In the early 70’s, catamaran sailing really took off in the Auckland region. HSC hosted the 1970 Paper Tiger National Championships, a regatta that attracted 51 entries!

Cats first appeared on a regular basis at the Club in the 1972/73 season with the initial fleet consisting of a 14’ Scorpion and three of the Ron Given designed, Paper Tigers.

These boats became the nucleus of a group that expanded until a fleet of up to 12 boats were racing weekly after a couple of seasons. inter-club contest was established between the Pupuke Sailing Club and HSC and an event known as the ‘Hapuka Stakes’ developed that led to some close rivalry.

The cat division waned for many years but came back again in the mid nineties and continues to be very strong to this day. As well as a large fleet of Paper Tigers (up to a dozen on a nice day), more exotic boats such as the high-tech Nacra’s are becoming popular too.Howick’s Paper Tiger fleet is now starting to achieve good results at a National level. At the last NZ Champs down in Napier during January, Dave Kennett came 2nd, Dave Hemsley came 9th and Richard Dent, 13th. The two Daves travelled to Melbourne at Easter 2003 to contest the 2003 Paper Tiger Internationals. Dave Kennett came 5th and Dave Hemsley, 13th.

Howick hosted the 23rd International Paper Tiger Regatta in Easter 2004.