Chris Woodhams

934 POSTS
Adventurer. Explorer. Sailor. Web Editors of Boating NZ
Hutchwilco Boat Show

Looking back at the Hutchwilco Auckland Boat Show 2027 – in video

A short video highlight of the 2026 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show
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Le Défi Paprec

Kiwi in the deep end: Oakley Marsh and the French offshore dream

I sat down with Oakley Marsh, from Perros-Guirec in France, he was preparing for the Sunday start to his next big race, Le Dé...
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Suzuki pavilion at the 2026 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show // BNZ
Hutchwilco Boat Show

Suzuki Marine at Hutchwilco: one product, one focus, and a prop story worth knowing

Suzuki Marine at Hutchwilco: one product, one focus, and a prop story worth knowing Most stands at the Hutchwilco Boat Show c...
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(L-R) The 670, 510, and 730 Kingfisher boats at the 2026 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show. // BNZ
Hutchwilco Boat Show

Kingfisher Powercats at Hutchwilco: three boats, two hull types, and one very cold kill tank

Kingfisher
Tauranga-based Kingfisher Powercats showcases three boats on its pavilion at the Hutchwilco Boat Show. The 510, the 670, and ...
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Lusty Blundell pavilion at the 2026 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show // BNZ
Hutchwilco Boat Show

Lusty & Blundell at Hutchwilco: Induction cooking for boats, and a world-first trolling motor d...

The Lusty & Blundell stand at the Hutchwilco Boat Show has plenty to look at, but two things stood out this visit. One ch...
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Haines Hunter OP725 Overlander Pursuit // BNZ
Hutchwilco Boat Show

Haines Hunter at Hutchwilco: fibreglass amphibious at its finest

Haines Hunter
The Haines Hunter stand at the Hutchwilco Boat Show has three boats on it. The SF485 Sport Fisher, the SP635 Sport Pursuit, a...
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New Boat

Rayglass completes the Legend trilogy with the new 2400

Rayglass
Rayglass launched the Legend 2400 at its 2026 boat show in Auckland this week, the third model in a range update that start...
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AC38

Australia is back in the America’s Cup

Australia has a seventh entry in the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup. The Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club's challenge has bee...
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Hutchwilco Boat Show

Yamaha at Hutchwilco: wireless control, a new electric brand, and a very good finance rate

Yamaha's stand at the Hutchwilco Boat Show covers a lot of ground. Outboards across the full range, Torqeedo electrics, YAM i...
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Hutchwilco Boat Show

From tinny to 8-metre amphibious: Fin Chaser at the Hutchwilco Boat Show

Fin Chaser's stand sits in the middle of the First Pavilion at the Hutchwilco Boat Show, and it has enough boats to occupy se...
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Hutchwilco Boat Show

Mercury brings the full range, and a genuinely clever 150

Walking into the Hutchwilco Boat Show and bypassing the food hall entirely is a choice that says something about your priorit...
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Marine Industry Role Updates

NZ Marine names new executive director

Former Coastguard New Zealand CEO Callum Gillespie has taken the helm at the New Zealand Marine Industry Association (NZ Mari...
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SailGP 2026

Slingsby makes it two in a row as the Bonds Flying Roos rule Bermuda

Tom Slingsby and the Bonds Flying Roos won the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix on Sunday, backing up their Rio victory wit...
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SailGP 2026

Slingsby and Spain share the spoils as SailGP hits Bermuda’s Great Sound

The Bonds Flying Roos and Los Gallos head into Super Sunday level on points after four fleet races on Bermuda's Great Sound p...
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Incidents on the water

Three dead after Marine Rescue vessel capsizes at Ballina (NSW, Australia)

"Last night was the darkest night ever experienced by Marine Rescue NSW." That was the statement posted to the Marine Resc...
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The Ocean Race 2027

He wasn’t in the room. But Conrad Colman was the most talked-about person at yesterday’s...

From the podium, race co-owner and chairman Richard Brisius called him out by name in front of the Minister, the Mayor, and a...
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Richard Brasius. He could smell it before he could see it. // Boating New Zealand
The Ocean Race 2027

The Ocean Race’s Richard Brisius to Kiwi’s: New Zealand must make a decision.

Richard Brisius doesn't dress it up. The co-owner and race chairman of the Ocean Race was briefly in Auckland to celebrate th...
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The Ocean Race 2027

He could smell it before he could see it

At 21 years old, Richard Brisius was battered and cold somewhere in the Southern Ocean when the first faint outline of New Ze...
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SailGP 2026

Black Foils to sit out Bermuda and New York, targeting Halifax return in June

New Zealand's Black Foils will sit out both May rounds of the Rolex SailGP Championship, missing Bermuda and New York as the ...
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The Ocean Race

Kiwi team locked in for Ocean Race Atlantic as Colman sets sights on the big one

Conrad Colman has his crew. A 100% Kiwi team is confirmed for the Ocean Race Atlantic, leaving New York on 1 September and fi...
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Incidents on the water

Life jacket saves kayaker after two hours in Waitematā Harbour

A man is alive today after spending more than two hours in the cold waters of Waitematā Harbour on Anzac Day morning. His l...
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Squadron sells its Kawau heartland. // Barfoot & Thompson
Work & Play

