Twenty-three years is a long time to build something. Standing under the marquee outside the Opua Cruising Club on the opening day of the 2026 Bay of Islands Sailing Week, listening to Nina and Tony Kiff recount the event's origins, the rain made itself impossible to ignore. Water pooled on the marquee roof, streamed across the ground, and funnelled in steady rivulets toward the harbour. The jog from the media shed to the entertainment hut had taken five seconds. That was more than enough to arrive completely drenched.
Nina and Tony were central to bringing Bay of Islands Sailing Week into existence. Originally from the United Kingdom, with Cowes Sailing Week as their reference point, they arrived in New Zealand keen to create something comparable in these waters. With backing from others in the local sailing community, the first Bay of Islands Sailing Week ran in 2003. Over the 23 years since, the event has faced its share of difficulties. In 2023, one day was lost to conditions. An entire week had never gone. That record was suddenly looking fragile.
By Tuesday morning the forecast offered nothing to work with. Even Cees Romeyn, a long-time Sailing Week regular, had already pulled out of the day's racing before the Race Committee made its call. They delayed first, then cancelled. Crews were willing, even enthusiastic, about heading out into the rain, but the harbour told a different story. The water was discoloured and likely carrying debris washed off the surrounding land. The wind was enough to make any incident costly. Racing was not worth the risk of damage or injury, and no one could credibly argue otherwise.
For the first time in the event's history, the opening day of Bay of Islands Sailing Week had been cancelled. The obvious question was whether the rest of the week would follow. The answer, delivered without drama, was no. Conditions would be assessed one day at a time, and racing would resume when it safely could.
That measured approach held up well. Wednesday brought racing back. The rain had not relented, but the wind had eased enough to make conditions workable. Thursday offered a modest improvement. Friday felt closer to a reward. Thirty crews had made the trip to Opua, and what followed was genuine offshore racing. The weather had ruled out the Magic 25s, but the fleet that did assemble covered a wide range, from Paul Smith's 5.5 metre The Racoon through to Graham Matthews' Marten 55 Equilibrium, with plenty of variety in between.
Once racing found its rhythm, the character of the week became apparent quickly. Crews went out, pushed their boats, got thoroughly wet, and came back to Sailing Week headquarters at the Opua Cruising Club each afternoon with something left in the tank. Conditions were demanding throughout, but the atmosphere around the club never reflected that. If anything, the shared difficulty seemed to pull people together rather than wear them down.
A conversation with new Race Committee chair Andrew Kearney during one of the weather pauses added some useful background to the week. The year leading into the 2026 event had been unsettled behind the scenes. A new chairperson and a new treasurer had both come on board within weeks of each other. Then, just three weeks before Sailing Week, the secretary role was unexpectedly vacated. Andrew stepped up to cover the gap, steadied the committee, and brought things back together in time. Kelly was brought in to help with event delivery, contributing fresh energy alongside considerable sailing event experience. The vast majority of people on the dock would have known nothing of this, but it shaped the week they were part of.
Spending the week in the media shed provides a different vantage point. You notice things that rarely come up in conversation. The pride people carry for this event shows up most clearly in the moments when something goes sideways and someone simply steps forward. Having experienced voices available, Vixen Racing's Sharon Ferris-Choat among them, brings a grounded, practical quality to the decisions that matter. The volunteer effort was visible throughout, with those managing the shifting demands at headquarters doing so in the same conditions the racing crews were dealing with out on the water.
On the water, the Racing A, B, and C fleets shared more similarities than their results tables might suggest. Across all three divisions, the same patterns repeated. Crews worked through the worst of the rain, made the most of the lighter spells, and pushed their boats consistently across the series.
The boats that stood out across the three divisions did so for reasons that go beyond the scoreline. Names like Wired, Equilibrium, Daisy Duke, and Young Magic are easy to reach for, but focusing too narrowly on the front of the fleet misses what the week actually was. Every crew that turned up, rigged, and kept showing up through the week earned their place in it.
The handicap systems in play proved well suited to the fleets they were applied to. Boats that were not in podium contention early in the series found their way to race wins on either EHC or PHRF as the week progressed.
Racing A was a contest between five accomplished offshore performers. Bassett and Russell's TP52 Wired controlled the fleet from start to finish on the water, taking line honours in every race. Handicap results told a different story. Graham Matthews' Botim-Carkeek 55 Equilibrium was the most complete package across the series, performing particularly well when conditions eased, and building enough consistency to claim both the EHC and PHRF titles. John Muir's Farr 43 Georgia One and William Goodfellow's Elliott 50 Ss Explore Racing produced strong moments across the week, while Sharon Ferris-Choat's Verdier 40 Vixen Racing was hampered by mechanical problems rather than any shortage of speed.
Racing B was tight from the outset, and the depth of the fleet was plain early on. Matt Gottard's Shaw 7 Daisy Duke was dominant on line honours, pulling away from the fleet convincingly in several races. Handicap competition produced a different outcome. Graeme Lucas' Elliott 1050 Chain Reaction accumulated enough points across the week to take the EHC series, while Hans Wehmeyer's Thompson 850 Men At Work 3 won the PHRF title through repeated victories measured in seconds. Paul Rudling's Farr X2 Radix and Mike Bennett's Ross 40 The Farm each broke through for their first handicap wins in the latter part of the week, a sign that the series never truly settled even as the final day approached.
Racing C looked straightforward from the outside, but a closer look at the results revealed something more complicated. Bill Clifton's Platu 25 Platupus, Doug France's Farr 10.20 Cotton Bud, and Ian Templeman's Farr 2020 Farr South all collected handicap wins as the week went on. On line honours, Paul King's Beneteau First 36 Nautilass was faultless, winning every race in the series. Giovanni Belgrano's Young 88 Young Magic was rarely far behind, often separated from Nautilass by seconds, and also led the fleet on both EHC and PHRF by the time the series concluded.
It would be convenient to say that the 2026 Bay of Islands Sailing Week was defined by the weather. That reading sells the week short. What actually characterised it was the collective determination to keep things moving through conditions that gave crews and organisers every reason to stay ashore. The Race Committee made sound calls under pressure and kept the framework intact. The crews arrived each morning prepared to race, and they did. Wet, tired, and tested across every session, they kept coming back. That willingness, more than anything else, was what Bay of Islands Sailing Week 2026 turned out to be.
