LYTTELTON YACHTING IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY
Organised yachting had started in Lyttelton very early. By 1851 the Lyttelton Regatta Committee was holding events for rowing and sailing and by the time of the Sinclairs it had become a successful public spectacle on New Year’s Day with thousands arriving by train from Christchurch.
There was significantly valuable prize money and a big volume of betting on the side, particularly on the Champion Trading Race between the big vessels trading around the New Zealand coast and the rowing races. Akaroa, too, had a well-established annual regatta.
By the early 1880s the yacht racing at the Lyttelton Regatta was losing its appeal to the public. The major yachts of the period were either past their prime or second-rate.
Lyttelton’s old First Class cracks had been Surprise of 1863, Annie Ogle, a 40ft keel yacht built in Sydney and imported in 1864 and Fleetwing, built by Chas. Bailey in Auckland in 1872 and brought down to beat Annie Ogle in 1875. Out-of-town yachts like Xarifa, Thetis and Isca from Wellington or Zephyr and Spray from Dunedin found it worthwhile to sail to Lyttelton and have their own way for the prizemoney of £50.
By the early 1880s interest in the yacht and open boat events at both Lyttelton and Akaroa was diminishing. That was about to change with a resurgence in interest in yachting and many new builds, sparked in large part by the excitement of the America’s Cup racing in New York.
In February 1886 the Canterbury Yacht Club was formed and had its first race on 31st March. The temperature in Lyttelton was rising.