Boat brief

Seven boats have entered this year’s Two-handed Round New Zealand race, scheduled for a 16 February start in Auckland.

SSANZ

This year’s event is the third edition of what is widely-considered one of the country’s toughest and most challenging races. It was first held in 1990 and again in 2012. To date 13 yachts and 26 sailors have completed this race. So far, no one has completed the race twice.

Organised by the Short-handed Sailing Association of New Zealand (SSANZ), the race comprises four legs, an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of mainland New Zealand. It starts in temperate Auckland, around subtropical Northland, then down through the 40s into the Southern Ocean, before returning via the east coast of New Zealand to Auckland.

LEG 1 – AUCKLAND TO MANGONUI – 160NM

Leg one starts off Westhaven Marina in the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, rounds North Head and out through the Rangitoto Channel heading north past the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Kawau Island and Cape Rodney. Then choose inside or outside the Hen and Chicken Islands, past the Poor Knights, across the Bay of Islands, then inside or outside the Cavalli Islands, before rounding Berghan Point into Doubtless Bay and Mangonui Harbour.

LEG 2 – MANGONUI TO STEWART ISLAND – 920NM

Start off Mangonui Harbour, leave Doubtless Bay and head for North Cape. After rounding both North Cape and Cape Reinga it’s inside or outside of Pandora Bank, then into the Tasman Sea heading SSW. The weather will change and it’s getting colder. The transition from the west coast of the North Island to the west coast of the South Island will always be tricky, even though you may be about 200nm offshore. Down past Fiordland heading for Puysegur Point, the roughest cape in New Zealand, where the wind blows either a storm or a gale 300-plus days per year. Then it is through Foveaux Straight to finish in Half Moon Bay, Stewart Island. Time for a rest!

LEG 3 – STEWART ISLAND TO NAPIER – 620NM

Leg three starts in Half Moon Bay, heading NE up the South Island past the Otago Peninsula and Banks Peninsula, then the tricky transition from the Kaikoura Coast to the Wairarapa Coast on the North Island. Do you go wide or get sucked into Cook Strait? Around Cape Kidnappers into Hawke Bay to finish off in Napier Harbour. Time for a wine tour.

LEG 4 – NAPIER TO AUCKLAND – 370NM

Leg four is the home stretch. Start off in Napier Harbour heading for Portland Island, past Bull Rock and north to East Cape, then across to Cape Runaway and into the Bay of Plenty. Get through the Colville Channel and past Channel Island to the choice of Motuihe Channel or Rangitoto Channel, and up to the finish off Westhaven.