After Hale: Mercury Bay Boating Club faces challenging future to not stay afloat

Sandbags protect the newly relocated Mercury Bay Boating Club.

Mercury Bay Boating Club Commodore Jonathan Kline has been at the centre of efforts to relocate the famed Whitianga club after it was left teetering on the water’s edge as large swells and surging tides caused by ex-cyclone Hale in January eroded metres of foreshore.

Though the club building was moved 25 metres inland a fortnight ago, it still faces an uncertain future – and huge costs – to find a new permanent location.

Kline said the past few weeks for Mercury Bay Boating Club have been “a rollercoaster of emotions – from watching the foreshore erode far quicker than I ever thought possible and realising my worst fear might occur in the course of a tide cycle or two, to the support from the community to save the building”.

Cyclone Hale and the efforts to save the club have thrust Kline into the public limelight via national media coverage. Kline said he “decided early on to take on the communications role as events unfolded, as I had so many incredible people - our supporters and committee - stepping up in other areas and putting out the fires that we needed to put out. To the local community, this club is important, and I felt our story was worth telling.”

He said the most important lessons to take from the unprecedented weather event are to “believe in your team, to ask for help, and to know that the larger goal, in this case keeping this community asset alive, is worthwhile”.

“Fellow volunteer coach Tara Corley used the expression – I think it may be a Kiwi saying - that when you’re eating an elephant, you must do it one mouthful at a time. That’s what it’s felt like at times, like trying to get through an elephant!”

Jonathan Kline is the Commodore of Mercury Bay Boating Club.

Kline is originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but was born in Iran, raised in South America and lived in Turkey and the Philippines. He got into sailing after settling in America.

“We ended up in a condominium in Fort Lauderdale. Next door was a hotel – a typical mid-1970s resort with a sailboat rental concession. There weren’t many kids my age and I befriended an old man who was in charge of the boats. My first job was learning to rake seaweed and setting up umbrellas and chairs. When I was 11 or 12, he finally taught me how to rig and sail Hobie Cats. They’re still my boat of choice.

“I’ve been sailing professionally for more than 30 years, and the sea still plays a large part in my life. It’s the best place to find yourself, to teach, and to learn. These days I’m a father and a husband first, but when I have time off, I still go sailing.

“I sailed to New Zealand several times in my early days and on one trip I met a wonderful Kiwi woman and she sailed away with me. Alanna and I began a life at sea as yacht crew, working for various owners, and sailing around the world. In 2016, we decided to return to her hometown of Whitianga with our children, who were 4 and 6 years old.

“When we moved to New Zealand, I became a stay-at-home dad because I’d been at sea for many years and I’d missed quite a bit of my children’s early years. Alanna went to work fulltime with her father at The Lost Spring. I learned how to make a mean breakfast, I’m pretty good at laundry and housekeeping and I tell good sailing stories but I also wanted to give back in the one area I could, so I got involved at the club.”

The future of the building is up in the air – literally. But the club is not the building; it is the members, who are resourceful and resilient. The hardships we face now will give way to a new chapter.”

You can donate to Mercury Bay Boating Club’s relocation efforts, https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/mercury-bay-boating-club-cyclone-relief-fund.