Squadron sells its Kawau heartland

The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is selling its Smelting House Bay property on Kawau, a holding that has been part of t...
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REGENT Sealgider captains prepare to test the Viceroy Seaglider prototype in Narragansett Bay, RI on March 5, 2026 // Photo credit: REGENT
Innovations in Boat Design

The flying boat is taking shape, and New Zealand has a front row seat

It is boat, hydrofoil, and aircraft all at once, and it could be coming to a coastline near you sooner than you think. The Se...
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Oil Spills & Hazardous Waste

Diesel sheen detected at sunken Thames vessel

The Waikato Regional Council is investigating a diesel sheen at Shortland Wharf, Thames, after a 12-metre steel boat sank th...
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Motorboat III provisionally wins Race 1 from Waitemata Harbour to Mangonui Harbour in the 2026 Doyle Sails Round North Island Two Handed Yacht Race // Photo credit: Roger Mills / Boating New Zealand
Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

The night before: Three Kings briefing at the Squadron

The weather and safety briefing for the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race was held very close to where it will start t his mo...
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Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

​​Higher Ground: Small boat, big ambitions

Higher Ground, the Ross 1066 is not a big boat. At 10.66 metres she will be the second smallest on the Three Kings startline ...
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Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

Seizing the day: Carpe Diem heads to the Three Kings

Thirty years after Greg Elliott drew her lines and Phil Bish of Bish Marine built her in Auckland, Carpe Diem is going offsho...
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Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

Clockwork heads north again

Steve Mair and the Clockwork crew are back for the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race. The Shaw 12, starts on 16 April in the Ro...
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Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

The canting Kite that loves a fight

Nathan Williams has owned Mr Kite II for six years, been to the Three Kings twice, and finished near the front both times. Wi...
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Motorboat III provisionally wins Race 1 from Waitemata Harbour to Mangonui Harbour in the 2026 Doyle Sails Round North Island Two Handed Yacht Race // Photo credit: Roger Mills / Boating New Zealand
Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

Déjà vu for Motorboat III as she heads back to the Three Kings (with a different name!)

Motorboat III last raced the Three Kings in 2024, though she was called Serena back then, and Josh Adams was at the helm. Ada...
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Equilibrium // Photo credit: Insight Media - Formerly Jacob Fewtrell Media
Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

Equilibrium heads to Three Kings again, the skipper is the oldest in the fleet!

Graham Matthews knows this race well, and he knows how to win it. In 2024 he took overall honours on fully crewed handicap on...
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BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team driven by Tom Slingsby ahead of Artemis SailGP Team driven by Nathan Outteridge, on Race Day 2 of the ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sunday 12 April 2026. Rolex SailGP Championship Event 4 2026 Season. // Photo credit: Jason Ludlow for SailGP.
SailGP 2026

The Rio showdown: Slingsby and the BONDS Flying Roos complete a perfect Sunday

The final race of 2026 SailGP Rio: three boats, one race, winner takes all. The Flying Roos, Artemis and Los Gallos lined up ...
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// SailGP Media
SailGP 2026

Australia wins again, France goes out in flames in the last fleet race in SailGP Rio

The final fleet race of the Rio event had barely started when France's regatta ended. Quentin Delapierre and DS Automobiles F...
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Christ the Redeemer and the Rio de Janeiro skyline, on Race Day 2 of the ENEL Rio Sail Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sunday 12 April 2026. Rolex SailGP Championship Event 4 2026 Season. // Photo credit: Gabriel Heusi for SailGP.
SailGP 2026

Emirates GBR are out of the finals in SailGP Rio

Guanabara Bay finally delivered on Sunday. With 25 knot breeze in the bay, Race 5 got away cleanly and the F50s were up on th...
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Weather Updates

Cyclone Vaianu, Evening Briefing, Sunday 12 April

Vaianu moves on, leaving significant damage in its wake Cyclone Vaianu has tracked across the northern North Island and is n...
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Vixen Racing in the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic // Photo credit: Kirsten Thomas Boating / New Zealand
Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race

Vixen Racing withdraws from Three Kings as Cyclone Vaianu intervenes (Sharon’s video in this a...

The Three Kings Offshore Race will start without one of the exciting entries this year, after the Vixen Racing team decided t...
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SailGP Rio Fleet Race 4 // Photo credit: SailGP Media
News

After a slow SailGP Rio opener, the Aussie leads while GBR scramble to recover

SailGP finally made it to South America. On Saturday, Guanabara Bay lived up to pre-race expectations and gave the fleet ever...
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SailGP Rio Fleet Race 4 // Photo credit: SailGP Media
SailGP 2026

Germany wins Race 4 in SailGP Rio in a dying breeze

The breeze finally gave up in race four after testing the fleet all day in Guanabara Bay. What little wind remained was patch...
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Weather Updates

Cyclone Vaianu: we all got through the night

Cyclone Vaianu has tracked down the upper North Island overnight, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and widespread power cuts...
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SailGP Rio Fleet Race 3 // Photo credit: SailGP Media
SailGP 2026

Kiwi Phil Robertson and Red Bull Italy break through in Race 3 of SailGP Rio

Brazil finally makes the start The third fleet race brought 12 boats to the line for the first time in Rio. Mubadala Brazil ...
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