A pewter mug bought for 50 cents at a school sale has been found to be a Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat club treasure. Tauranga coastguard president Chris Clark bought the mug last year at the Steiner school fair.
'I only recently dug it out and put it through the dishwasher,” says Chris.

Chris and Roger with the historic mug.

He was then able to read the inscription on the side of the half pint tankard, which said, 'Tauranga Regatta 1936, The launch race, ‘Eros'.”
The first Tauranga regatta was organised on March 17 1875, with residents and militia racing craft of all types from boats 10 tons and over to canoes.
The Tauranga Regatta Club was formed in 1881 and it ran regattas on St Patrick's Day.
It was out of those annual regattas that interested parties got together, and in 1920 formed the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club.
'The Tauranga Yacht Club came out of the regattas,” says yacht club commodore Roger Clark.
'The same people who organised the regattas formed the yacht and power boat club, and the yacht club then ran the regattas. It would have been one of the very early ones – for us it's a treasure.”
Chris took the tankard along to the recent yacht club opening day, where it was received with great enthusiasm.
Roger doesn't yet know how the tankard will be displayed, or if it will continue its life as a racing prize.
'We will have to have a committee discussion,” says Roger.
'What we would like to know is if anybody has any photos or knows any history of the Eros launch.”
He can be contacted at either by phone or email [email protected].