Sailors from around the world are preparing for SailGP in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
Sailors from around the world are in Auckland's harbour making their final preparations for the weekend's grand prix.
SailGP is expected to draw more than 10,000 visitors to the City of Sails, welcome news for local businesses looking for a windfall.
Though racing would not begin until Saturday, the event was already drawing crowds this week.
"I just can't wait for it to get underway," Auckland resident Rob said.
"It's like [the] next stage of America's Cup sort of thing, I reckon," Bruce from Australia said.
"It's big. It's got to be good for Auckland, surely."
Jane had flown in from Nelson to see country singer Luke Combs perform at Eden Park.
"Obviously this is just a bonus, isn't it?" she said.
"So we've just come down to have a look."
With boats moored at the Wynyard Quarter, onlookers said the harbour felt livelier than ever.
"It's good to see it. I mean, today it's really raised the whole area around here, made it much more interesting," one Aucklander said.
Onlookers say the harbour feels livelier than ever. Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
"We haven't been here for a few years, and it's changed dramatically," Gaylene, who was visiting from Australia, said.
"We were here about eight years ago. It's developed quite a lot since then."
"I was looking what it was in the past, and just seeing what you did is very unbelievable," Canadian tourist Jacques said.
That praise was good news for the city's economic agency, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, which had invested heavily in making sure the City of Sails lived up to its name.
"As Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, we invested just over a million dollars in the event itself," head of major events Michelle Hooper said.
"It's absolutely money well spent when it comes to major events, when you think of the economic benefit that it's generating, the returns to the local businesses down here, the sense of pride for Kiwis. The economic benefit for this is forecast to be around $5.2 million."
Months of preparation had gone into making sure the event ran smoothly, Harbourmaster Andrew Hayton said.
"[We planned] exactly where the racecourse is going to be, what the exclusion zone will look like, how much room the boats need to actually race in, where the spectator areas are going to be, and how we can best minimise disruption to harbour traffic.
"We've been planning for this event for months, and even years."
Baduzzi owner Michael Dearth is hoping the event will bring fans to local restaurants. Photo: RNZ / Isra'a Emhail
Hooper expected the races to draw crowds in the tens of thousands.
"We're expecting around 25,000 attendees. We're expecting quite a large turnout of the public as well, coming down to the Viaduct Harbour area and waterfront area to make the most of the spectacle.
"For those that just want to come down and check it out, there's also going to be a big screen with live racing on in the Viaduct Harbour itself, just at the Eastern Viaduct."
After watching the races, Baduzzi restaurant owner Michael Dearth hoped fans would stop by for dinner.
"This has been on our calendar all year. We've been pretty fired up about this," he said.
"As you know, we've had a tough year. The bridge that connects the Wynyard Quarter to the Viaduct has been out for about a year. We've been a little island here, so all the businesses here in the Wynyard Quarter are really stoked to have people descend upon us."
He had all hands on deck.
"We're prepping up. We have extra kegs of Peroni. The chefs are doing all their mise en place," he said.
"One of our popular dishes are some prawns wrapped with pancetta on a charcoal barbecue, so we're wrapping away."
After a practice run on Friday afternoon, the first race was set to begin at 4pm on Saturday.
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