Candidate sailing into the public eye

Mayoral hopeful takes novel approach

It’s creating a lot of comment and it’s something different to the normal.

One local body election candidate has cottoned on to the fact that boaters are voters. Western Bay of Plenty mayoral hopeful Mark Boyle has found a novel way of encouraging with signs fixed to a boat in O¯ mokoroa Harbour.

The floating hoarding came about after he and former Te Puke Borough and Western Bay Mayor Michael Pittar, who is helping Mark with his campaign, were visiting Brendan Cooney in O¯ mokoroa.

Michael said as they were sitting, he spotted a boat in the garden and asked who owned it. Brendan said he did.

“I said, ‘you’ve just lost it’,” says Michael. “He said ‘what do you mean?’, and I said ‘we’re going to put some signs on it’.”

The boat was fitted with the signs and moored close to the water’s edge where it floats around at high tide, and sites on the mud flats when the tide is out.

“It’s creating a lot of comment and it’s something different to the normal, and it shows a little bit of initiative,” says Michael.

Mark says it’s a novel idea and the boat has become a talking point.

Michael Pittar