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Hero image for Spindrift

Spindrift

Short Film (Full Length) – 1968

Auckland is known as the City of Sails and each Anniversary Day, the Waitemata Harbour hosts the world’s largest one-day regatta. The culture of yachting on the Hauraki Gulf gets full-blown homage in this 1968 National Film Unit film. The short documentary sets up sailing as a way to escape the bustle of the city, and follows the tacks and jibes of a race — "The hum of straining rigging, the sting of flying spray on the lips … the feeling that only a yachtie knows as his craft lifts and surges." The narration is by Tim Eliott, who had recently helped found Wellington's Downstage Theatre. 

To Auckland yachties the waters of the Hauraki Gulf are as moody as any woman, and just as fascinating: always changing, never the same.
– Narrator Tim Eliott

Key Cast & Crew

Generic Profile image for Michael G Ryan

Michael G Ryan

Director, Writer, Editor

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Tim Eliott

Narrator

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Lynton Diggle

Camera

Profile image for Brian Cross

Brian Cross

Camera

Generic Profile image for Kit Rollings

Kit Rollings

Sound

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Kell Fowler

Camera

See all 10 credits

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