Speech
Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta
E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi o te motu e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi māhana ki a koutou. Kia ora tātou katoa. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I extend my warm greetings to you all.
Specifically I want to thank Commodore John Martin, Maritime Component Commander of the Navy and Commander David McEwan, Commanding Officer of HMNZS Otago for hosting us on this special venue. Also, can I acknowledge Eric Mahoney, Chair of the Auckland Anniversary Regatta Committee, who along with his committee provides continuity with the Regatta. There are many others of you whom I could also mention, but there is one more personality – Bob Harvey!!
Well back to the event we’re witnessing today. Thank you for inviting me to the 2012 Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta. As Patron of the Regatta, it was a singular honour to fire the starting gun for the Classic A Division Race.
It was an honour because the Regatta is steeped in the history of this great city and the waters that surround it. It’s also special for me because of its historical links to the Navy and the office of Governor-General.
The regatta is one of the biggest single day regattas in the world. That makes it a special event on any sailing calendar. Given that the first Auckland Regatta was held in 1840, 11 years before Commodore John Cox Stevens won a race in the UK for the then fledgling New York Yacht Club, adds a bit of panache. The trophy Stevens won is, of course, the America’s Cup. And to paraphrase the words of Peter Montgomery – for a while that same America’s Cup was New Zealand’s Cup here in Auckland!
The first regatta was an impromptu event, held on the day Auckland was founded, 18 September 1840. That was the day my predecessor Lt Governor William Hobson, a Royal Navy captain, landed here. Royal Navy vessels that were regularly stationed here in those early times established and enhanced the link with the Navy.
A decade later the event was formalised. An article in The Southern Cross newspaper said of the event, “we cannot but feel confident that the regatta of 1850 will prove but the precursor of many and more efficient ones”.
Today, 172 years later the event is rightly described as “a glorious spectacle”. It is a distinctively Auckland event, with a great meeting of boats, yachts and waka reflecting the very character of boating on this harbour.
And that distinctively Auckland flavour, the city and its geography, its harbours, hills and islands was there from the earliest days. Again, the Southern Cross newspaper report on 29 January 1850, notes how, with the firing of a seven gun salute from the flagship Josephine: “…multitudes were flocking towards the shores of the Waitemata, which presented a gay and glittering aspect—every ship, every vessel teeming with living freights.” It added that looking at the shore; “… every cliff, every promontory was studded with masses of admiring spectators—affording incontestable evidence that Auckland defied the dismals, and put forth an exhibition of life and spirit, such as she has not displayed for many a day before.”
Today, looking out at the boats, yachts and waka on the harbour today, and the throngs watching from the harbour’s shores, I am sure the organisers of those first regattas would be proud to see both how the event has kept its character and yet it has developed.
The city may have evolved to be a multicultural Pacific metropolis, but its geography and citizens have remained constant. Auckland’s harbours, hills and islands and the passion of its people for sailing on its waters are palpable.
I want to take this opportunity, as Patron, to thank all of you for making the regatta possible. I have acknowledged the Royal New Zealand Navy earlier. However, the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta committee deserves special mention, as do the sponsors Spirit of Adventure Trust, Southern Trust, Lion Foundation, Ports of Auckland, Classic Hits, the Auckland Council and especially the naming rights sponsor Oceanbridge Shipping. You have made for a great day for Aucklanders and have again “defied the dismals, and put forth an exhibition of life and spirit.”
In a word - Congratulations.