Gladwell's Line - Last waltz for Olympic sailors at Takapuna Beach?

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 30 Jul 2016 Last week, Yachting New Zealand was one step away from achieving an area of hard stand at the northern end of Takapuna Beach.

That would have been a vital beachhead for High Performance and Olympic sailors, who for almost 50 years have trained from the area without any special facilities.

Instead of making that final push before the Devonport Takapuna Local Board, Yachting NZ made a late decision to decision to pull back from the local Board meeting which, if the members had voted along the line they had previously, should have seen the Auckland Council drafted recommendations passed.

The proposed site was mostly in a unused part of the so-called Camping Ground (older sailors know it as the Takapuna Tourist Court). Not too many people actually camp there, more motorhomes and caravans - some semi-permanent. There's some permanent chalets too. The Tourist Court is run down for various reasons and desperately needs a facelift.

The area that had been earmarked for the sailors and waka ama paddlers was one that has been used by the waka ama group for many years. With a bit of re-stacking, digging out of a bank and expansion along the wall of the street it could have formed a hard stand area, without being unsightly, and without too much deduction of space from the existing camp ground and reserve.

The push to get high-performance sailing facilities established at Takapuna has been running since 2010, when the National Ocean Water Sports Centre was proposed as the third leg of a national sports facilities package which expanded the Millennium Centre in the East Coast Bays, established a Cycling facility at Karapiro and followed the establishment of a Rowing facility also at Karapiro.

The first NOWSC proposal was ambitious and creative, but fell by the wayside when some felt that building on the camping ground/northern reserve was a better option - if politically more fraught.

A strident local group quickly obliged by running a blitzkrieg campaign in social media against the proposal.

Some sense seemed to have prevailed with a second proposal, for hard stand only, which would have used less than 10% of the reserve space, and most of that would have come from an area not used at all by the so-called campers.

But even that was not enough for the anti-group who would not give away even a few marbles out of their large bag in the interests of reaching a compromise.

At a local Board meeting last week, Yachting New Zealand pulled the pin on their application to use less than the 10% of the Reserve that had been previously allocated - with the total space required being 1050 sq Metres - shared between the two groups - 700sq metres for the sailors and 350sq metres for waka ama. The total reserve is listed at 16,338sq metres.

The reasons for YNZ's sudden pull back are not entirely clear, but it was probably a sound move given coming local body elections, and being accused of trying to get the controversial scheme through one of the last meetings of the local Board.

Further along Takapuna Beach, at the other end of another Council owned reserve, an area from the road to the beach has been selected as the site for a new children's playground. It contains some fairly significant structures. The reserve was formerly a grassed area, with great views across Takapuna Beach and the Rangitoto Channel. It was a favourite picnic spot in the summer. No more.

That scheme took just two years to get through planning and construction - with obviously some interesting discussions over protected trees in the area. Yachting NZ had been battling for six years up the other end of the beach and with a much less intrusive scheme, and still have nothing to show for it.

That same group that was so strident against the sailors, was silent against the new playground.

The only conclusion that can be reached is that they are not at all concerned with the preservation of Reserves, but more against Yachting New Zealand and all things sailing generally. Sure some of the antis claim they are sailors - mostly past, but they have little appreciation of what is required in high performance sailing.

Having sat through many meetings and made the odd submission or two, the tenor of the anti-group has always been against sailing having any sort of a foothold in the area.

To their chagrin they missed the boat in getting the construction stopped of the Takapuna Boating Club facility - missing a objection deadline by a few weeks.

It is not as if Yachting New Zealand is trying to establish a new use in the area. It has been used by international and Olympic sailors for almost 50 years.

Back then the Reserve of which the pressure group are so protective didn't exist. The whole area was taken by the camping ground and buildings - one of which was a large administrative office inhabited by a very gruff Melbournian whose mission in life was to keep sailors and others outside the gate - even for a toilet stop.

The public forum section of the Local Board meeting last Tuesday had its balloon deflated by the surprise move from Yachting NZ. But even with their soapbox kicked so unceremoniously from under them, several still insisted on speaking going over the same old ground and hackneyed arguments which don't stand up to any real scrutiny, and are rarely backed up with fact or photo.

Leaving the meeting it seemed like deja-vu. Back in 2000 a group of us tried to get a rowing club facility established in Bayswater, having tired of the 40-60 minute drive each way to Mercer several times a week to take young rowers down for training.

After a modest amount of pleading we were given the use of Lidgards former boat shed, but only for three months until the end of the rowing season as we were told at the time 'it will be required for the construction of the Bayswater Transport hub'. Fifteen years later the rowing club is still in the same dilapidated shed, the transport hub is yet to start, and a generation of rowing parents have been run ragged appearing at hearings, exploring options and more trying to find a permanent home on the several reserves that exist in the area.

Over the last week or two, there has been plenty of public comment about young people wandering through parks and other areas playing Pokemon Go. The obvious catch-cry is 'why aren't they in sport'.

Try getting a sporting facility established on the North Shore - even in the disused part of a reserve to park a few boats on beach trolleys - and you have your answer.

With Council elections coming up maybe rather than congratulating some of the Board for fighting for retention of a camping ground but rather ask why they are so anti-sailing and anti-sport, and how do they justify their position?

And then vote accordingly.