About Us

The Royal Akarana Yacht Club is one of New Zealand’s oldest yacht clubs and occupies a unique place in this country’s recreational sailing history. Throughout its 127 years it has been at the forefront of New Zealand yachting and particularly in its early years, had a huge influence over the way the sport developed in this country.

It began in 1895 at the North Shore Sailing Club over at Devonport, directly across the harbour from where the current clubhouse now stands. At the time, the only other yacht club on the Waitemata Harbour was the elitist Auckland Yacht Club (now the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) and North Shore club was formed largely as a reaction to its exclusive membership policies.

The mixed bag of cruisers and open boats that North Shore put out were definitely not the sort of “yachts” that were encouraged at the AYC, as the Sporting and Dramatic Review of 21 November 1895 reported at the time “the boats are by no means flyers, but the fun will be there all the same.”

The clubs first commodore W.E. Bennett presented blue silk pennant embroidered with the letters “NSSC” for that first season’s racing. It was won by Wilkie Wilkinson’s fast mullet boat-type Hinemoa. This historic silk pennant, now 110 years old, hangs in the main lounge just above the bar.

As the club prospered and as sport grew in popularity, the mix of members and boats began to change. In 1898 along with a new club, the Parnell Sailing Club, North Shore promoted the Arch Logan designed 18ft 6in Restricted Patiki Class, which raced successfully for the next five or six years, and was New Zealand’s first properly established centreboard class. RAYC’s current class of vintage centre-boarders, the 18-foot M-class, are the direct descendents of this early “patiki” class.

That same year the club was deeply involved in New Zealand’s first major international sailing regatta, the Inter-colonial 1-Rater Championship, the feature event of the grandly titled North Shore Native Regatta, and won by club member Charles Bailey junior in his yacht Laurel, defeating six local boats, including Arch Logan’s Mercia and the two Australian entrants Bronzewing IV and Geisha.

In 1900 the club put its full support behind a new class of keel yacht, the 24-foot linear raters, built to the very latest international rating rule. Yachts were generally built as large as an owner could afford with very little attention to any rules or limitations. The 24-foot linear raters were a conscious attempt to create an affordable type that Club members of modest means could race and cruise the gulf. Six were built and along with the Restricted Patikis were the toast of the harbour providing the close racing deemed necessary for the sport to remain attractive, as well as being the only true yacht “classes” anywhere in New Zealand at that time. Several of these lovely linear raters, Matua, Miro, Bona, along with the two 26-foot linear raters, Janet and Queenie, are still sailing.

By 1901 there was a subtle shift in the club membership and at the 1901 AGM Charles Murdoch moved that the name of the club be changed to that of the North Shore Yacht Club on the grounds that there are now more “yachts” in the club than “sailing boats”.

Throughout all these changes, one person stood at the centre, W.A. “Wilkie” Wilkinson, who had been the prime mover in the formation of the club back in 1895 and had been its secretary ever since. The influx of moneyed yachtsmen into the club began to cause some friction. To the wealthy amateur, professionalism was abhorred and in the parlance of the day, anyone who made their living “on or from the sea” was a professional. This struck at seamen, sail makers, fishermen, boat builders, shipwrights, spar-makers, painters, dock workers, in fact, many of the foundation members fell into one or other of these categories. Several motions to ban “professionals” from the club were proposed and defeated, but the battle lines had been drawn.

At a very stormy 1905 AGM the entire executive of the North Shore Yacht Club, all the keel yacht owners, resigned en masse, went down the road to Bill Oliver’s shed and formed a new club, the Devonport Yacht Club.

Wilkinson and crack boat builder Charles Collings were all that were left at North Shore with any experience in running the club’s affairs. The club struggled that season and almost closed its doors but by the start of the 1905/06 season, Wilkinson was in place as Commodore and had the club cranked up and flying. Membership just grew and grew year after year and by the outbreak of war in 1914, the North Shore Yacht Club, driven relentlessly by Wilkinson, was far and away the biggest yacht club in New Zealand and ran up to nine and ten divisions on race day (including launch races).

Throughout all this Wilkinson, a printer by trade published a fabulous weekly newspaper, the New Zealand Yachtsman that ran for nine years from 1909 until 1918 covering news from all around New Zealand. The paper became a forum for discussion and development and was a huge influence in the way yachting and yacht clubs developed. Sadly, amid the paper shortages and deprivations of 1918, it bankrupted him. He closed his printing business, resigned his office at the club and went to work for the Auckland Star newspaper where he continued to expound on all things yachting under his famous by-line “Speedwell”, the name of his champion 24-foot linear rater that he had raced with the North Shore Sailing Club in back 1900.

The First World War pretty much stopped everything in its tracks. The club carried on throughout but others such as the RNZYS and Devonport Yacht Club went into recess. Devonport did not re-convene after the War, but in 1923 a new club was formed under the old burgee.

