The fleet sets off on Friday 23 October, the first day of Labour Weekend. It is made up of 84 monohulls, 10 multihulls and six cruising boats in the rally. Last year’s entry also topped 100, and both years are a big jump on 2024, when 67 boats started and only 39 made it to Russell.
Last year’s front-runners are missing
Lucky, Ehrhart’s 27-metre Juan K maxi, finished in 17 hours 22 minutes last year. The NZ Multihull Yacht Club called it one of the calmest races in recent memory. She ghosted up the Northland coast overnight and was the first boat to find the southerly that filled in at Cape Brett a little after 2am.
The two boats behind her haven’t entered either. Jim Murray’s Pac52 Callisto was second over the line. Graham Catley’s 18.5-metre Roger Hill catamaran CAT+ION was the first multihull home. So whoever takes the gun on Russell Wharf this year, it won’t be any of last year’s leading boats.
Give the fleet a south-westerly that holds, and the big multihulls are the ones to watch. Dougall Love’s Rapido 60 trimaran Romanza took line honours in 2024, more than an hour and a half ahead of Mike Mackey’s Schionning CM46 catamaran Levity. Both are entered in Division 6, along with Steven Dunlop’s Given 1500 My Fix and Erle Williams’ Apache.
Aventador won the Duncan Stewart Rose Bowl last year as first multihull on handicap. She hasn’t entered, so the trophy is going to a new home.
Nobody has touched the race record since 2019. Beau Geste set it at 5 hours 0 minutes 37 seconds, in a south-westerly of about 20 knots that gusted close to 30.
Antaeus arrives in 1A
The new name in Division 1A is Antaeus, Charles Brown’s Davidson 66 from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. She is the longest monohull in the race. With enough breeze to stretch her waterline, she is the favourite for first monohull to Russell.
The rest of 1A has done this race many times. In 2024 Graham Matthews’ Equilibrium finished seconds behind Levity. Last year the TP52 Mayhem, co-skippered by Harry Dodson and Tony Bosnyak, swapped places with Rob Bassett and Brett Russell’s Wired all night and only got away at Cape Brett. Equilibrium and Wired will meet again at Bay of Islands Sailing Week in January.
On handicap, Evan Davies’ Davidson 55 Another Duchess won 1A by almost 55 minutes on corrected time, with William Goodfellow’s Elliott 50 SS Explore Racing second. Another Duchess is back to defend.
Six of nine division winners return
Another Duchess is one of six 2025 division winners back this year. The others are Chris Hornell’s Shaw 9 Blue Dude (1B), Marc Michel’s Dehler 30 OD Niksen (Division 2), Matt Krogstad’s Farr 1020 Starmaker (4), Gary Fowler’s Young 88 Paddy Wagon (5) and Craig Haslip’s Open 8.5 Hooters (7).
Starmaker collected more silverware than anyone last year. On top of Division 4, she won the PHRF overall and two-handed trophies. The corrected-time breakdown shows just how little separated some of the boats.
The divisions
Division 1B has 15 boats. Mikayla Plaw’s Melges 40 Sassinate was the first 1B boat to Russell last year, and sixth over the line overall. Behind Blue Dude on handicap were Simon Manning’s Farr 36 Kaizen and Mike Sanderson’s Shaw 35 Rehab. Steve Mair’s Shaw 12 Clockwork and Vaughn Clark’s Soto 40 Alegre are back as well.
The newcomers to 1B are Quintin Fowler’s More 55 Rum Bucket, Nathan Williams’ Cape 40 Mr Kite II and Cameron Thorpe’s Bakewell-White 37 General Lee. Emma Lawrence’s Sayer 12 Wasabi is sailing under AUS88.
Division 2 is the biggest, with 27 boats. Niksen beat Peter Schischka’s Young 11 Force Eleven by 38 seconds last year. Both are entered again, as is Kevin Peet’s Blackout, which was third. The division runs from the Beneteau 44.7s Savante and Rumpus down to the Elliott 1050s Second Nature and Daytripper, with Nigel Garland’s Sun Fast 3600 Katana and Paul Watson’s Hanse 455 Winslow in between.
Division 3 has 18 boats but no defender, since Legacy hasn’t entered. Keith Trask’s Beneteau First 35 First Priority and Leo McCullough’s Dufour 36 C’est La Vie, second and third last year, are both back.
Division 4 is only six boats. Three of them, Starmaker, Wasted Away and Lavanti, finished one, two, three last year. Hotdogger is also entered.
Division 5 has last year’s top three back: Paddy Wagon, Daniel Wise’s Young 88 Young Mischief and Lanny Walker’s SR26 T-Rex. They were separated by less than six minutes on corrected time. There are four Young 88s and three SR26s among the 11 entries, so a lot of this division will come down to boat-on-boat racing.
The Open 8.5 trimarans have their own contest inside Division 7. Hooters won the division last year and was first 8.5 to Russell in just under 25 hours, ahead of Lucifer and Attitude. All three are back, and Freedom makes it four.
Two-handed, solo, classic and IRC
Starmaker is two-handed again. So is Richard and John Power’s Lavanti, runner-up to her in last year’s two-handed standings, and Gavin Stevens’ J120 Simply Red 2.
Three sailors are taking on the race alone: Mike Phear on the Bull 12000 Bullistic, Ben Ball on the Cavalier 36 Camellia, and Peter Bourke on the Sparkman & Stephens Diablo.
Seven boats are in the classic division, including the kauri sloop Ilex and Innismara, last year’s first classic home. Rum Bucket, Visage and Savante are racing IRC. Savante won the Cookson Trophy in 2025 as the first IRC boat.
Trish Beken’s Chico 30 Chico Too is the only women’s division entry. Simon Judd’s Gib Sea 52 Komaru II is alone in Division 8.
Visage, Red Baron, Smokey and La Camargue will want a quicker race than last year. All four got round Cape Brett in 2025, then ran out of time before the 2pm Saturday cut-off.
The rally
The cruising rally has six boats, and its divisions are yet to be set. Adrian Percival is skippering the Lavranos 44 catamaran Lady Nada. He is vice commodore of the NZ Multihull Yacht Club, which runs the race.
Ian Ashton’s Cyclades 43.3 Dream Weaver is back too. She began life as La Vagabonde, the monohull Riley and Elayna sailed before they moved to a catamaran. Dream Weaver was last into Russell in 2024, arriving the following afternoon after more than a day at sea.
Division previews and the weather outlook will follow in our Coastal Classic coverage as race day gets closer.
