Round 2 of the New Zealand Jetsprint Championship moves into its second day tomorrow at Shelter View, Wanganui, with a schedule built to keep boats on the water almost without interruption from early morning through to late afternoon.
The launch ramp opens at 7 am, giving teams time to get organised before it closes at 7.40 am for the driver's briefing. From that point, the day belongs entirely to racing.
Competition begins at 8 am with the first of three back-to-back qualifying rounds across all classes. Through those consecutive runs, crews must balance outright speed against consistency, working the course repeatedly under similar conditions. When the third qualifier wraps up, the morning programme will have drawn a clear line between those who have found pace and those who still need to.
Live coverage of the race will be streamed on the Boating NZ website
A lunch break at 12.30 pm offers spectators a moment to regroup before proceedings resume. The fourth and final qualifying round starts at 1 pm and runs through to approximately 2.30 pm. At that stage of the day, with points locked in, the gaps between runs carry real weight.
From mid-afternoon, the format shifts to finals. At 2.30 pm the Top 9 competitors, Next Gen class excluded, return to the water. An hour after that, at 3.30 pm, the Top 6 contest their race-off, again without Next Gen entries. The day's high point arrives at 4.30 pm, when the Top 3 finals run across all classes and clean execution alongside outright pace determines who claims the podium.
For category A, the race track will follow these legs: Start, 1, 9, 7, 3, 8, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 1, 10, 9, 8, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 8, 9, 7, 4, 5, Finish
For category NextGen, the race track will follow these logs: Start, 1, 9, 7, 3, 8, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 1, 10, 9, 8, 3, 4, 5, 10, 7, 4, 5, Finish, 10, 7, 4
Racing is expected to conclude at around 5 pm, with prizegiving following immediately at the venue.
Four qualifying runs and three separate finals phases make Saturday a lengthy and demanding day for both crews and machinery. For spectators, the structure rewards patience: steady, building pressure through the morning gives way to high-stakes racing as the field narrows run by run through the afternoon.
