Steve Mair and the Clockwork crew are back for the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race. The Shaw 12, starts on 16 April in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s 500 nautical mile offshore test. The course runs north past Cape Reinga, out beyond Surville Cliffs where the Tasman and Pacific meet, before rounding the remote Three Kings Islands and returning to the Waitematā.
This will be the boat’s second run in the Three Kings Offshore race. In 2024, conditions were brutal. Eight of the fifteen starters retired with torn sails, seasickness, and gear failures. Clockwork kept moving, sure of her pedigree, coming home third on line and handicap in 2 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes.
Boat swaps a-plenty
That race featured Damon Jolliffe onboard, now campaigning the Thompson 1150 Motorboat III. This year the crew shifts again. Josh Adams steps aboard, having previously owned Serena, which became Motorboat III. Alongside Mair and Adams is Harri Wren, who has run her own Round North Island two handed offshore programme aboard the Ross 930 Start Me Up.
It speaks to the depth of this fleet. Crews move between programmes, but the experience stays within the group slowly expanding as more youth sailors come onboard.
The Shaw 12 continues to deliver. Third on PHRF and third on line at the 2024 PIC Coastal, then back again in 2025. There is a murmur from Mair of a Transpac campaign further down the track, but for now the focus stays local.
She will be quick
Mair expects a fast race. With solid breeze in the forecast, he is looking at a quick run north and a straight return, targeting mid Saturday back into the Waitematā. If that plays out, Clockwork’s canting keel and downwind power should come into their own.
Thursday’s fleet of seven includes Equilibrium, which Graham Matthews steered to overall honours in 2024, along with Akonga, also coming off the Round North Island. Clockwork will race fully crewed under PHRF.
