City of Sails hits the spot

Shane Jolley started sailing in a P-Class in Te Awamutu "on Lake Ngaroto, which is basically two metres of water on top of a bed of cow-pats. You learn not to fall in".

Compared with that, he says, there is no place more worthy of the title City of Sails than Auckland.

Jolley has just bought a new racing yacht, a Ross 930, to take on the Anniversary Day regatta fleet.

"You can't beat Auckland anywhere in the world," says the 38-year-old, whose association with Auckland sailing began in earnest 12 years ago. "There is nowhere you can be on a boat and within an hour be in a gorgeous bay that feels like it is a thousand miles from anywhere."

He is one of thousands of people who take to the water around the City of Sails - the term used by adman Gordon Campbell for Auckland's Sheraton Hotel. Auckland City Council picked it up in the mid 1980s.

Mr Campbell picked the name City of Sails because of Auckland's harbours and high number of boats.

"We rated as the second-highest boat-owning city per capita in the world [behind Los Angeles] ... Now I believe we are by far number one."

The slogan has stuck and has rarely come in for serious attack.

The line taken by critics was usually that City of Sails was not reflective of Auckland as a whole ... Some perhaps believed that City of Pokies was more reflective of Auckland than the elitist sport of sailing.

Figures from New Zealand's sports funding agency Sparc show golf is three times more popular than sailing, which comes in below shooting but above lawn bowls.

Auckland has an inordinate number of golf courses, but City of Putts did not have the same potential and was unlikely to win Auckland the chance to host the American Open.

Sailing has won us the America's Cup. Admittedly, we then lost it again, along with the sailors who got it for us, tempting some to suggest we were the City of Fails.

According to the International Boat Industry, New Zealand has one boat to every 12 people.

It said half of the 20,000 keel boats in New Zealand were based in Auckland, and two-thirds of the marine industry. Some claim there is one privately owned boat to every 11 people in Auckland, but no independent authority can be found for this.

Suffice it to say that Auckland has a lot of water around it, 45 sailing, boating and cruising clubs, and 10 marinas. It has spawned a boat industry worth millions of dollars and is host to innumerable regattas.

Sparc's research shows that in Auckland, North Harbour and the Waitakeres just over 10 per cent of adults sail, almost double the national average of 5.5 per cent.

RACE DAY

* When: Monday, starting 9am.

* Where: All round Auckland, sailing from various yacht and boating clubs.

* Predicted weather: Rain with easterly winds. Humid.

* How to race: Entry forms online at www.regatta.org.nz and faxed to (09) 634-3555. Only centreboard entries can be made on the day at the club concerned.