Two New Zealand yachts are confirmed in the 81st Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, departing Sydney on Boxing Day. Ākonga and Vixen Racing represent very different stories, but both carry unfinished business with one of offshore sailing’s most demanding tests.
Vixen Racing: first international, first female-skippered
Sharon Ferris-Choat’s Verdier 40 was among the first entries through the door when registrations opened in late May, making Vixen Racing not only the first international entry in the 2026 race but the first female-skippered entry as well. The Bay of Islands Yacht Club entry was well placed in last year’s 80th edition until night two, when a massive wave left a crew member with rib injuries, forcing retirement from the 628-nautical-mile course.
“We can’t wait to be on the start line on Boxing Day,” Ferris-Choat said. “It’s unfinished business. We were doing so well last year.”
Right now, Ferris-Choat is mid-Tasman in the 2026 Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge, and the conditions are giving her a preview of what December may hold. “This is on par with any Sydney to Hobart that I’ve done at the moment,” she reported this morning from Vixen Racing, with 37 knots on the dial and a lightning storm at her back. “Just taking one mile at a time.”
Ferris-Choat, a two-time Olympian and holder of several world sailing speed records, is targeting an all-female crew of up to eight for the Hobart. Four are confirmed, three more are on a waitlist through the Vixen Racing Academy, and sponsorship is being sought to close the roster. After arriving in Southport and sailing south to Sydney, the campaign builds through the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore, starting with the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race before working through the Queensland circuit and back to Sydney in time for the December 26 start. Ferris-Choat does not plan to return Vixen to New Zealand between August and the start.
Ākonga: the long road back
Auckland-based Nick Roberts is returning to the Sydney Hobart after a gap of more than two decades, this time as owner and skipper of his Dehler 41, Ākonga. His first start came at 17, only weeks out of school. Nine races followed. The last was in 2004.
“This campaign is about building toward something that’s been a long-standing personal goal,” Roberts says. “To complete my tenth Sydney to Hobart, and to do it as owner and skipper.”
The preparation has been deliberate, spanning five races across New Zealand and Australia: the Three Kings Race, the Coastal Classic, the Cabbage Tree Island Race, the Bird Island Race, and finally the Hobart itself. Since acquiring the Judel/Vrolijk-designed cruiser-racer in 2022, Roberts has logged a solo passage through Fiji and New Caledonia, first in the Two-Handed Division of the Three Kings Race in 2024, and extensive short-handed offshore miles across multiple events. The crew includes long-time two-handed partner Max Livingstone, navigator Andrew Hall of Sail IQ, and bowman Ryan Mills, stepping into his first Sydney Hobart.
Roberts is clear-eyed about what the race demands. “At 3am in Bass Strait, you’re not thinking about results. You’re thinking about the next wave, the next decision, and looking after your crew.” Success, as he defines it, is crossing the finish line proud of how the team sailed, not a placing.
Twenty years on: Nick Roberts returns to chase his 10th Sydney to Hobart
The field
It is early days yet, with entries closing towards the end of October. The 2026 entry list already features 24 yachts, with Ākonga and Vixen Racing among the first confirmed. It is worth noting what is absent as much as what is present: none of last year’s top five IRC finishers have yet entered, and of the top five PHS boats from 2025, only Cyan Moon returns. Neither of the Maritimo yachts has entered to date.
Palm Beach XI returns to take on the 2025 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
That leaves the field open. Palm Beach XI is the obvious headline act so far, and the history behind the boat is considerable. The former Wild Oats XI, holder of nine Line Honours victories, returns in 2026 with skipper Mark Richards deploying the new C-foil configuration for the first time after running conservatively in the 80th edition. Wild Thing 100‘s Grant Wharington has unfinished business of his own after rigging damage ended his race on the first night in 2025. The Philippines entry Centennial 5, a Reichel/Pugh 75 with Line Honours and IRC victories at the Rolex China Sea Race on its record, brings serious international pedigree.
Further back in the fleet, the TP52 Smuggler is a perennial handicap threat if conditions suit the mid-size boats, and Chutzpah‘s Bruce Taylor is a fixture of Hobart folklore, holding the unusual distinction of more divisional wins than almost anyone without ever taking the overall Tattersall Cup.
The two New Zealand boats sit at very different points in the fleet. Vixen Racing‘s Verdier 40 is a purpose-built offshore racer, closer in character to the GP42 and TP52 end of the IRC field than to the cruiser-racer contingent. Ākonga belongs firmly in the cruiser-racer bracket alongside Wings, a Dehler 46 out of NSW, giving the German marque two representatives on the start line so far. It is a well-populated division in the 38 to 46-foot range, and one where Roberts and his experienced offshore crew will be looking to make their mark.
The Boxing Day start on Sydney Harbour is six months away.