The quest for a suitable clubhouse site had occupied the AGM’s since the turn of the century and despite promises, nothing had been forthcoming. Finally, in 1922, a site was offered on the new reclamation at Mechanics Bay on the Parnell foreshore. At the AGM on September 29 1922, the club accepted the new site and shifted its operations to the southern shore and at the same time, approved a name change to that of Akarana Yacht Club, Akarana being a Maori translation of “Auckland”.

During the 1920’s the sport of yachting, particularly the small centreboard classes, boomed. Through his magazine and newspaper columns Wilkinson had championed the cause of the 14-foot One-Design, a type of cheap small racing yacht proposed by him and designed by Charles Bailey junior, with which to encourage young men into the sport. While there was a lot of sympathy for the concept not much happened until 1920 when the new governor, the war hero Admiral Lord Jellicoe, took and interest and bought one of the class for his own use, which he name Iron Duke (and today is on display in the National Maritime Museum in Auckland).

Suddenly everyone wanted to own a 14-foot One Design and the establishment of a national competition with a fine silver trophy, the Sanders Cup, put up by Auckland silversmiths Walker & Hall Ltd, the 14-foot One-Design, soon to be known as the X-class, really took off, becoming a national phenomenon and garnering more column inches in the daily papers than any other facet of yachting.

The X-class however, was not the only small centre boarder on the harbour, Akarana, and most other clubs also raced the 14-foot Square bilge Y-class, the 14-foot round bilge T-class, the 16-foot S-class, the cat-rigged 11ft 6in trainer Z-class, as well as the four restricted mullet boat classes, H, I, L and N.

In 1922, Akarana Yacht Club requested the establishment of the V-class for the growing numbers of square bilge 18-footers that were being built to designs by Club member George Honour, and these along with the new RNZYS restricted patikis, known as the M-class provided great racing for club members for the next two decades.

The vexing problems of a clubhouse however, dragged on and on, and with successive changes to harbour board and council committees, Akarana’s allotted clubhouse site moved, changed shape and occasionally vanished altogether from the various reclamation plans. Not until 1927 were the details finally hammered out and the clubhouse officially opened on November 21 1928, six years after they had taken that drastic step to move across the harbour.

The club now entered a period of consolidation where it strengthened its involvement with the harbour centreboard fleets, instituted outboard motor racing, and became heavily involved with the members of the NZ Division of the Royal Navy, based at Devonport. From 1930 onwards, a senior naval officer was always elected as the club vice-president.

Back in 1901 the Club had instituted its first Ocean Races, at the time little more than lengthy passage races but it had persevered and ran the early Auckland to Tauranga races through the mid 1920’s. With the establishment of the clubhouse, it now began to actively involve itself with visiting overseas yachtsmen. Each time a visiting yacht arrived in port, a flotilla of Club yachts and launches would be dispatched to meet the visitors outside Tiri and escort them into the harbour where they would be welcomed and made honorary members of the Club for the duration of their stay.

The goodwill this generated paid off handsomely. In 1931 the 130-foot schooner Northern Light arrived in Auckland. She was owned by renowned concert violinist Zlatko Balokovic who later gave concerts on the Auckland Town Hall. As an appreciation of the hospitality from Akarana, Madame Balokovic offered to present a cup for a 100 mile race, part of which must be sailed in the hours of darkness. This trophy, named the Balokovic Cup was first raced for in 1932 and is still the most prestigious event on the Club calendar.

In addition to its prominence among the centreboard fleets, Akarana had by now, assembled a hard core of dedicated blue water yachtsmen. In 1931 F.J. Bennell, the owner of the 42-foot Melbourne ketch Oimara challenged anyone in New Zealand to race him across the Tasman to Sydney. The challenge was accepted by Erling Tambs the Norwegian owner of the 40-foot cutter Teddy, at the time based in Auckland as a guest of the Akarana Yacht Club.

The Teddy was prepared for the race and crewed by members of Akarana. At the last minute, another club yacht the Rangi owned by W.A.E. Leonard, also entered the race. Akarana Yacht Club then put up a trophy, the Trans-Tasman Cup as a perpetual challenge trophy for pleasure yachts racing between Australia and New Zealand.

The race itself generated enormous publicity on both sides of the Tasman. Ocean cruising was hardly a commonplace activity at the time (it was dangerous); let alone an Ocean Race across the Tasman. Just under 14 days after she left Auckland Teddy crept across the finish line in Sydney to take line and handicap and become the inaugural winner of the Trans-Tasman Cup.

The success of the 1931 Trans-Tasman and the subsequent events established the Akarana Yacht club as the founder of blue water racing in New Zealand and the logical promoter of future off-shore Rangi, entered the first Trans-Tasman Race in 1931.

Following on from the White Island race in 1951, the OCD then ran an Auckland to Whangaroa race in addition to a regular string of Trans-Tasman races, and in 1956 the first of many Auckland to Suva races. The Suva race was one of the clubs most popular races, attracting up to 70 entrants at times.

