The America's Cup has lured a 50,000-strong crowd to Auckland's waterfront each day this weekend, while Waitematā Harbour has hosted a huge spectator flotilla of up to 2000 vessels.
Photo: ACE | Studio Borlenghi
Hospitality venues and event organisers are already declaring the event a success.
From late morning each race day, there has been a mass departure of spectator boats from Ōrākei Marina, where manager Jason Snashall runs the show.
"I'd say at least 85, 90 percent of the boats were out on all days. Most evenings after people came back they were all entertaining family and friends on their boats," he said.
"It was just a whole lot of people having a great time at level 1."
Photo: RNZ / Carmina Blewett
They joined a swarm of other launches and yachts bobbing around the perimeter of the course each day, with an atmosphere Snashall compared to Eden Park during the Rugby World Cup.
Event organisers said there were about 1300 spectator boats on the water on Saturday and 1928 on Sunday.
Coastguard Operations Manager Rob McCaw praised them for being "outstandingly well behaved" with just one or two getting too close to the racing course due to a lack of awareness or preparedness, or wanting to push the rules.
He said that was not a bad outcome considering the number of people.
"You've got your small tinnies with a couple of people on board, jetskis with two or three, through to big commercial operators with up to a hundred on board. So easily over 10,000 people, 20,000 people out on the water watching the events over the weekend," he said.
Emirates Team New Zealand head out to race on 14 March Photo: Photosport / Chris Cameron
On dry land, event organisers estimated 50,000 people visited the race village on the waterfront on Saturday, then about 52,000 on Sunday.
Many opted to get there on public transport, with more than 108,000 bus, train and ferry trips taken on Saturday and nearly 83,000 on Sunday.
Auckland Transport said that was about 75 percent of the number of public transport trips taken on the same weekend two years ago, before Covid-19, but a step up from a month ago when buses, trains and ferries were at 60 percent of pre-Covid numbers.
Auckland will not get the $1 billion economy injection it initially hoped for from an event with international tourists - but hospitality operators say fans are still splashing the cash, providing a welcome respite from their Covid shortfalls.
The council dished out $113 million on event-related costs such as building the team base and berths, as well as $100 million upgrading infrastructure on the waterfront.
Swashbucklers restaurant near Westhaven Marina has been fully booked, and manager Justin Green said people were not discouraged when racing was cancelled yesterday. Some were ordering Bluff oysters until 11pm.
"8pm, 8.30pm we got a tidal wave of people. Obviously with our location - a lot of people coming back off the boats, and obviously those that are out on boats are normally groups of 10 to 25 people," he said.
"Every other person seemed to have a Team New Zealand shirt on so everyone's really getting into it and dressing up. Not to mention we had the rugby as well. We got a bit of an overspill from that yesterday."
Green said the restaurant was well stocked and staffed for more fully booked nights ahead.
He said the closer the race results today and tomorrow, the better for the hospitality sector. Today's nailbiting eighth race, which saw Team New Zealand completely reverse Luna Rossa's four-minute lead to bring the score to 5-3, is sure to be a pleaser.
Photo: RNZ / Carmina Blewett
