Sailing to Tauranga from Auckland in 26 hours has left Tauranga's Steve Glover in high spirits as he came off the water this afternoon.

Steve, his Dad Alan and nine crew sailed in to Sulphur Point in Tauranga just after 12pm on Sabian – a Davidson 38 yacht.

Steve Glover, his Dad Alan and other crew members sailed Sabian in the race in previous years. File photo.

Sabian, along with 31 other yachts, departed from West Haven in Auckland about 10am yesterday.

Speaking to SunLive after the race, Steve says the race was 'brilliant”.

'Everything was awesome. It rocked. It was a brilliant day, brilliant sailing, hardly any holes in the wind. It was awesome.

'We caught a whole lot of weed on our boat through the backups and still didn't manage to get rid of all of it.”

Steve says almost everyone involved in the race is pretty much finished now.

'It was an awesome race, awesome sponsors, everyone should do it.”

History

According to the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club no official history of the race has been written.

A race has been sailed in many of the years since the first known event in 1921.

The early event was known as the Auckland-Tauranga Ocean Race. It is known the Race was also sailed every year from 1921 to 1930.

The Race in these earlier years started on occasions on Christmas Eve. Generally they were sailed over the Christmas break with the finish line off the Strand and timed to coincide with the sailing of the Tauranga Regatta on December 27.

Media interest in keel boat racing was intense in these early years.

The Trophy for many of the early races was the 'Tauranga Gold Cup” which was renamed in 1926 the "Colin Norris Memorial Gold Cup" (now generally known as the 'Gold Cup”).

Colin Norris was secretary of the Tauranga Regatta Committee and the instigator of the Auckland to Tauranga Race.

SunLive will bring you full race results once they are available.