Tauranga chasing Around Alone yacht race

2.30pm

Tauranga is bidding against the might of Sydney and Melbourne to host the Australasian port stopover for one of the world's greatest solo yacht races.

Yachts competing in the Around Alone yacht race -- including Tauranga's Graham Dalton-skippered entry Hexagon -- are scheduled to sail into New Zealand around December 28 for a month-long stopover before departing on leg four of the five-leg solo race around the world.

Auckland was originally supposed to the Australasian port of call for the 27 confirmed starters in the 43,000km race but the city has backed out because the event comes at the height of America's Cup activity in January.

However, Auckland's loss may be Tauranga's gain -- and with it would come vast national and international exposure and economic reward for the city and region.

Efforts were now under way to secure the right to host the stop-over, although Tauranga was facing stiff competition from Sydney and Melbourne.

But the size and economic strength of the two Australian cities was not fazing a locally-appointed steering committee of business, tourism and local authority representatives who have been preparing the Tauranga bid -- which includes a US$150,000 ($347,141) stopover fee. That money was expected to come from sponsorship arrangements and business donations.

Although it is a race against time, the steering committee is confident of being able to prepare a winning bid before the end of the month.

The decision on who will host the leg rests solely with race organisers and event owners, Clipper Ventures, who are expected to announce the successful bidder by mid-April.

Dalton, the brother of round-the-world sailor Grant Dalton, had already raised the Tauranga option with Clipper Ventures boss Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and said he was given every reason to feel "extremely positive".

"Our presentation just needs to stack up. It's really as simple as that," Dalton said.

A successful Tauranga bid would have enormous economic spinoffs for the city with the event expected to generate some 500 hours of television coverage on global networks like CNN, 6000 press articles, 5000 hours of radio time and 350 million internet hits.

Dalton said with film crews here from all over the world it would put Tauranga "on the map forever".

However, as tough as the competition may be on the water, the bidding war between Tauranga, Sydney and Melbourne, was expected to be equally as fierce.

The two Australian cities have a proven track record of hosting international yachting events as well as the financial muscle to win a bidding war.

But in Tauranga's favour was the fact the hosting rights were originally going to a New Zealand port and that Tauranga was approached by Clipper Ventures to submit a bid.

Dalton said another significant plus for Tauranga was that the world yachting media would already be in Auckland and could easily get to Tauranga to cover the arrival of the Around Alone yachts.

"It avoids the nightmare of having to move the media to Australia," he said.

One of the key players in the Tauranga bid, Port of Tauranga chief executive John Mayson, said he was confident the city was capable of hosting an event of such magnitude. The harbour had -- or at least could make available -- the necessary berthage while the city had the onshore facilities and marine expertise required to cater for the sailors, their support crews and the visitors who would come to Tauranga to see the boats.

"Everything just seems to fit. We're really going to give this a crack," he said.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES

nzherald.co.nz/marine