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Aucklanders have had an early Christmas present from the Mayor in the form of a promise to sting them for a fuel tax. A fuel tax is the rate increase you get when the Mayor wants to demonstrate how very well he is succeeding at keeping his promise to hold rate increases down, which was what the ratepayers voted him into office for.
Nobody is fooled, except perhaps the Mayor, but the grumbling about the rate increase that is a fuel tax and not a rate increase has served a useful purpose for the council by deflecting recent concerns about the number of highly paid council employees who have found business class air travel indispensable for their overseas trips on council business during the past year and who may or may not have had the necessity approved before and not after the ratepayers picked up the tab. Aucklanders travelling on their own business and doing it down the back of the plane would have been chuffed to know that their faithful servants were comfortable up front. We know this is a touchy subject because the council CEO moved quickly to shut down discussion and declined questions. Nothing to see here, and look: Christmas is coming!
The cheerful squabbling over the America’s Cup regatta and the unavoidable up-front costs and the rush to get the necessary infrastructure into place is another welcome distraction from the more usual trials of the festive season. The America’s Cup regatta was always going to be held in Auckland from the exact moment the last regatta was won in Bermuda. Everybody knew that. But before Aucklanders finally concede that it really is going to happen and that they are really looking forward to it they have to go through the ritual of pretending they believe that it is at risk of being held pretty much anywhere else, like Murmansk or even Tauranga, there are plenty of big-spending cities waiting in line with their chequebooks out, if the Auckland City Council does not give Team New Zealand carte blanche to reclaim as much of the harbour and build as much vile view-blocking infrastructure as they think they might need.
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You can mount a Pacific marine antenna anywhere well, pretty much. So far we have not had to concede defeat. Yet. Pacific’s comprehensive range of mounting options complements our world–leading antenna range.
The fold-down mount in the 12 o’clock position above is the one that meets most boaties’ needs. Fully articulated in two 180o arcs and mountable anywhere there is an 81x63mm footprint (the smallest footprint in the business) this glass-filled nylon number with the 316 stainless steel fasteners is the one that does the business for most boaties. Cable entry cover included.
At 6 o’clock is our through-deck mount, also in glass-filled nylon. This neat little accessory installs through a single 16mm hole, comes with a slope adjusting washer and is an economical answer for a cabin top installation where the antenna doesn’t have to fold down.
Then there are the rail mount; glass-filled etc again and much favoured by yachties installing antennas on pushpit rails, and on the left, the deck mount, a neat solution for lighter/ smaller antennas. And wait, there’s more. Mounts, that is. Got an antenna install problem? We’ll sort that for you.
