Race Committee
Ron Scott
Chairman
Ron is a retired dairy farmer, having farmed in the Okato district for many years. In that time he served on school boards, a number of local sporting organisations and the Okato Lions Club. He also spent thirteen years on the directorate of a number of Taranaki Dairy Companies. This was followed by two terms as a councilor on the New Plymouth District Council. For over twenty years Ron has been a member of the New Plymouth Yacht Club, having raced a Farr 6000, then a Nolex 25 and now crews on a friends Thompson 6000. He wishes to see this unique Solo-Tasman race run successfully and professionally, and to grow in future years.
Lindsay Wright
Secretary
Lindsay is a professional seaman, ship master and journalist. He has competed in two Sydney – Hobart races, two Newport – Bermuda races (including a line honours win in the maxi yacht Condor), skippered racing yachts, charter yachts and delivery voyages and sailed his own yacht to 80 degrees north among the arctic pack ice. He has rounded Cape Horn twice, under sail and as master under power in RV Braveheart and regularly visits New Zealand’s subantarctic islands under sail. This race would have been his 11th Tasman crossing, but his trimaran, Loose Goose, hit a whale in January and was written off.
Barrie Vivian
Radio/Comms
Barrie is a qualified and highly experienced diesel and electrical engineer and mechanic, having established and operated several companies in the New Plymouth district. Having built from scratch boats, cars and aeroplanes, he is experienced in the practical side of yachting, having sailed and competed in NPYC events for several years. He currently crews during the summer on locally-based yachts, and is a member of the Amateur Aircraft Construction Association, and participate in amateur radio circles. In the past, he has served the Fitzroy Primary School committee and the New Plymouth Boys High School board of trustees. Barrie sees the Solo Tasman race as a mainstay of the region’s oceanic events strategy, and would like to see it grow into a more international event in the future.
Harley Watts
Inspector
Hartley built his own 46’ yacht Return and sailed to Australia in her with his family to cruise the Great Barrier Reef and Australian Eastern Seaboard. He holds a Commercial launchmasters license and often works as skipper for seismic and hydrographic projects off the Taranaki coast. He also works as a builder/handyman and regularly sails to the Malborough Sounds from New Plymouth.
Joe Davison
Inspector
Joe has sailed the Solo Tasman race three times before in boats he has designed and built himself at home in New Plymouth. He has been the Yachting New Zealand yacht inspector in New Plymouth for several years and circumnavigated in Sea Bird after the 1998 Solo Tasman race. He is active in community organisations and keeps a close eye on comings and goings of yachts at Port Taranaki.
Lance Girling Butcher
Media Relations
Lance Girling Butcher, 65, is a long serving Taranaki journalist who has been associated with the solo Tasman Yacht Race since just after its beginnings in the 1960s. He reported the early races and later supported the event as a sponsor. He has met most of the competitors over the years. He is also a keen sailor himself having cruised the west Coast and North Island out of New Plymouth in a 30ft Chico for more than 15 years. He was forced to retire as editor of the Taranaki Daily News more than two years ago when he lost his sight. This has not ended his public life and he was elected to the New Plymouth district Council at the last local body elections.