Kawau Race Week has been pushed back before it even got off the ground, with organisers postponing the inaugural event after the weather forecast for the original window turned ugly.
The upper North Island has already taken a battering this week, and conditions over the original race weekend were shaping up to be worse. Strong winds were expected to arrive right across the period the regatta was scheduled to run. For an event making its debut, the decision was a straightforward one. Putting crews and boats through a rough, potentially unfair first edition would have served no one, and the organisers had no appetite for that.
The rescheduled dates are Friday 30 and Saturday 31 January. Organisers are keeping the format simple and enjoyable. The plan calls for a 4pm start on Friday, with the fleet racing up to Kawau, followed by two island races on Saturday.
The weekend will wrap up with a prize-giving at Kawau Boating Club, where a live band has been booked to close out the evening. That finish has always been central to what Kawau Race Week was designed to be: a chance to race hard, get the boat tied up, and settle in for a proper Kawau evening.
Further details will be confirmed soon. In the meantime, organisers are asking skippers to let them know whether they plan to take part in the rescheduled weekend, so numbers and logistics can be locked in.
The forecast this weekend may blow the doors off, but Kawau Race Week is not going anywhere. It is simply waiting for a better window to get started.
