The 92nd annual race for the Lipton Cup had attracted seven entries.

Valeria was the oldest boat registered for the race, designed and built in 1913 by Arch Logan. She took part in that first race in 1922 when owned by James Dickson of Northcote, and won it, entered by the Victoria Cruising Club, whose flag she bore again in the 2013 race. Aboard this year was James Dickson’s son, renowned yachtsman Roy Dickson—and father of Chris Dickson, skipper of five America’s Cup challengers—a testament to the Dickson yachting dynasty as well as to the genius of Logan and the merit of the mullet-boat restrictions that have kept Valeria’s hull competitive. Admittedly, she has a modern high-compression rig, alloy spars and state-of-the-art sails on her century-old hull, but these concessions to modern technology are what have kept the class flourishing and the Lipton Cup a genuine test of yachting skill.
It was evident right from the starter’s gun. Enormous mainsails bent to the breeze, and the mullet boats slipped into the incoming tide, rolling plumes of white foam peeling from their bows.

Tere Kanae won the scramble to the first mark, but Orion soon assumed the lead, followed by Valeria and Tamatea. The course traversed 21 nautical miles of the Waitemata over four hours, including some 20 mark roundings and dozens of spinnaker hoists and drops. And yet Tamatea elbowed her way to the front in the final legs, winning over Orion by just 22 seconds. Valeria, more than half a century older, was barely a minute further back. Three different boats had held the lead at various times, though the four other entrants were behind the leading three in a dying breeze.

The Lipton Cup is one of New Zealand’s oldest sporting trophies still being contested. So what has made the mullet boat such an enduring class, and so important to the foundation of New Zealand’s celebrated marine industry?
The type of fishing craft later called a mullet boat arose from the miscellaneous ‘smacks’ that were used to net the mullet that once abounded in the shallow waters of the Waitemata and the estuaries to the east, usually no further than the mouth of the Wairoa (Clevedon) River. By 1870, a style of boat was emerging, its form fitting its function. Because the Waitemata runs east-west from its mouth in the east, and the prevailing wind is westerly, the boats had to sail efficiently to windward to be able to get back home with a fresh catch in good time.

Grab a copy now for your library.