Four very different New Zealand boats take aim at the 80th Sydney Hobart. None share a design or a past, yet all carry the same racing soul.
The long wake to 2025
New Zealand’s connection to the Sydney to Hobart stretches almost as far back as the race itself. In 1946, only the second running of the event, Wellingtonian Norman Thomas sailed the 1903 Logan 52 Ilex across the Tasman to take part. She retired at Cape Raoul before the turn into Storm Bay, then sailed home to Wellington. The round trip was nearly 4,000 nautical miles. That instinct to “go anyway, go hard, go far” sits at the heart of New Zealand’s relationship with this race.
We saw it again in 1971, one of New Zealand’s most dominant years. Nine Kiwi boats started, and Pathfinder, Runaway and Wai-Awiwa finished first, second and third on line. John Spencer’s newly launched Whispers II also took part, a plywood sloop barely out of the shed but quick enough for 10th on line. Kiwi boats have been winning line honours, overall titles and respect ever since.
This year four New Zealand-identified entries line up for the 80th edition: Callisto, V5, Rum Bucket and Vixen Racing. Some are similar, others could not be more different. A PAC52, a modified TP52, a More 55 cruiser-racer and a Verdier 40. None share a history. None follow the same path to the start line. And all four are making their Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race debut. Their crews bring ocean miles and experience, but the boats themselves are fresh to this course. It gives the New Zealand contingent a rare clean slate in a fleet stacked with legacy.
Yet together they share a familiar thread. Each boat reflects the character of the person who drives her.
Callisto — the polished Pacific contender
Owner: James Murray | Type: PAC52 | Launch year: 2017 | Sail number: USA5202
James Murray’s Callisto arrives with a résumé that demands attention. The PAC52 has won California Offshore Race Week, taken divisional podiums in both the Transpac and Newport Bermuda Race, and lifted the 2023 Pineapple Cup. Her sistership Warrior Won finished fourth overall in the 2022 Sydney Hobart, one place behind Max Klink’s Caro, a reminder of how well this platform handles the Tasman and Bass Strait.
Murray knows New Zealand racing as well as anyone. His other Callisto, a Custom Botin IRC 42, represented the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron alongside Caro at the 2025 Admiral’s Cup, winning the opening race and finishing second in class. The boat he brings to Sydney this year is the PAC52—longer legged, higher righting moment and built to stretch out offshore rather than jink around the cans.
She has shown her pace locally as well. In the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic, Callisto finished second on line, beaten only by Byron Ehrhart’s Juan K design Lucky. Her programme is calm, deliberate and built on disciplined preparation. Murray has not brought a boat this capable across the Pacific to simply take part. He is here to race, and race properly.
V5 — the Kiwi battler with teeth
Owner: Brian Petersen | Type: TP52 (modified) | Launch year: 2001 | Sail number: NZL55555
If Callisto is polished precision, V5 is the South Pacific brawler. Launched in 2001 as Victoria 5, she passed through several committed Kiwi owners, each adding refinements to keep her sharp. The most dramatic shift came with the addition of a milled steel canting keel and EC6 rigging, giving her power well beyond her years.
Brian Petersen took ownership in 2020, only 18 months after losing his previous yacht, Ran Tan II, at sea during a delivery for the 2019 Transpac. That Elliott 50 had finished 16th on line, 24th in IRC and ninth in Division 0 in the 2017 Sydney Hobart. Losing her was shattering. Taking on V5 was a restart.
Under Petersen, V5 has built a fierce regional record.
- 2025 Groupama Race (New Caledonia): Line honours
- 2025 Noakes Sydney to Gold Coast Race: Fourth on line, third in IRC Division 0
- 2022 PIC Coastal Classic: Line honours and overall PHRF win
V5’s strength lies in continuity. The core crew race together often, know each other’s habits and tune the boat through time on the water. The programme is practical, hand built and Kiwi at heart. Petersen has shaped a culture based on trust and clean communication rather than frequent reshuffles. In the right breeze, V5 can punch very high.
Rum Bucket — the odyssey boat with a stubborn heartbeat
Owner: Quintin Fowler | Type: More 55 | Launch year: 2019 | Sail number: NZL9674
No Kiwi boat has taken a stranger road to Hobart than Rum Bucket.
Ordered in 2017, she travelled through Europe, crossed the Atlantic and pointed toward Panama in early 2020—just as the world shut down. The Canal closed. Borders tightened. The crew had to abandon her in Shelter Bay and fly home. Rum Bucket stayed behind.
She was loaded onto a freighter, only for the ship to be seized in a drug investigation in Mexico. Months later she was released, reloaded onto another transport, and finally delivered to Auckland. Lightning or static fried her electronics en route, adding a new layer of cost and frustration. By the time she was recommissioned, the boat had already lived a lifetime.
Racing sharpened her again. In the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic, Rum Bucket finished 23rd on line in Division 1b, with a corrected mid-fleet placing. She likes breeze, holds her lane when it pipes up and rewards patience and good seamanship.
Quintin Fowler has been to Hobart before, aboard Outrageous Fortune in 2011. It did not go to plan—58th on line, 48th in IRC. “We went the wrong way,” he says. This time the prep has been harder, the crew more experienced, and the ambition clearer. For Rum Bucket, simply making the start is a victory. Everything after that is racing.
Vixen Racing — the disruptor with purpose
Skipper: Sharon Ferris-Choat | Type: Verdier 40 (modified Class 40) | Launch year: 2008 | Sail number: NZL076
Vixen Racing is the wildcard of the Kiwi pack—light, punchy and purpose driven. Launched in 2008 as Desafio Cabo de Horno, she won the Global Ocean Race before passing through several owners. Now she is the platform for a new team led by double Olympian Sharon Ferris-Choat, a Canadian-born New Zealander with three round-the-world campaigns and a world speed record.
Ferris-Choat raced the IMOCA 60 Awen in the 2024 Sydney Hobart, finishing 14th on line and eighth in PHS Division 1, before shifting her focus to Vixen. The boat has been modified for a broader offshore range and sails with a mixed crew whose mission is simple: build capability through opportunity.
Vixen is quick in the light, stable in the right heel and well suited to the 40-foot battle that will unfold this year against boats like First Light. She brings disruption in the best way—new faces, new voices and a clear purpose.
Team Vixen Racing: women at the helm in the PIC Coastal Classic 2025
Four boats, four ambitions, one Kiwi thread
What links Callisto, V5, Rum Bucket and Vixen Racing is not shape, budget or pedigree. It is intent. All four are entering to win their class. If not on handicap, then on line. No one has crossed the Tasman for an easy ride.
Callisto brings precision, V5 brings grit, Rum Bucket brings resilience and Vixen brings disruption. Four Kiwi boats. Four very different journeys to the start line. And every one of them points south.
That is the Kiwi contender story in the 80th Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. And this year, it feels right on cue.
References
New Zealand’s imprint on Sydney Hobart history
