The Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Race history continues as the 14th race nears a winner.

The race started in 1970 and is the second-oldest continuously-run single-handed ocean race in the world. It is the only race of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Line Honours will be awarded the Sir Francis Chichester Trophy, which arrived in NZ April 1970, gifted by Lady Chichester and has been awarded to the first skipper over the line each race. It is awarded together with the presentation of The Taranaki Newspapers Ltd Trophy, made in 1970 by New Plymouth cabinetmaker, Mr Wally Briggs.

Follow the closing miles of the Ray White New Plymouth Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge on the

YB race tracker or through the race website

Monday evening’s remarks of “Great Sailing, 15kts beam reach” and “Smokin” back up the last two days' race statistics. Spirits are high, distances made good smashed 160nm and speeds crept over 9kts. Tuesday, saw the biggest day of the race for our six skippers, currently speeding towards Southport. The music playlist today; Val Doonican, Bob Marley, and Modern Housework songs?! Great to hear our skipper’s sense of humour and sailing pleasure loud and clear. Out the front and back, Sarau and Crocus were frustrated in light winds Monday until finally at 1500 Crocus started to sail in a southerly wind of 13Kts. Sarau sits in Line Honours position with a DTF of 150nm.
Mid-fleet there has been some leap-frogging and Hullabaloo, Mister Lucky, and Allegresse are converging closer. Mister Lucky and Hullabaloo were close together again Monday (12nm) – visible to each other on AIS and possibly close enough for a radio call. Their progress Tuesday means they might now contest a very close finish with just hours between each other after 10 days of Tasman sailing. Mister Lucky made the greatest distance over the last 24 hours. In his morning schedule, Mark commented “Amazing how dark it still is at 0630 now that we are so far west!”
In the early hours of the Tuesday morning Frontier sailed by Lord Howe Island and is running parallel to the rhumbline at present after a “very boisterous day”.
Crocus and Craig have been enjoying a “wild ride!”, maintaining 8kts in a 20kt SE. He’s expecting to “come up on the rhumbline soon”
Sunday was reported as a ‘shorts and pina colada day’ whilst on Monday with the southerly change out came the ‘Merino and Goretex’.
In Southport, members of the race committee, sponsors Ray White New Plymouth, family, and friends are gathering ready to welcome each skipper over the finish line and into the Superyacht berth at Southport Marina.

Great Speeds as First Yacht reaches Half-Way

Day 5

Friday saw a building breeze from 17-25 Kts, coming from the right direction to enable our skippers to make progress toward Southport. After five days the first boat crossed the halfway milestone. Sailing speeds improved, averaging between 7 & 9Kts, and at lunchtime, Sarau was clicked doing a top speed of 9.2kts. The closeness of the race between the 2nd & 5th positions Friday night was just 36nm.
The skippers reported in:
“Today has been fabulous sailing with the assy (asymmetrical spinnaker) up for 6 hours straight, averaging over 8 knots”
“Lowered main, just yankee, expecting heavy stuff tonight”
“The tack line parted at the end of the prod due to a sharp edge on the Selden fitting, no drama though, the sock brought it all under control and stowed away”
“Now three sail reaching”
“very boisterous sailing, hard cooking tea and eating it”
Alan and Melting Pot arrived back in Mangonui and are safely moored up and resting after a very tiring passage on the helm.

Rocking the Waves

Day 6

Ever wondered what a solo sailor tunes into mid-Tasman? Alister Dickson is rocking the waves to Jimmy Barnes. As conditions calmed Saturday Frontier was filled with Andrè Rieu and then ‘more appropriately some Country music’. She was sailing close reach in 15kts and should reach the halfway mile during Saturday night. Sarau, Hullabaloo, and Mister Lucky are over the hump, now closer to Australia than New Zealand.
Watching the race duration change each day as wind and sea conditions impact the yachts has seen early race durations of 8-9 days extend out to 13-17 days and now drop back down to 12-13 days for the mid-fleet boats. The lead boat skippers are now in for some hard work through Saturday night to keep moving in light winds.

