A safety and weather briefing for the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race was held just steps from where the fleet would depart the following morning. Skippers and crew, many of whom had been gathering through the week, shared a common observation: the entry list this year is noticeably thinner than those of the 2024 and 2022 editions. Running through almost every conversation was a shared desire to reverse that decline, rebuild a proper offshore fleet, and rekindle enthusiasm for blue-water sailing among New Zealanders.
RNZYS Race Officer Colin Lucas wasted no time getting to communications protocol. Nobody was leaving the briefing until they had a clear picture of what happens when a boat goes quiet. Twice-daily position reports are mandatory, with the morning window running from 0700 to 0730 and the evening window from 1900 to 1930. Miss one, and a defined sequence follows. RNZYS will attempt to reach the boat directly. If that contact fails, Maritime Radio New Zealand is called upon to hail on Channel 16. Because every competing vessel's details are lodged with Maritime Radio before the start, the agency already knows who is out there. Continued silence then passes the matter to Rescue Coordination New Zealand.
"I'd rather not go there," Lucas said. "So I go back to reporting at the scheduled times, please."
Every boat in the fleet carries a Yellow Brick tracker, the commercial satellite tracking service that offshore races worldwide depend on once mobile coverage has faded. Shore teams and followers can watch the fleet's movements in real time. Each unit also features a red alert function, which one person in the room described as the "beam me up Scotty button." Lifting the cover and pressing for five seconds starts a countdown to zero. The alert does not fire once and go quiet. It keeps transmitting until someone ashore acknowledges it. Last resort only.
The topic of trackers prompted a story that brought the room to laughter. At a previous edition of the race, a crew member had simply not returned their Yellow Brick after finishing, and race management found themselves watching the device travel all the way to the owner's house. Sailing Manager Ella Sagnol delivered the reminder plainly: "Do not take them home."
Lucas moved on to the forecast, and the atmosphere in the room shifted. The previous two editions had given race management a hard time with the weather, but this year's outlook was a different story. Lucas described it as a glamour race. A wind hole is anticipated during the open-water crossing between North Cape and the Three Kings Islands, but even with that factored in, the faster boats are predicted to reach the islands around 6pm Saturday. The southerly is expected to build on the return leg, keeping things moving, with the finish window opening Saturday evening.
Before the briefing closed, Sagnol had her own announcement. She singled out Carpe Diem, Rowan Smith's Elliott 1060, as the last boat to enter the race and yet the first to have every piece of documentation submitted and complete. The crew were presented with treats in front of everyone assembled. Chasing paperwork from sailors is a familiar feature of any offshore event, which is exactly why finishing it first earns a public mention.
The entry numbers also led Sagnol to pose a direct question to the room: does the Three Kings need to change? She floated several possibilities, among them running the event biennially rather than annually, alternating between a Cat 2 and a Cat 3 format, shifting the date away from April, or moving it to a long weekend. She had already gathered ideas from a number of crews before the briefing started and was looking for more.
No single answer came back, and that was perhaps appropriate. The Three Kings is one of the last Cat 2 races remaining on the New Zealand calendar, and the people running it understand that keeping it alive may mean running it differently. Starting those conversations now, while the event still has committed support behind it, matters for the broader offshore sailing scene in this country.
Outside, the forecast was holding. A westerly at the start, a fast run north, and if Colin Lucas had it right, most boats back in Auckland by Saturday evening.
