Labour Weekend Thank You!

What a great 100th anniversary kick off it was. The Club was humming the whole weekend with over 100 people registering their attendance on each of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, and over 200 on Monday for opening day.

Reunions and tall tales started on Friday evening with film footage and dinner night on Friday evening well before the formal story telling on Sunday at Old Salts. Seeing so many people turn up on Saturday for racing even though it was a dodgy weather forecast for the Classic Boat race was a great buzz – we couldn’t have had a weekend long celebration without some traditional Wellington wind!. Combining Old Salts and the Classic Race worked out really well and some great sailing was to be seen.

The weather couldn’t have been better for Opening Day with all the celebrations being held outside. There were so many highlights throughout the weekend, it is hard to pick some but hearing Spaggs run a kangaroo court after the Classic Race and seeing almost 40 kids out on the water have to be two of them.

None of this could have happened without the help of over 50 volunteers, too many to name everyone, but a huge thank you to all of you. While we can’t name everyone, there are two teams that we must thank for their dedicated support on all four days.

We also need recognise the huge support we received from Moore Wilson’s (also celebrating their 100th anniversary) our sponsors for the weekend who provided much of the food along with Elysian Foods who provided the dips and olives available on Sunday and Monday lunch.

As well as all these events, there was a fascinating display of memorabilia upstairs. Yet again, a large number of people contributed items, but a huge thanks needs to go to Gavin Pascoe who curated this with assistance and advice from Juliet Cooke, Phillipa Durkin and Gary Wagstaff. Through Gavin’s contacts, we also need to thank the following organisations for their help: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Wellington Classic Yacht Trust Museums Wellington Alexander Turnbull Library Archives New Zealand Nzonscreen Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club Heretaunga Boating Club Takapuna Boating Club All this organisation would not have been worth it without you the members, so thanks for turning up! Cheers Jane & the Labour Weekend Organising Committee