Commissioned by the final Auckland City Council as a legacy project before it was folded into the new Auckland super city, this book is the story of Auckland's growth since early times, and of the changes brought about in Auckland in 1989 after reforms driven by the then Minister of Local Government, Michael Bassett. The book tells of the rapid changes across the Auckland isthmus during the final 21 years of New Zealand's premier local authority. City of Sails draws on many interviews with former councillors, staff and observers, and it carries many contemporary media comments. The splendid resources of Auckland Council's Archives were widely used, including confidential material from the time. The book contains many photographs, and it lists all senior officers, mayors, councillors and community board members between 1989-2010. It completes the sequence of books about the Auckland City Council written by Dr Graham Bush in the 1970s and 1980s.

City of Sails was launched at the Auckland Town Hall on 13 December 2013 at a function attended by many former staff and councillors. It is distributed by Wheelers' Books.