The OCD also sought to promote offshore cruising and promoted Akarana’s role in the movement, by the creation of the Blue Water Medal, to be awarded to the yacht making the most meritorious cruise to or from New Zealand in any year.

Its first recipient was Tony Armit owner of the 28-foot ketch Marco Polo that between 1954 and 1957 became the first New Zealand yacht to make a circumnavigation of the world. Marco Polo’s well-travelled and tattered RAYC burgee now hangs in the clubhouse.

The RAYC ocean races were supplemented by a string of long-distance coastal races that honed the skills needed for the longer ocean races but also had the added advantage of attracting a new breed of fast passage yachts into the club. In time the out-and out cruiser with shortened sail and anti-chafe “baggy-wrinkle” tied to its stays, gave way to a specialised breed of yacht that was equally at home in the ocean as it was charging around the inner gulf on a 130 miler.

The entry of Australia into the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Admirals Cup in 1965 was the catalyst for a similar type of contest between Australia and New Zealand that became known as the Southern Cross Cup and once again was a training ground for New Zealand skippers and crew, as well as the proving ground for the up and coming designers such as Paul Whiting, Bruce Farr, Laurie Davidson and Ron Holland.

The story of RAYC’s role in these national and international offshore races over the next 20 years in Southern Cross, Pan-Am Clipper, and Kenwood cups is far too important to truncate it here and is best left to the comprehensive coverage in the clubs Centenary book “Home of Bluewater Sailing” (still available from the RAYC office). Suffice to say however that RAYC’s role in these events had a pivotal effect on the direction of this arm of the sport and the club can quite justifiably claim to have been a major influence in the success and recognition afforded to New Zealand yachtsmen abroad.

Akarana’s record in these competition is second to none but perhaps the jewel in the crown was the winning the Champagne Mumm Cup for the World Ocean Racing Championship in 1986.

Sadly, the cost of mounting such campaigns eventually became too onerous and the endless chore of fund-raising for yet another international regatta eventually took its toll, as did the continual rule changes and pressure for new boats on a regular basis place unreasonable demands on the pockets of yacht owners. RAYC’s last major offshore event was the 1988 Kenwood Cup, and while Club members would continue to participate as individuals, the mantle for off-shore racing passed to the RNZYS.

As Akarana withdrew from the international stage, the club began to change once more. The old guard moved on and the newer younger members, despite continual prodding from the older members who were still around, were not so interested in all that hairy-chested off-shore stuff.

The social changes, particularly those brought about by 7-day shopping and the changes brought about in modern family life where both parents often worked, encroached on the once sacrosanct “weekend”, and changed the way we did our sailing. The proliferation of small affordable cruisers, both power and sail, with all (or most) of the comforts of home put families out on the water where once it had been a predominantly male domain. Not all these newcomers made a successful entry into the world of sailing, but that aside, most of these newcomers didn’t bother with yacht clubs either, but just did their sailing or cruising as and when it pleased them with absolutely no need or inclination to follow race schedules or summer programmes.

Perhaps the biggest area of growth in the past decade or so has been the coastal cruising market which seems to have an almost evangelical following as the baby boomers give up their jobs and hit the water in the same way that their motoring equivalents, the “grey pilgrims”, follow the open road.

The club’s centenary in 1995 marked an end, as well as a beginning.

Today the great blue water keel yacht races are just part of a glorious past. In front of the clubhouse today you will find, Optimists, Cadets, 420’s, Flying Fifteens, sometimes a 49er, the odd M-class or two and the new International 18-foot Catamaran class. The fact that these are parked on the lawn in front of the club, an absolute no-no in days gone by, is perhaps an indication of how the club has changed,

It is perhaps ironic that today, in its 110^th year and as they prepare to host the World Flying 15 Championships, that Royal Akarana Yacht Club has almost come full circle, having re-invented itself around the centre boarders and small boat fleets that it began with back in 1895.

All that is certain is that change will come again.

Royal Akarana Yacht Club realised a need for a new Club House at the Landing (the current one being 60+ years old) and by unanimous decision create the Akarana Marine Sports Charitable Trust and start planning a new inclusive community Hub.

When looking at the Community around them, RAYC realised that other marine sports slubs (particularly those already operating from the Landing) also needed new club houses, and together they could share not only a facility but also resources like support boats, safety equipment and staff (the ‘shared services’).

Leaving no-one untouched, Covid forces the closure of Royal Akarana Yacht Club and the Hyundai Marine Sports Centre in early 2020.

With a half-finished (and half-funded) building, the Yacht Club and Trust are forced to make difficult decisions after Partners and Grant Funders back out due to the ongoing uncertainty.

Sailing, fundraising and construction all grind to a halt and it’s not until 2022 as NZ  finally emerges from the pandemic, that the Hyundai Marine Sports Centre is finally completed.

By 2023, RAYC is getting back on its feet, the RAYC Academy has become the biggest in New Zealand, Bluewater Racing back on the Calendar and the Club and Trust are gaining a strong reputation for hosting world-class national and international events.