Three years after celebrating its 20th edition, Bay of Islands Sailing Week remains one of New Zealand's most compelling sailing regattas, its character shaped by decades of accumulated loyalty, the steady arrival of fresh faces, and a culture that values camaraderie as highly as competition.
The event first took to the water in 2003, and over the two-plus decades since has grown into something the late Peter Montgomery described as "the best big boat regatta in New Zealand." That reputation, earned through strong race management, honest competition, and a social scene that outlasts every sunset, was on full display at the 20th edition in January 2023, and the years since have done nothing to dim it.
What makes Bay of Islands Sailing Week unusual among regattas of its age is the thread of continuity running through its fleet. A number of skippers and boats that featured in the very first results sheet were back on the water for the 2023 event. Some have raced every single edition; a handful even returned aboard the same yachts they campaigned in 2003, a kind of loyalty that says more about an event's culture than any trophy cabinet could.
Few embody that loyalty more vividly than Opua Cruising Club member Cees Romeyn, who has competed in every edition of Bay of Islands Sailing Week since the beginning. Romeyn sails the Whiting 29 Nexus, and his recollections of those early years come with a self-deprecating honesty that has made him something of a legend in the Bay.
"I went the wrong way," he recalled of his first regatta. "In one of the races everyone started and they were all coming towards me. I came from the other way."
His results have improved considerably since that debut. From the back of the fleet in 2003, he worked his way to fourth on PHRF in Island Racing Division D at the 2025 regatta, all at the age of 83. He has already entered for 2026, this time in Island Racing Division 3, showing no sign of stepping away from the event any time soon.
Sailing in that same division are another pair of long-standing regulars, Kay and Nev Campbell, who campaign their Atkinson 40 Quantum with the kind of easy familiarity that only years of racing the same waters can produce. One suspects that Romeyn and the Campbells have shared more than a few jugs over the years, swapping stories of races won, lost, and thoroughly confused.
The fleet is not simply a collection of veterans, however. In recent years a wave of younger crews has joined the regatta, bringing sharper competitive edges and fresh perspectives to racing that has long prided itself on depth. Founders Nina and Tony Kiff, who were instrumental in establishing the event's identity during its earliest years, are no longer on the water themselves, but the foundations they built have proven durable. The committee and the returning crews now carry that work forward, each year adding another layer to what has become one of the country's most distinctive sailing occasions.
The mix of old hands and newer arrivals, of hard-won experience sitting comfortably alongside fresh ambition, gives Bay of Islands Sailing Week its particular atmosphere. The racing is taken seriously. So is the time spent ashore. Neither element has been sacrificed for the other, and that balance, difficult to manufacture and easy to lose, has held for more than two decades.
Bay of Islands Sailing Week has not endured by remaining unchanged. It has endured by evolving thoughtfully, welcoming the next generation without discarding what made it worthwhile in the first place, and giving sailors, from Romeyn in Nexus to the newest crew on the startline, a genuine reason to come back.
