Yachting: Salute to the fleet

The Waitemata Harbour will be the place to be on Auckland Anniversary weekend, with classic yachts and the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on show. ROBIN BAILEY reports.

The New Zealand Herald Auckland Anniversary Regatta on January 28 will conclude three days of intense yachting competition on the Waitemata.

At the junior end of the sailing ladder, the 2002 Auckland championships for the Optimist, P-Class, Starling and 29er classes will run over two days and include two regattas. The first will be sailed off Torbay on Saturday and the second at Kohimarama on Monday. The results of both days racing will be combined to decide the champions.

Sunday will feature top-level sailing action as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet sails out of Auckland on the leg to Rio de Janeiro. Richard Brown from the Auckland Yacht & Boating Association says holding the Auckland championship over two days will give the young sailors the opportunity to watch the VOR start.

Brown has also been working with the VOR organisers to try to make the race start special for the top P-Class sailor from the Torbay regatta. Kiwi Chris Cooney is director of logistics for the race and Brown hopes he can arrange for a trip aboard one of the fleet from the Viaduct Basin out to the start line.

It would really be something to remember for an up-and-coming young sailor - perhaps enough to encourage following the career paths of Aucklanders Ross Field and Grant Dalton who achieved the first success at the helm of a P, says Brown.

The Herald Anniversary Regatta will also feature classic yachts and almost all the classes from dinghies to keelers that compete regularly on the harbour.

Enthusiastic owner associations ensure that one-design classes survive changes in fashion as well as sailing technology. One of these is the IdleAlong that first made its appearance in the 1930s and is undergoing a modest surge of interest. The IA has been a permanent feature of the regatta since 1992 when the class association was revived. Since then nine new yachts have been built.

The IAs race in three divisions off Birkenhead Wharf. The Northcote Division caters for recent boats, the Birkenhead Division for older yachts and the Cruising Division for boats with no trapeze or spinnaker. It is a class that caters for all levels of sailing skill.

The regatta also has a big turn-out of classic yachts and 2002 will prove no exception. This year there will be considerable interest in Logans following publication of the Harold Kidd-Robin Elliott book on the famous Auckland boatbuilding dynasty.

It is fitting that in a year when the Anniversary Regatta is again sponsored by Wilson and Horton Ltd, publisher of the New Zealand Herald, one of the most beautiful of the Logan creations will be taking part. Ariki was built by Logan Bros for Charles Horton and later owned by Willie Wilson.

Robin Elliott records that with one exception the Wilson family (brothers and cousins) never bought anything but Logan-designed boats. He believes that had it not been for the Wilsons' near 50 years of patronage, New Zealand would not have had these wonderful boats and the Logans would not have become so famous.

Lunch on Te Mana a highlight of regatta day

Official regatta website