Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Regular Friday morning coffee breaks at the Sulphur Point Marina provide a non-stop panorama from the shore, which looks directly down the harbour entrance.

From big and small craft leaving the marina, the vehicular ferry travelling to and from Matakana Island, pleasure fishing bobbing up and down in the harbour entrance, and large freighters coming and going from distant shores, there is plenty to entertain the casual observer.

Sitting in a prime position with million dollar views, is the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat headquarters, with origins that date back well over a century.

Sailing for pleasure in Tauranga harbour, stretches back to the first recorded regatta on the harbour, on the 17th March 1875. This places sailing as one of the earliest sports to emerge in the region, being predated only by cricket and horse racing.

The Tauranga Yachting and Powerboat Club was established after a meeting in 1920 where over 100 members signed up for the first season.

The 1920's saw the emergence of small (motorised) launches with the new club accommodating both yachts and powered craft.

In 1924, the TYPC applied to the Harbour Board to build a clubhouse, inside the curve, where the newly commissioned Matapihi railway bridge touched down.

A second story was added in the 1950's, before the TYPC entered into negotiations with the Harbour Board in the late 1970's, to relocate their headquarters to the proposed Sulphur Point Marina.

Opened in November 1983, the clubrooms are home to windsurfers, kite surfing, foiling sailors, dinghy sailing, centreboarders, trailer sailers, multihulls and keelboats, that race through the nearby waters.

Two members born nearly a century apart, stand astride the list of honour of the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club.

Harry Highet was born in 1892 and designed the P class Yacht in 1923. The P Class (Primer) was created for youngsters to sail, being easily rightable and unsinkable.

Shifting to Tauranga, Highet was instrumental in establishing a fleet of the "seven footers", with up to ten P Class racing every weekend from the late 1920's.

The Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club has become the spiritual home of the P Class yachts. The national P Class rules are administered by the TYPC, and the premier P Class event each season at the national championships, is the Tauranga Cup.

Nearly every Kiwi yachting legend, from Sir Peter Blake, Chris Dickson, Dean Barker, Jo Aleh to Peter Burling, have started their yachting pathway in the humble P Class.

Born and bred in Tauranga, Peter Burling first hit the headlines as a 13 year old in finishing second at the P Class nationals.

A fifteen year old Burling, won the World 420 title with Carl Evans in 2006, returning the following year to take home back to back world titles.

It doesn't get any better than Olympic Gold (with Blair Tuke in Rio at the 2016 Olympics) and skipper and helmsman of the America's Cup winning team in 2017, becoming the youngest winning helmsman of the Auld Mug.

Defending the America's Cup, four years later in Auckland, cemented Peter Burling as an absolute maestro, when sail and wind on the water are combined in a competitive environment.

It is hard to comprehend, at just 32 years of age, that Peter Burling could completely rewrite yachting history, to become one of the sports GOAT's (greatest of all time) some time in the future.