Tugboat tussle to thrill the crowds

Competitors in the tugboat race have been seen to nudge each other during the event. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

For local tugboat enthusiast Baden Pascoe, there is something honourable and magical about a vessel that has been a workhorse most of its life.

"Tugboats are like steam trains. You look at them when you are a little boy and yet, when you are an old man, you are still enjoying them," he says.

Auckland's annual celebration of the working boats has been running since 2007 and adds plenty of colour to the Anniversary Day Regatta.

Pascoe says the idea grew out of a conversation with his friend John Street, the founder and chairman of the Classical Yacht Charitable Trust, who said he wanted to race two veteran tugboats in Auckland harbour. Street owns a classic 1920s towing launch Te Hauraki, formerly owned by the Auckland Harbour Board, and he wanted to put it against the 1935 steam tug, William C Daldy.

"I said how about we make a spectacle of this, and within a few days we had about 30 boats interested," Pascoe recalls.

Once word got out, everyone from Ports of Auckland and Thompson Towing to pleasure boat enthusiasts from Tauranga and the Bay of Islands wanted to give their tugboats a turn in the event. Pascoe says he felt a lump in his throat when he saw the veteran vessels lining up with modern working boats and sounding their horns in unison.

He explains that most of the older boats are kept as pleasure craft by people who like the idea of a boat working hard for its retirement, and making a contribution.

The event awards the Patterson Trophy for the best retired vessel and the Parry trophy for the best presented vessel still in service. Pascoe says boats compete very seriously for the prizes.

Tugboats have played a very important part in Auckland's maritime history, helping with defence, maritime safety and even major feats of construction, he says.

One of his favourite historical photographs of the city shows four tugs manoeuvring sections of the Auckland harbour bridge into place.

Unfortunately only two boats from the picture remain in working order, and they are now kept too far from Auckland to attend the event. However, other boats of historical significance include the pre-1920s launch Stirling and Bondi Belle, built in 1898, which was originally a steam launch.

This year about 20 tugboats will assemble at Princess Wharf on Anniversary Day at 8am. They will then pass North Head about 9am as they make their way to the 10am start. The race traces the coast towards Narrow Neck and finishes at Torpedo Bay - a course that usually takes about 20 minutes.

Last year's winner was a boat called Curlew, a tug built by the Rope brothers in 1916, which won in 22 minutes. A highlight of this year's race will be the competition between Curlew and Street's boat Te Hauraki. Both are capable of about 14 knots.

As one would expect of a loyal workhorse, Pascoe explains that after completing the course, the tugs wait at the finish line until the final boat crosses, at which point they all blow their horns.

The steam and horns are sure to thrill the onlookers, and they might also notice the tugboats giving each other "teasing nudges" over the course of the race, he says.

The boats reconvene at Viaduct Harbour for a parade at about 11.30am with the oldest of the seaworthy vessels leading the charge. Other veteran boats will enter the harbour purely for show, and will stay birthed in front of O'Hagan's pub, posing for the spectators.

Pascoe says the Auckland event is modelled on the tugboat festival in Seattle, said to be the largest event of its kind in the world. But Pascoe is proud to say that the Auckland event usually attracts almost as many boats and of a wider age span.

He says the event adds an interesting dimension to the day's festivities.

"You can show people two yachts, one a clunker and the other a race boat, and the average person will see a triangle sail. But tugs are all sorts of shapes and colours. They have so much character," he says.