A hundred boats will line up for this year's PIC Coastal Classic, a fleet that reads less like a race entry list and more like a snapshot of New Zealand sailing itself.
On Friday 23 October, the fleet leaves Devonport bound for Russell. Ahead lies 119 nautical miles of headlands, islands, tactical calls and the kind of heated on-board discussions that have defined this race for decades.
What makes this year's fleet notable isn't just the number, it's the mix. There's a 52 footer, 55 footers, 66 footers, enduring club racers, fast multihulls, offshore adventurers, restored classics and six rally boats whose crews have decided, sensibly, that reaching Russell is best done with a hot shower and a lamb roast waiting at the end.
Eighty-four racing monohulls, ten racing multihulls, six cruising rally boats. The monohulls are split across seven divisions by size and performance, with Division 2 the biggest at 27 entries. Division 1A and Division 6 will fight it out for overall line honours, but as always with the Coastal, the real stories are buried in the divisions beneath.
The age spread on the start line tells its own story. Ichiban, which finished second overall and first in Division B at the 1961 Transpac, will be there. So will Excalibur, John Hughes' Division 7 multihull, built in 2000 but relaunched in July 2026 after a two-year rebuild. Not the newest boat in the fleet technically, but reborn all the same.
Division 1A carries just six boats but plenty of weight. Another Duchess returns after a strong 2025, having arrived fresh from Australia to finish fourth overall and edge out Wired by 59 seconds. William Goodfellow's Elliott 50 Explore Racing joins her, fresh off a clean sweep of all four legs in the 2026 Round North Island Two-Handed Race with Jesse Turner. Wired steps up to represent the 52-footers after Mayhem's late withdrawal, alongside Graham Matthews' Equilibrium and Charles Brown's Davidson 66 Antaeus.
Division 1B might be where the real entertainment lies. Fifteen boats, several with genuine pedigree. Mikayla Plaw's Melges 40 Sassinate was first into Russell in her division last year, mixing it with far bigger boats thanks to her canting keel. Nathan Williams' Cape 40 Mr Kite II has topped 20 knots offshore. And then there's Quintin Fowler's Rum Bucket, a More 55 built in Croatia that crossed the Atlantic, got stuck in Panama when the world shut down in 2020, and reportedly had drugs found aboard the delivery ship before finally reaching New Zealand in 2021. She's been making up time ever since.
Clockwork set a new 500 nautical mile race record in the 2026 RNZYS Three Kings Race, beating Wired's old mark by four minutes and 22 seconds. General Lee makes its Coastal debut since owners Tim Holgate and Cameron Thorpe finished restoring the Bakewell-White 37, though the pair already have Round North Island miles behind them.
Division 2's 27 boats promise chaos of the best kind. Last year Niksen beat Force Eleven on handicap by 38 seconds, barely time to finish a sentence after 119 miles of racing. Both return, alongside third-placed Blackout.
There's a quiet pleasure in watching sister ships duel. Four Young 88s, Paddy Wagon, Smokey, Waka Huia and Young Mischief, will race their own private contest inside the wider field. Three SR26s face off in Division 5. Two Elliott 1050s and two Beneteau First 44.7s share Division 2. Division 4 pairs two Farr 1020s against each other, and two Ross 930s besides, with Starmaker returning after winning the 2025 PHRF overall title racing two-handed.
The multihulls have scores to settle too. Romanza, Dougall Love's Rapido 60 trimaran, took line honours in 2024's tough edition, a win made more impressive by the redress she earned after spending nearly an hour helping a damaged yacht's crew. Levity, which followed her into Russell that year, is back. So is Erle Williams' Apache. Williams is a Whitbread Round the World Race and Volvo Ocean Race veteran with thousands of offshore miles to his name, and he'll be near the front of the fleet.
Then there are the rally boats, quietly getting on with it. Dream Weaver, Gabrielle II, Lady Nada, Skyesong, Tiki and Tintin take the cruising route north. Lady Nada will be skippered by NZ Multihull Yacht Club commodore Adrian Percival, who has made no secret of his plan to bring a slushie machine along for the ride.
Possibly the smartest tactical call in the whole fleet.