No Wind

Day 7

“No Wind”, “Turning Circles all night”, “Lowered sails at 0000 - they were banging so much”
0700, a new day, Wind! and all boats are moving again. Saturday’s distance made good ranged between 144 and 113 NM. Crocus and Hullabaloo had big days in a good breeze. As the light wind met the boats Sunday’s DMG dropped significantly. Allegresse maintained the best wind, making 98 NM, while those boats furthest North were limited to less than 50 NM. The wind pattern for the next 48 hours looks to split through the fleet again. Sarau is still out front reducing the miles to the finish down to 400nm. Mid-fleet Hullabaloo, Mister Lucky, and Allegresse stand within 8nm of each other to the finish. Loving watching this race and anticipating the next tracker update.

Featuring in this 14th Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht race are four septuagenarians, six previous finishers and two brothers. Malcolm Dickson remains at the front of the fleet with Sarau and has enjoyed a couple of lovely evenings mid-tasman. This is Malcolm’s third Tasman race and his second in his self-designed and built 50’ yacht. Today’s conditions have kept him busy with big light weather sails to maintain a steady speed of 4-5 knots. Alister Dickson, his younger brother is sailing 150nm behind him in Frontier. Frontier was designed and built at home by Alister and although it’s her first time across the Tasman, Alister sailed the race previously in 1998. Close by Frontier, Hullabaloo has sailed into second place under the skilful helm of Jim O’keeffe. Jim's first Solo Tasman race was in 1978, together with Malcolm Dickson. Jim in Yantha finished 15hrs ahead of Malcolm in Spindrift of Nelson. Jim brought the male mould for his Adams 13 and then set about building Hullabaloo to his own sailing style, launching her in 1994. Craig Ansley on Crocus also started his sailing and boat building adventures in his twenties. This is Craig and Crocus's first Solo Tasman race. For the last 12 hours Crocus has been becalmed. Just before dark tonight she caught some wind and has taken off again. I’m looking forward to the schedule from Craig this evening – he always has a story to tell us.
These four skippers have been sailing for 50-60 years so plenty of sea miles and global experiences between them, providing an interesting race for us to watch.
Mister Lucky sits 3rd with a distance to finish of 879nm between Hullababloo (868nm) and Frontier (884nm). Allegresse is a very close 5th with 889nm DTF. What will the morning bring?

72 hours into the Ray White New Plymouth Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge, it is living up to its name. The six remaining entrants have tracked north over the last 24 hours, most now sailing above the rhumb line trying to avoid the hole that is circling towards NZ. Conditions offshore have settled and after reporting a bit of everything yesterday… thunder and lightning, rain then sunshine, skippers enjoyed a lovely evening out there and this morning were feeling dry, fixed and looking forward to a fried breakfast.
Mike Carter has sailed Allegresse back into the fleet, achieving a DMG today of 107nm, compared to those sitting in large swells and very light head winds limiting the DMG to 65nm. Allegresse is the only wooden boat in the race. She is a Bruce Clarke design based on Sir Francis Chichester's Gypsy Moth III. Her elegant lines are reported to promise both sea-kindliness and peace of mind in a design aimed at tackling whatever the sea can throw at her. Over the last few days the Tasman Sea has certainly tested that.
We continue to track Melting Pot as Alan takes her home. We wish them both a safe passage as they head around the Cape and down the east coast.

Click Here to View Pics of Race Start

Photo credit: Stu, Smokeylemon

Ray White New Plymouth Naming Rights Sponsor for 2023

The Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge has been an inspirational link between New Zealand and Australia for more than 50 years, so it’s fitting that our new major sponsor also has Trans-Tasman links.

