For the Vixen Racing team, the call was straightforward, and safety carried the day without contest. Their Class 40, Vixen Racing, will sit out this year's Three Kings Offshore Race after the squad withdrew ahead of Cyclone Vaianu, a category 2 system that MetService described as a very large and damaging event. The Far North copped the worst of it first, with strong winds, heavy rain, and rough seas hitting the region hard.
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's biennial offshore classic spans 500 nautical miles: the fleet leaves Auckland, tracks north past Cape Reinga, rounds the remote Three Kings Islands, and returns to the Waitematā. Sharon Ferris-Choat and the Vixen Racing crew had been building toward the event with real intent, having run previous campaigns on the same course.
The original plan had called for the rig to go back in before the start, but the advancing cyclone swept that aside. The mast and boom were pulled and stowed at Oceana Marine Shipyards in Whangārei, while Vixen Racing herself was tied down with one-tonne blocks to weather whatever Vaianu brought.
"We chose not to do it, we chose to keep her safe," Ferris-Choat posted to social media as conditions deteriorated. "We can rest easy that she is prepared for the cyclone to come."
The disruption pushed reassembly back far enough that a return to the Three Kings startline was never a realistic option. The team's attention has since shifted firmly to what lies ahead.
"We will concentrate now fully on the solo Tasman Race and getting Vixen to Australia for the whole Eastern Circuit," Ferris-Choat said. "We can't wait."
The eastern Australian offshore circuit sits at the core of the Vixen Racing 2026 programme. The team is entered in the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge, departing Opua on 30 May bound for the Southport Yacht Club on Australia's Gold Coast, with a full schedule of Australian offshore racing to follow.
Cyclone Vaianu tracked south across the North Island on Sunday 12 April, delivering damaging winds of up to 140 km/h, heavy rainfall, and the risk of coastal inundation. For boats in yards up and down the country, the weekend meant securing lines, watching the forecasts, and waiting for the system to clear.
The Three Kings fleet will head north this year without Vixen Racing in its ranks, but Ferris-Choat and her team have already fixed their sights firmly on the Tasman crossing.
