Boat show cancelled

The Antique & Classic Boat Show, held annually at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park, is the latest event to fall victim to the Red Covid-19 alert setting.

Organiser Pete Rainey says with little prospect of the alert level changing in the near future, the difficult decision was made to cancel the 2022 show, which was set for March 5 and 6.

“With a 100 person limit at outdoor events we had no option but to officially cancel the show."

Pete says they typically draw a couple of hundred owners and a crowd of around four-thousand over the two days of the event.

"It’s a real shame for us, for boat enthusiasts, for businesses in St Arnaud and for the local school which runs a food stall at the boat show as their annual fundraiser.”

Pete says it was doubly frustrating as this year the event would have received funding from the Te Tau Ihu Regional Events Fund, administered by the Nelson Regional Development Agency.

This is the second year the boat show has been affected by Covid.

Last year the event could run only on Sunday, after a Covid level change at midnight.

Pete assured boaties the show would be back in 2023, and he encouraged owners to use any covid downtime to make their boats even sleeker and shiner for next year.

For boat owners already registered, full refunds will be made in the next week.