January / February 2020

The 2019 Mahurangi Regatta

New Zealand’s largest classic-yacht gathering

Maynard Bray · Photographs by Benjamin Mendlowitz

THELMA (59' × 41' 6" × 11' 6" × 8' 4") leads RAWHITI (54' × 37' 6" × 9' 8" × 7' 6") around Motuora Island in the 2019 Mahurangi Regatta. Despite THELMA’s less-efficient vertically cut mainsail, shrouds tensioned by deadeyes and lanyards instead of turnbuckles, and lack of sheet winches, Tony Blake kept this big 1897 Logan Bros.–built cutter (see description on page 51) consistently in the lead and beat the other A-class yachts. RAWHITI, however, stole photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz’s heart, with the old-time look of narrow-panel sails with minimal reinforcing. Peter Brookes recently restored this Logan creation of 1905.

Twenty or so miles north of Auckland, New Zealand, lies Mahurangi Harbour, where the river of the same name widens before emptying southeastward into Whangaparaoa Bay. This is the site of the Mahurangi Regatta, which heralds itself as “the Southern Hemisphere’s largest meet of classic wooden boats.”

The regatta is sailed in high summer, which in the Southern Hemisphere is the end of January. It is sponsored by the Mahurangi Cruising Club, formed in 1988 “for disaffected sailors who did not want to belong to a proper yacht club.” Its stated mission is “encouraging the ownership, use, and restoration of classic wooden boats.” When we attended in January 2019, the official sailboat entries (divided among 11 classes) numbered well over 100, but the powerboats and spectator craft brought the total to several times that.

Two spectacular anchorages border the harbor, and beginning Friday before the regatta you’ll find dozens upon dozens of classic wooden boats spread out between them. There are large and small sailing yachts as well as a variety of “launches,” as New Zealanders call their power cruisers.