32 Breeze Magazine
Small boat, big ambition By Ivor Wilkins In the middle of winter this year Marc Michel found himself in a company board meeting where the conversation became “pretty unpleasant”. There and then, he decided he had had enough. He resigned the same day and decided to fulfil some goals that had been too long delayed by fulltime employment. The first was to take his wife to Italy for the northern summer. The second was to tackle the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race in his Dehler 30, Niksen. “I decided now was the time to do these things, not in four or five years.” In the spirit of life being about embracing challenges and chasing dreams, he reasons, “You are long time dead.” This will be Michel’s 10th Hobart. All the previous times, not all of which were completed, were on other people’s boats. “I thought there was a certain symmetry in doing the 10th one with my own boat,” he says. At the best of times, the 620-mile race is a formidable challenge. Michel is not making it any easier by taking it on two-handed with a boat that barely creeps over the minimum eligible size.
“We are the first NZ boat to contest the double handed division in the Hobart race. The objectives are to be the best looking 30-footer in the race and the first 30-footer into Hobart, irrespective of ratings,” he says. Michel will be racing with his Niksen co-owner and fellow Squadron member Logan Fraser, who is 20 years his junior. “Logan is a graduate of the Mastercard Youth Training Programme. He had his own boat, C U Later, which he raced two-handed for many years. I used to race against Logan and we always had good battles, so I thought he would be the ideal candidate. “Logan has been a partner in this boat since new (2021). We have done a number of events together including the SSANZ Northern Triangle, the RNZYS Three Kings Race, the Round North Island Race in February and this year’s Coastal Classic.” They finished 3rd in the Coastal Classic double-handed division after suffering a wipe-out in confused conditions and 30-knot winds following the gybe into the Bay of Islands at Cape Brett. “We ended up with the boat lying on its side for a reasonable amount of time and ended up with a broken forestay and the windgear and VHF
