The first boat home
At 3:22:55 a.m (time still to be validated), Bryon Ehrhart’s Lucky crossed the finish line off Russell to claim line honours in this year’s PIC Coastal Classic.
If you’d asked a week ago how long she might take from start to finish, I would have guessed an early evening finish – perhaps a celebratory drink at tea time. Instead, it’s the quietest hour before dawn. The RIB arranged to bring a few crew ashore for the night has whipped out, and the water taxi has just roared into life, collecting more crew from the sleek maxi and ferrying them ashore to well-earned rest.
A slow and testing race
Here in Russell, the air is cool, almost cold, and the night has a little breeze – there is not a star in the sky so I assume that there is cloud cover and there has been some rain but that was earlier in the evening. Lucky’s nav-light glowed in the bay, as did some other boat masts, which I assume are locals. From the Russell Wharf we look out to see Paihia’s lights in the distance. Lucky has anchored far offshore and is difficult to spot in the pitch black.
For much of the race, progress was painfully slow — an unusual experience for a boat accustomed to flying at the pace of a record breaker.
In the final miles, she finally found a hint of pressure, touching a little over 11 knots, registered by the PredictWind tracker, as she slipped through the darkness toward the finish.
A finish line video from Nicola Jeffery.
After a long, patient night at sea, Lucky and her crew can finally rest. Some came ashore on a smaller RIB sent for them, others came on the water taxi, but the bulk of the team will stay onboard for the rest of the night.
I’d imagined the finish would be full of fanfare — excited crew, exhilarated owners, and the rush of celebration at the dock. But after such a long, slow race onboard a boat built for speed, reality looked a little different. A few weary crew stepped ashore, ready not for champagne, but for a hot shower and a few hours of sleep. Taking their cue, I think it’s time I do the same.
Lucky: first home in the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic.
