The Three Kings Offshore Race will start without one of the exciting entries this year, after the Vixen Racing team decided to pull out of the 500-nautical-mile race ahead of Cyclone Vaianu, a category 2 system that MetService described as a very large and damaging event, with the Far North first to bear the brunt of its strong winds, heavy rain, and rough seas.
The Class 40, skippered by Sharon Ferris-Choat, had been targeting the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s biennial offshore classic, which starts in Auckland, runs north past Cape Reinga, rounds the remote Three Kings Islands, and returns to the Waitematā. The team knows the race well, having competed in the event before.
With the rig due to go back in ahead of the start, safety won out. The team pulled the mast and boom and secured them in the shed at Oceana Marine Shipyards in Whangārei, and tied the boat down with one-tonne blocks to hold her through the storm.
“We chose not to do it, we chose to keep her safe,” Ferris-Choat posted to social media as the weather closed in. “We can rest easy that she is prepared for the cyclone to come.”
With the rig out and reassembly set back by the storm, getting Vixen ready in time for the Three Kings start was never going to happen. The team has already turned its attention to what comes next.
“We will concentrate now fully on the solo Tasman Race and getting Vixen to Australia for the whole Eastern Circuit,” Ferris-Choat said. “We can’t wait.”
The eastern Australian circuit sits at the centre of Vixen Racing’s 2026 campaign. The Class 40 is entered in the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge, departing Opua on 30 May bound for the Southport Yacht Club on Australia’s Gold Coast, with a full programme of Australian offshore racing to follow.
Cyclone Vaianu tracked south across the North Island on Sunday 12 April, bringing damaging winds of up to 140 km/h, heavy rainfall, and coastal inundation risk. For teams and boats sitting in yards up and down the country, it was a weekend for securing, waiting, and watching.
The Three Kings fleet starts without Vixen, but Ferris-Choat and her team already have their eyes on the Trans-Tasman.
