Mahurangi Regatta

Dedicated to the Mahurangi Regatta and the hosting Mahurangi Harbour community

Sign on shoreside regatta crew 2025

2024 Mahurangi Regatta crowd outside marquee. Credit: Nicola Devine and West City Jazz Orchestra

Doubling down on the epitome of equitable access: The Mahurangi Harbour community’s acquisition of its own marquee marks a milestone in making the Mahurangi Regatta, and other community events self-funding. Mahurangi Action utterly rejects privatisation of the Mahurangi Regatta Prize-Giving Dance as a funding solution. image Nicola Devine | West City Jazz Orchestra

By signing on the shoreside events crew, Mahurangi Regatta lovers help carry forward a tradition dating from before the first recorded, on New Year’s Day 1858.

When Mahurangi Action revived the regatta in 1977, the committee members, most of who had lived through the Great Depression, were determined that it be a good old-fashioned, leave-your-wallet-at-home picnic regatta—they were mindful that parents often struggled, when their children were exposed to the allure of all manner of overpriced fairground food and confection, all the live-long day. The covid-19 pandemic, on top of endemic economic poverty, has only reinforced the need for equitable access to the Mahurangi Regatta.

Financing this free $30 k-event is challenging. The usual reaction by fresh regatta enthusiasts is to cite the various ways money could be extracted from those attending. There are no shortage of such options, but what Mahurangi Action chose to do was double-down on free, with the purchase of the ultimate regatta marquee. Mahurangi Harbour community ownership now means that not only does the regatta have the free use of the perfect marquee, the risk of losing money by weather- or disease-caused forfeiture of hire fees is eliminated.

Early indication of possible intention to volunteer for 2025 Even before the 2024 regatta was over, several solid offers had already been received, volunteering for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, for the 2025 regatta. For shoreside-regatta-crew boatswains, be assured, this is music to their ears:

Sign on as possible Mahurangi Regatta shoreside-events crew button

2024 Mahurangi Regatta marquee crew departing Ōpahi aboard the J Barry Ferguson. Credit: Sarah Ransom

More Work Most Fun: Volunteers do an enormous amount of work, but have, by far, the most fun. Here, the major, Mahurangi West, component of the inaugural Mahurangi Harbour community marquee crew set off from Ōpahi aboard the J Barry Ferguson , spared the 72-kilometre return trip by road. image Sarah Ransom

Meanwhile, what with pandemic and atmospheric river interruptions, 2024 proved to be the first year that Mahurangi Action’s 2022-purchased aluminium landing barge J Barry Ferguson could join the fray, saving Mahurangi West volunteers the enervating 72-kilometre drive to Scotts Landing and back.

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Disclosure The editor of this Mahurangi Regatta content is the secretary of both Mahurangi Action Incorporated and the Mahurangi Coastal Path Trust. The content published here, however, is that of the editorially independent, independently funded Mahurangi Magazine.