Ray White New Plymouth has come on board with the naming rights for the next race starting at Easter in 2023. That’s a level of support that the real estate franchise owners, Jane and Carey Simonson, say reflects the reach of the Ray White brand. The brand began and grew in Australia before extending its business across the Tasman to New Zealand and Ray White is now a leading real estate business throughout Australasia.

“We liked the link between New Zealand and Australia,” Jane says. “The challenge event starts here at the New Plymouth Yacht Club, and with the supportive relationship between the Ray White offices in both countries, our sponsorship is a good fit.”

A change in destination for the 14^th race also improves the fit, Jane notes. Instead of Mooloolaba, the race will now finish further along Queensland’s Gold Coast at the Southport Yacht Club. “There’s also a Ray White Marine office there, and a Ray White Marina.”

An association with ocean-going yachts is a new experience for Jane, although Carey can draw upon an earlier career that involved offshore surveying.

 “I really respect the challenge of doing a solo yacht race,” Jane says. “It’s outside anything I could comprehend and I admire their courage.”

Carey has been on a few yachts over the years, and his offshore surveying work gave him a taste of the conditions that the solo sailors might encounter. “I was on a 45m boat in 10m seas for eight or nine hours before we came back to port. It felt like chaos.”

His experiences though were as part of a crew - seriously different to a solo sail. “I do like yachting, but I couldn’t do it.”

The couple have sponsored a variety of community events and organisations through their Ray White business. Jane says they are happy to help. “The reward is being part of the community and we are proud we are able to help fund all those things. There are so many volunteers involved and to help fund their amazing work is the least we can do.”

The solo yacht race sponsorship adds a different aspect. “The solo yachties are inspirational ... there’s a parallel with achieving dreams that people respond to ... whether it’s tackling something challenging like that or developing their dreams for a new home or business.”

Jane and Carey say they are looking forward to being part of the excitement that will be generated by the mass departure of the yachts from Port Taranaki - and also being there at Southport to welcome the first yacht in. 

Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge race director Dianne Holdt and race secretary Annette Lamb welcome the support of their new sponsor.

“Ray White is a relatively new franchise in New Plymouth, giving us both an opportunity to build a lasting relationship,” says Dianne. “Ray White is building its profile in New Plymouth and is already synonymous with community involvement. Their local knowledge and nationwide network backs up the race position in the community.

“We are looking forward to working with the team to promote the race, led by Jane Simonson's infectious passion for the adventure that solo sailors have ahead of them.”

Annette says the race committee is excited that both sides of the Tasman are represented by the real estate firm’s involvement. “Ray White has a high profile and there is a lot of awareness of the brand and support for them.”

It’s also appropriate that a New Plymouth sponsor is behind the event again. The race began in New Plymouth in the late 1960s, a vision of New Plymouth Yacht Club members Howard Vosper, Dennis Lobb and Phillip Goodsell. They planned a race every four years in a similar format to the Observer Singlehanded Trans Atlantic Race from Plymouth in the UK to Newport, Rhode Island in the US and the first Trans-Tasman event took place in 1970.

Local naming rights sponsors over the years have included Fitzroy Yachts and the Daily News. Such support now from Ray White New Plymouth will help carry the race through into its second 50 years, Annette says. “It’s still very popular on the world scene and the international yachting community follows the race. It’s the only solo ocean race in the southern hemisphere.”

Initial plans for the 14^th Solo Tasman event were to see it set off at Easter 2022. But the uncertainty of all the Covid conditions prompted a reassessment of the options. With as much as a year needed by the yacht skippers to plan and prepare for the event, a decision was made to postpone the race until Easter 2023.

The last Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge in 2018 was won by Hamish Dickson in nine days and nine hours. His father Malcolm was 12 hours behind in second place. There are three divisions planned for the 2023 race - First Adventure Monohull, First Adventure Multihull, and IRC (International Rating Certificate), with the Sir Francis Chichester Trophy awarded for Line Honours.