With 21 days to go, the 2026 Doyle Sails Round North Island Yacht Race is being shaped as much by recent offshore form as by qualification checklists and refit notes.
As registration closed in mid January, the General Lee Racing joined the line-up with a last-minute entry. The boat last contested the RNIs as Clockwork in 2020, when it won overall with Steve Mair and Jamie Logan at the helm. Now refitted and sailing under a different name and crew, with Tim Holgate and Cameron Thorpe aboard, the question remains whether the boat can deliver again.
What to expect
Run by the Shorthanded Sailing Association of New Zealand (SSANZ), the Round North Island Yacht Race (RNI) is one of New Zealand’s hardest offshore tests for two-handed crews. At more than 1,200 nautical miles, sailed anticlockwise around the North Island, it is a race that rewards crews who can manage pressure shifts and make calm decisions when the wind refuses to cooperate.
The fifteenth edition will start from Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour on 28 February 2026. From there, the fleet heads north to a scheduled stopover in Mangōnui, the northernmost safe port on the course, before rounding Cape Reinga and turning south down the West Coast. Rather than stopping in Wellington, boats will cross Cook Strait to the top of the South Island, then head north again up the eastern side of the North Island to a planned stop in Napier. From Napier, the fleet returns to Auckland via East Cape.
For most crews, the race will mean close to two weeks at sea, broken only by short stopovers to rest, carry out repairs, and reset before the next leg.
Preparation you can’t fake
This year’s fleet reflects a race that has matured. As Sharon Ferris Choat from Vixen Racing has noted throughout the buildup, crews are choosing boats they understand, systems they trust, and partnerships that have already been tested offshore.
“You cannot fake preparation in this race,” she says. “The miles expose everything.”
Entries are closed at 28 boats, less than in previous years, but that makes decision making simpler.
Qualifying via Cavalli Islands Race
Each crew is required to complete a nonstop 250 nautical mile passage. For a number of teams, the 2025 Doyle Sails Cavalli Islands Race offered the most direct qualifying route, which helps explain the strong two-handed entry this year. Boats that qualified this way include the Elliott 10.66 Carpe Diem, sailed by Rowan Smith and Lydia Boyd; the Elliott 1050 Kick, helmed by Brendan Sands and Ben Roff, who finished 14th overall in the 2023 RNIs; the Ross 1066 Higher Ground, with John Seely and Matthew Wilson; the Ross 9.1 Physical Favours, crewed by Ryan McCready and Andrew Child; and the Davidson 52 Whichway, sailed by Bruce Gault and Craig McMillan, fifth overall in 2023.
Handicap heroes and tight battles in the 2025 Doyle Sails Cavalli Islands Race
Others work through the Northern Triangle, a roughly 510 nautical mile loop from Auckland to Mangonui, across to Tauranga, and back to Auckland. Some crews build their mileage through a series of longer SSANZ events.
Taking a full zigzag shakedown
Fresh from taking line honours in the Doyle Sails Cavalli Islands Race, the fully-crewed Motorboat III returned to Auckland, loaded with food and gear, and immediately headed back to sea, this time double-handed. The task was simple on paper. Complete a 250-mile non-stop qualifier with the same two crew, Damon Jolliffe and Josh Tucker, who will sail the Round North Island. Tucker knows that process well. He has completed five RNIs. Joliffe, has sailed four. Together, they have already finished two. In practice, the voyage became a full shake-down, zigzagging through the Gulf and north toward Little Barrier as the pair trialled new sail plans and stress-tested the boat’s recent upgrades.
Motorboat III and the call of the Round North Island Yacht Race
Trans-Tasman qualifier
Sharon Ferris-Choat and Taylor Edwards used their trans-Tasman return from the 2025 Rolex Sydney to Hobart to build qualifying miles aboard Vixen Racing for their first RNI race.
The first 24 hours were hard upwind, echoing Hobart conditions, before the passage settled. Sailing out alongside the Globe 40 fleet added early pressure (and pleasure), with close matching over the first day. A developing high forced an early move east to avoid prolonged calms. From there, the focus shifted to refining shorthanded systems and flexible watch routines. The standout moment came rounding Cape Reinga, with flat water and a rare downwind run past the Three Kings under spinnaker.
Vixen Racing sails with Globe 40 fleet before turning for New Zealand
Providing boats and crew
The pathway varies, but the objective does not. Crews must prove themselves, prove the boat, and show that both are ready for the demands ahead.
Both sailors must hold current Sea Survival certificates, with at least one crew member carrying an offshore First Aid qualification. Equipment checks, including AIS and VHF tests conducted twenty miles offshore, are mandatory. The list is deliberately demanding. Once the race is underway, there are very few easy exit points.
