She has come close to the Three Kings before. Rowan had her entered in 2024, but COVID moved through the crew in the week before the start. By Tuesday, two days out, they pulled the pin. “We’ve come to conclude it was a bad race in any case,” he says.
This time they are going. Six crew, two to three days, 500 nautical miles.
Lydia Boyd, who raced the 2026 Round North Island with Rowan two-handed, is back on board, along with Ben Roff, Nick, Alla and Emily. Lydia, Ben and Nick are all under 22. Alla and Emily are in their early 30s. Rowan is early 50s. Three of the six are women. “It’s just the way it’s happened,” says Rowan. “It’s not through trying.”
The young ones go forward. Ben Roff comes straight off Kick, which finished third overall PHRF in the 2026 Round North Island, and all six have two-handed experience from other campaigns.
Rowan is running a watch system he has not tried before at sea. Rather than conventional blocks of hours on and off, the crew rotates one at a time each hour, keeping three people on deck continuously without a hard changeover. “We’ve come up with it and decided to give it a go,” he says. Decisions follow the same philosophy. “It’s a democracy, until it doesn’t need to be.”
Carpe Diem finished 14th overall PHRF in the 2026 Round North Island across a 26-boat fleet. She was designed from the outset with two-handed offshore sailing in mind, the masthead rig keeping headsails clear of the mast and loads manageable for a small crew. Rowan puts her comfortable speed at nine to ten knots, stretching to ten or eleven reaching with the A5. His personal best on the boat is 18 knots. The previous owner Mark reportedly hit 22 or 23 knots coming home from Fiji and broke nearly everything on that passage.
As the shortest hull in the fleet, Carpe Diem will not be racing Equilibrium to the finish line. As a displacement hull she will not plane, and needs flat water to surf. “We’re likely to be just racing ourselves,” says Rowan, “and pushing ourselves as hard as we can.”
Lydia works on historic America’s Cup boats for Explore and is still finishing her degree. She wants more offshore sailing, possibly overseas. Nothing is planned yet. For now, Thursday morning at the Waitemata is the whole plan.
