The America's Cup teams in Auckland preparing for the Louis Vuitton series will be forced to take a back seat on Monday with the Auckland Anniversary regatta set to take centre stage on the Waitemata.
The harbour will come alive for the event which will feature spectacular fleetsof classic yachts and launches, tugboats and Tall Ships.
The regatta was first held 169 years ago as part of Auckland's birthday celebrations and since then has attracted a huge fleet of each era's best racing and pleasure boats.
Exclusively a sailing regatta in the early years, it soon embraced the new steam-powered launches and today includes radio-controlled boats, work boats and even the Navy frigate HMNZS Te Mana, which acts as the regatta's flagship.
One of the features of this year's event will be a display of manoeuvring and speed by tugboats performing for the crowds afloat on the Waitemata and lining the neighbouring shoreline.
This will be the third time these workhorses have raced in the annual regatta and between 30 and 40 tugs and workboats are expected to take part.
The regatta fleet leaves Viaduct Harbour in a parade of sail at 9am.
It then makes its way to the start line off Orakei Wharf. The best vantage points are at North Head, Bastion Point, Tamaki Drive, East Coast Bays, Orakei Wharf and the Viaduct Harbour.
