Post regatta resolution: Book the bach
Stumping-Up with Prizes: But just as the Mahurangi Regatta winners were about to receive their prizes, there were losers—a pair of binoculars was found unattended. photographer Sarah Ransom
It is all too easy to forget.
A year is a long time, and resolutions made in the wake of one Mahurangi Regatta can fade—buried by the mountain of minutiae that is the reality of all-too-busy lives.
One such lapse was allowing the Bailey bach to be booked for other than regatta purposes.
There is one negative and two positive reasons why this resolution is important:
- Bach occupants may be dismayed to find a regatta in progress and a procession of trucks and cars passing to and fro close by their front door
- By basing a gatekeeper at the bach, suppliers and band members can collectively be saved hours of fiddle—stopping to unlock the gate, moving vehicle through gate, relocking gate
- The balance of the accommodation is needed to allow at least some band members, who play without pay, to stay over and enjoy more of the regatta weekend.
When the Prohibition Big Band was asked to play the Mahurangi Regatta Ball, in 2004, the offer was made to billet band members and provide them with places on participating boats. The offer was renewed each year and this year, for the first time, an appreciable number of the musicians elected to take it up—only to find that the vagaries of the booking system had defeated the intention to reserve the Bailey bach for regatta use.
However, having unwitting regatta innocents booked into the Bailey bach can have entirely beneficial outcomes. This year the Batty family occupied the bach—they had booked on the strength of a recommendation by friends that it was quiet and secluded spot.
But rather than be driven batty by the comings and goings, the family were beguiled by the regatta—their holiday made ‘that bit more memorable.’ Their favourable impression was partly on account of the event itself—evocative of a less materialistic and family-friendly age. But it was also due to the park ranger greeting the family and explaining the slip up and extending a warm welcome to join the prize-giving and dance.
The invitation was followed up by a Friends of the Mahurangi offer of free venison burgers, which the family was too nice to accept, preferring to contribute to a good cause.
The resolution for the 2011 Mahurangi Regatta:
- Confirm Bailey and Ferguson bach bookings, directly with head ranger
- Renew offer to Prohibition Big Band members of berths on boats and beds in bachs
- Redouble efforts to recruit a gatekeeper—would the Batty family be interested?
Meantime, the reason Bailey Bach is the subject of the first of the post-regatta resolutions: Binoculars were found abandoned, but the announcement made the bandleader went unheard by their owners, the Batty family.
Now, to determine the current whereabouts of those binoculars…