland yacht clubs whose ethos it eschews. Chris Salthouse’s Gleamis a 34-footer designed by his maternal
grandfather, Jack Brooke, who was a pillar of the yachting estab- lishment and commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron from 1969 to ’71. The Salthouse and Brooke families are sailing dynasties in Auckland, with long traditions in boatbuilding and design. In the case of Chris’s family, the dynasties combined when his father, John Salthouse, married Jack Brooke’s daughter, Judith. Brooke’s Gleam design was an early example of the light-
displacement obsession that would be embraced with wholehearted conviction by New Zealand designers in later years. The yacht represents sailing stripped to its essentials – no engine, no toilet, just a sweet hull and a nice set of sails. Gleamwent through several ownerships until about three years
ago when the last owners offered her to Chris Salthouse for nothing. ‘It was the gift that kept on giving,’ he laughs, as the restoration workload predictably expanded. The Mahurangi Regatta marked Gleam’s return to action. ‘We loved every minute of it,’ said Salthouse. ‘Each of us took
a turn on the tiller. It was a great day. It was totally different from the work we do every day. Shoeb couldn’t stop smiling. It was actually very therapeutic for us all!’ In that sense they were like most of the others out there. They
could have been lawyers, or plumbers. The fact that they come from the rarefied world of America’s Cup campaigning was immaterial. For a day they were just three mates snatching precious time away from workaday lives to get back to the simple, restorative pleasure
RICHARD BENNETT
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