Nathan Williams has lined up for the Three Kings race every time the modern event has run, and he has never finished outside the top four. Aboard Mr Kite II once again, he heads north when the 2026 edition departs on Thursday, with a forecast pointing toward one of the quicker runnings on record.
Williams bought Mr Kite II out of Brisbane in early 2019, only to watch the racing calendar collapse almost immediately under COVID. The Round North Island 2020 gave the Cape 40 her first real test in New Zealand waters, and she came away with a division win. That early result established a pattern: a consistent presence across the offshore programme, the Coastal Classic, the Gold Cup, and most of the major long-distance events on the RNZYS calendar. When the Three Kings race returned in 2022, ending a hiatus stretching back to 1978, Williams was on the start line. He has been there for every running of the modern event since, and has yet to finish lower than fourth.
His wife Gill has been alongside him throughout, and the accumulated miles show in both the boat's record and the crew's ease with what the Cape 40 demands of them.
*The boat*
Drawn by Andrew Cape and built by Boat Speed Performance in New South Wales, Mr Kite II hit the water in 2005 as something close to a prototype. Self-tacking runners, twin canards, and a fit-out that leaned heavily on technology all set her apart from the fleet at the time. A major refit in 2009 brought her closer to a conventional configuration, though the canting keel stayed. At 12.9 metres in length, with a beam of 3.7 metres and a draft of 2.9 metres, she is a carbon fibre boat built around a single purpose.
Williams makes no attempt to soften that. Pointing to online listings and YouTube footage from her Australian racing days, he was straightforward: "She's not a cruiser. She's a racing boat."
The canting keel gives her an edge over other 40-footers once conditions build. During the 2022 Three Kings race, Mr Kite II was consistently reaching speeds of 20 to 24 knots, crossing the line in second place behind the Bakewell-White TP52 Wired and ahead of several larger yachts. She also took second on fully crewed PHS handicap. In 2024, she came home fourth across the line. Williams keeps his goals clear. "There's always a race within the 40 footers," he says. "Being first 40-footer home is always what we're looking for."
*The sailor*
Williams came up through dinghy racing at Murrays Bay and in the early 1990s was part of the RNZYS Youth Programme under Harold Bennett, sailing Elliott 5.9s. One of his crewmates from that period was Craig Satterthwaite, who later became his best man and has co-skippered Mr Kite II in several of her bigger races, including the 2020 Round North Island.
Etchells, Elliott 5.9s, and Young 88s followed before Williams worked his way up to the Cape 40. He describes Mr Kite II without embellishment: "Fast and relatively easy to sail." From someone who handles a canting keeler in offshore conditions, that reads less like modesty and more like genuine familiarity. The crew dynamic is equally settled. "We're fortunate the crew we have have sailed together for a long time. There's no issue with the humans on board."
*Thursday's race*
Four crew are heading north with Williams for this edition, a number that sits somewhere between the two-handed sailing he and Satterthwaite have done together and a full complement.
"We quite enjoy sailing with a few less people," he says.
Watch rotations will be shaped by whatever the weather delivers. In easy conditions, a rolling watch suits the boat. If things turn demanding around the top of the North Island, all four will be on deck.
Three days out from the start, the forecast was pointing toward a fast run north. Williams did not dismiss the idea of being back by Saturday morning. "The word 'bat out of hell' might not be wrong," he said, though he was equally clear-eyed about what the top of the country can throw at a crew. "North of Cape Reinga is not somewhere I'm super familiar with. Both times I've done it have been so different. We've been downwind to the Three Kings the first time and upwind the second."
The boat he is watching most closely belongs to Graham Matthews: the Marten 55 Equilibrium. A yacht of that size, given a favourable breeze, carries the waterline length to pull clear of a 40-footer even accounting for the handicap. Williams is not conceding the race, though. He believes Mr Kite II can put time on Equilibrium over the water, and thinks the weather developing for later in the week may not play to the bigger boat's strengths.
He was candid about the fact that the summer had been quieter than he would have liked, with limited racing on the boat in the lead-up. Even so, Mr Kite II is in good shape, the four people on board have enough shared hours to dispense with any settling-in period, and the boat carries a proven record in this particular race. Five hundred nautical miles up the country and back is a long way, and Williams is heading north with good reason to think that form will hold.
