Issue date
The Maritime Museum have unveiled a couple of new features, just in time for the America's Cup.
The Blue Water, Black Magic gallery has undergone a revamp and give visitors an insight into the stories that steered the rise of our yachting nation.
Visitors can design their own high-performance yacht (virtually) and survey decades of advancements in boating design, with real yachts, including an old Emirates Team New Zealand boat, on display.
There are also displays on Sir Peter Blake's environmental work, a look back on New Zealand's success in Olympic sailing and world championships and a section on changes through the years of the Ocean Race.
You can even sniff a container of pine tar, which when combined with rope is an old-school waterproofing material, once stuffed between wooden planks in Auckland shipyards when kauri rather than carbon fibre reigned in cutting-edge boat construction and yacht racing.
The museum also conduct 45-minute guided tours of the America's Cup gallery on Fridays and Saturdays which highlight Aotearoa’s domestic and international yacht racing history, through stories of nineteenth-century boatbuilding on the shores of the Waitematā, the suburban backyard boat construction of the 1960s, and design and engineering innovations of today.
Entry to the Maritime Museum is free for Auckland residents with proof of address and between $10 and $20 for non-Auckland residents.
For more, head to: https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/exhibitions/blue-water-black-magic
