New records set in 40th Coastal Classic – just not the fast kind

RNZYS enjoys year-end BBQ with ETNZ

On a fine early summer evening in December, RNZYS Flag Officers, General Committee members and 330 members joined Emirates Team New Zealand at their new base to mingle and chat and enjoy a year-end BBQ together.

With the revolutionary hydrogen chase boat perched on its cradle on the forecourt and the AC40 newly-repaired following a training accident on the base floor, members were able to get up close and personal with some of the team’s latest innovations.

It has been a busy year for the team with diverse projects and a heavy load on the design group, with full attention now turning towards lifting preparation for the America’s Cup defence in Barcelona in 2024.

Team CEO, Grant Dalton, outlined much of the progress the team has made following its successful defence of the Cup in 2021 and updated members on preparations taking place in Barcelona to host the regatta in two years’ time.

With powerful challengers, backed by the resources and expertise of Formula One teams, lining up to throw everything they have at unseating Emirates Team New Zealand as Cup champions, there were no illusions about the task ahead, but 2022 closed with the defender in good spirits.

Main photo” Hopes of a fast, possibly record-setting, blast were high as the Coastal Classic fleet left Auckland, but the wind gods had other ideas. Below Right: Tony Poolman’s 30-year-old 7m Elliott won overall on handicap.

New records set in the 40th Coastal Classic – just not the fast kind ...

Words and Photos by Ivor Wilkins

With fresh south-westerlies in the forecast, the gun boats in the 40th anniversary running of the PIC Insurance Coastal Classic race would have relished the prospect of a fast run north with a sunset finish in time for cocktails and dinner ashore in Russell.

Hopefully, they provisioned with more than lunchtime sandwiches, however, because it was just short of midnight before the first boats drifted across the finish line. The rest of the 164-boat fleet were left strung out along the coast, with the last official finishers trailing across the line a full 25 hours after the leaders.

The changing conditions not only confounded expectations, but also the established conventions of this 119-mile race, with monohulls pushing the multihulls well down the leader board to dominate line honours while small boats claimed the top handicap prizes.

The promise of a fast sprint up the 119-mile track from Auckland to the Bay of Islands quickly faded as the brisk south-westerly that had spinnakers billowing in the early stages encountered a new easterly breeze halfway up the coast. As the countervailing winds wrestled for supremacy, the fleet leaders stalled in no-man’s land.

After waiting for hours into the night, the markers on the finish boat suddenly had a busy 11 minutes recording the first six finishers, all of which were monohulls: V5 (TP52), Sassinate (Mikayla Plaw’s Melges 40), Wired (Rob Bassett’s TP52), Kia Kaha (Chris Hornell’s TP52), Mayhem (Harry Dodson and Tony Bosnyak’s TP52), and Clockwork (Past Commodore Steve Mair’s Melges 40).

The 2022 result is the first time monohulls have gone so deep in the line-honours order. The first multihulls across the line were Graham Catley’s 18.5m Roger Hill catamaran, Cation, followed by Erle Williams’ Murray Ross-design catamaran, Apache. They were in 7th and 8th place respectively. Multihulls filled all the slots from 7th to 12th on line, with two more in the top-20.

However, it was a close-run thing all the way to the finish. “I wasn’t sure we had won until right at the very end,” says Brian Peterson. After a slow beat from Cape Brett to Tapeka Point in a fading westerly breeze, the final approaches to the line were painfully slow. The tightly-bunched leading group crept forward in the dark at 2-3 knots with the monohulls finally able to eke out an advantage.

Waves of boats continued to cross the line through the early morning hours. A particularly busy hour between 0420 and 0520 saw 63 yachts finishing.

The overall handicap leaders would be found in this group, which

brought the wind up the coast and into the Bay of Islands, avoiding the worst of the calm patches.

Unlike the leaders, this wave of finishers stormed around Cape Brett with a 20-25 knot easterly blasting them towards Russell, although the breeze steadily reduced as they approached the finish.

This is where the race consolidated into a small-boat benefit. The top 10 monohull handicap results all came from Divisions Three, Four and Five comprising yachts under 10.5m LOA, with the top four – Elevation (Tony Poolman’s Elliott 7m), Rocky (Luke Judge’s SR26), Slipstream III (Jed Roberts’ Young 88) and Moving Violation (Finn Topzand’s Elliott 7.9m) – coming from Division Five with boats mostly in the 7-9m size range.

The smaller multihulls also took the top handicap prizes over their larger sisters. The handicap winner was Justin Lee’s Great Barrier Express, Espresso 8.5, followed by Ed Crook’s Exodus and Matt Middleton’s Crazy Train, all three of which are 10m or under.