Two New Zealand yachts have locked in their places in the 81st Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, bound for the Boxing Day start on Sydney Harbour with contrasting backstories and a shared sense of scores yet to be settled.
*Vixen Racing: first across the line at registration*
Sharon Ferris-Choat wasted no time. When entries opened in late May, her Verdier 40 Vixen Racing was among the very first through the door, earning the Bay of Islands Yacht Club campaign two notable firsts: the inaugural international entry in the 2026 race, and the first entry carrying a female skipper. That eagerness is rooted in disappointment. The 80th edition last year was going well until the second night at sea, when a massive wave put a crew member in serious pain with rib injuries and ended any chance of completing the 628-nautical-mile course.
"We can't wait to be on the start line on Boxing Day," Ferris-Choat said. "It's unfinished business. We were doing so well last year."
At the time of writing, Ferris-Choat is mid-Tasman in the 2026 Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge, with conditions already offering a sharp preview of what December might serve up. Reporting from aboard Vixen Racing with 37 knots on the dial and a lightning storm at her back, she put it plainly: "This is on par with any Sydney to Hobart that I've done at the moment. Just taking one mile at a time."
A two-time Olympian with several world sailing speed records to her name, Ferris-Choat is working to assemble an all-female crew of up to eight for the Hobart start. Four berths are filled, three more candidates are waiting through the Vixen Racing Academy, and a sponsorship push is under way to complete the roster. The campaign will not return Vixen Racing to New Zealand between August and race day. After sailing into Southport and heading south to Sydney, the boat will build competitive miles through the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore, starting with the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race before threading through the Queensland circuit and back to Sydney in time for the December 26 start.
*Ākonga: twenty years between drinks*
Nick Roberts is a different proposition altogether. The Auckland-based skipper is returning to the Sydney Hobart for the first time since 2004, a gap of more than two decades, aboard his Dehler 41 Ākonga. His first start came at 17, barely weeks out of school, and nine more followed over the years before his last appearance in 2004. Coming back now as owner and skipper gives this campaign a personal weight that results alone cannot capture.
"This campaign is about building toward something that's been a long-standing personal goal," Roberts says. "To complete my tenth Sydney to Hobart, and to do it as owner and skipper."
The build-up has been methodical. Since acquiring the Judel/Vrolijk-designed cruiser-racer in 2022, Roberts has accumulated offshore miles across five races spanning New Zealand and Australia: the Three Kings Race, the Coastal Classic, the Cabbage Tree Island Race, the Bird Island Race, and finally the Hobart itself. A solo passage through Fiji and New Caledonia, a first place in the Two-Handed Division of the Three Kings Race in 2024, and extensive short-handed work across multiple events have all fed into his preparation. For the Sydney Hobart, he will be joined by long-time two-handed partner Max Livingstone, navigator Andrew Hall of Sail IQ, and bowman Ryan Mills, who is making his first start in the race.
Roberts carries no illusions about what awaits in Bass Strait. "At 3am in Bass Strait, you're not thinking about results. You're thinking about the next wave, the next decision, and looking after your crew." For him, success is measured not by a finishing position but by crossing the line proud of how his team sailed.
*The wider field*
With entries closing towards the end of October, the 2026 fleet is still assembling. Twenty-four yachts are confirmed to date, and the early list is as notable for who is missing as for who has signed on. None of last year's top five IRC finishers have yet committed, and of the 2025 top five on PHS, only Cyan Moon has re-entered. Neither of the Maritimo yachts has appeared on the list.
The boat generating the most interest among the current entries is Palm Beach XI, the vessel formerly known as Wild Oats XI and the holder of nine Line Honours victories. Skipper Mark Richards will use the race to deploy the boat's new C-foil configuration for the first time, having kept things conservative through the 80th edition. Grant Wharington's Wild Thing 100 arrives with its own unresolved story after rigging damage cut his 2025 campaign short on the very first night. The Philippines entry Centennial 5, a Reichel/Pugh 75 carrying Line Honours and IRC victories from the Rolex China Sea Race, brings genuine international depth to the pointy end of the fleet.
Further back in the size range, the TP52 Smuggler is a reliable handicap threat when conditions suit the mid-size boats. Chutzpah's Bruce Taylor is woven into Hobart folklore for holding the unusual distinction of more divisional wins than almost anyone else in the race's history, all without ever lifting the overall Tattersall Cup.
Within that broader fleet, the two New Zealand boats occupy quite different territory. Vixen Racing, as a purpose-built offshore racer, sits closer in character to the GP42 and TP52 end of the IRC field. Ākonga belongs firmly in the cruiser-racer bracket, where it will share its division with Wings, a Dehler 46 out of NSW, giving the German marque two representatives on the start line. That 38-to-46-foot bracket is well populated, and it is where Roberts and his experienced offshore crew will be looking to leave their mark.
Six months remain until the Boxing Day start on Sydney Harbour.
