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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Boating

page 48

Boating.

The magnificent stretches of water in the Upper and Lower Harbours have from the earliest days of the settlement encouraged the inhabitants of Dunedin and Port Chalmers to take an interest in boating. The Dunedin Amateur Boating Club, founded in 1891, is one of the most flourishing though by no means the oldest club in Otago, with assets of over £1,600 in value, and an active membership of over 100 for 1902. The other Dunedin clubs are the Otago Boating Club and the North End Club. Port Chalmers is the headquarters of two flourishing clubs, the Port Chalmers Boating Club, and the Queen's Drive Boating Club; but the interest of Otago in boating is not confined to Dunedin. Oamaru has an amateur rowing club of its own; and the ports of Southland keep up the traditional interest in the sea-boating which may be supposed to have been inspired in the first place by the whalers who were the pioneers of settlement on that storm-beaten coast. Riverton has two clubs, the Riverton Boating Club and the Kia Ora; Invercargill has two, the Invercargill and the Railway Boating Club, While the Awarua Club has its headquarters on the Bluff Harbour. All these clubs are affiliated to the Otago Rowing Association, which is located in Dunedin, and supervises the provincial regattas held annually at Port Chalmers, Invercargill, Waihola and elsewhere. Dunedin is thus the centre of the rowing interests of Otago, and the success of the Otago Club in many interprovincial contest is a proof of the enthusiasm with which this form of athletics is supported.

As to sailing, Dunedin Harbour is distinctly unsafe for yachting, by reason of the sudden squalls that sweep over it; and the Otago coast is too exposed and stormy to encourage deep sea sailing for amusement.