Twenty-four hours in, the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race has scattered its seven-boat fleet along the Northland coast, yet every boat remains a genuine contender. Clockwork is bearing down on the islands, someone aboard Ākonga had beef and mozzarella pies in the oven yesterday afternoon, and this morning a crew member on Motorboat III began the day at the top of the mast. The most consequential miles still lie ahead.
The 2022 record set by Wired is no longer in reach. Clockwork ran into light air at 2am, and with it any prospect of matching that benchmark disappeared. At the equivalent moment in that record run, Wired had already rounded past Cape Reinga with just 214 nautical miles remaining. Today's fleet leaders are still heading north, 259 nautical miles into their race. The record is beyond reach. The race is not.
The description of conditions has been consistent across dispatches since the start. Fast and wet covers it, with minor differences in wording depending on who is reporting.
Steve Mair's Shaw 12 Clockwork has set the pace throughout. Covering 225 nautical miles in the opening 24 hours, they hold the best distance-made-good figure in the fleet and carry a 17-nautical-mile advantage over Mr Kite II on line honours. At 11:08pm last night the crew captured their situation with characteristic brevity: "Brilliant sailing, very fast, very wet, and now a bit lighter. Dinner was delicious."
The numbers, though, are working against them. A PHRF handicap of 1.030 means Clockwork is conceding time to most of the fleet on corrected time. They lead there too, for now, but that margin is considerably narrower than their position on the water suggests. Every additional hour at sea costs Clockwork more than it costs Motorboat III or Carpe Diem. For this crew, pace is not simply an advantage. It is the only means of protecting a result.
LINE HONOURS LEADERBOARD — updated 24h snapshot — paste into WordPress classic editor HTML/Text tab
| Pos | Boat | Skipper | DTF | Dist sailed | VMG | 24h DMG | Est. finish | Est. elapsed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clockwork | Steve Mair | 259 NM | 236 NM | 9.4 kts | 225 NM | 18 Apr 14:43 | 2d 3h 43m |
| 2 | Mr Kite II | Nathan Williams | 276 NM | 216 NM | 8.7 kts | 208 NM | 18 Apr 18:49 | 2d 7h 49m |
| 3 | Equilibrium | Graham Matthews | 284 NM | 208 NM | 8.3 kts | 200 NM | 18 Apr 21:04 | 2d 10h 4m |
| 4 | Motorboat III | Damon Jolliffe | 289 NM | 206 NM | 8.1 kts | 195 NM | 18 Apr 22:26 | 2d 11h 26m |
| 5 | Higher Ground | John Seely | 319 NM | 169 NM | 6.9 kts | 165 NM | 19 Apr 09:20 | 2d 22h 20m |
| 6 | Akonga | Nick Roberts | 328 NM | 159 NM | 6.5 kts | 156 NM | 19 Apr 13:22 | 3d 2h 22m |
| 7 | Carpe Diem | Rowan Smith | 338 NM | 145 NM | 6.5 kts | 146 NM | 19 Apr 13:05 | 3d 2h 5m |
| DTF = Distance to Finish. VMG = Velocity Made Good. 24h DMG = Distance Made Good in 24 hours. All times NZST. Provisional results — refer to race website for official results. | ||||||||
On line honours, Clockwork leads Mr Kite II and Equilibrium. Switching to PHRF corrected time reshuffles the standings completely. Motorboat III, fourth on the water, climbs to second on handicap. Their rating of 0.931 is trimming nearly four hours from their estimated elapsed time, and Damon Jolliffe's crew appear to be extracting every advantage that rating allows.
Jolliffe was up the mast himself this morning attending to the rig, after which the crew tacked onto the lay line for the Kings. Conditions were light and a little shifty but otherwise pleasant, with sails from Rogue Sails performing well.
PHRF LEADERBOARD — updated 24h snapshot — paste into WordPress classic editor HTML/Text tab
| Pos | Boat | Skipper | Handicap | DTF | Dist sailed | VMG | 24h DMG | Est. finish | Est. elapsed | Corrected elapsed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clockwork | Steve Mair | 1.030 | 259 NM | 236 NM | 9.3 kts | 224 NM | 18 Apr 14:55 | 2d 3h 55m | 2d 5h 29m |
| 2 | Motorboat III | Damon Jolliffe | 0.931 | 289 NM | 206 NM | 8.1 kts | 195 NM | 18 Apr 22:26 | 2d 11h 26m | 2d 7h 20m |
| 3 | Mr Kite II | Nathan Williams | 0.995 | 276 NM | 216 NM | 8.7 kts | 208 NM | 18 Apr 18:49 | 2d 7h 49m | 2d 7h 33m |
| 4 | Carpe Diem | Rowan Smith | 0.778 | 338 NM | 145 NM | 6.5 kts | 146 NM | 19 Apr 13:05 | 3d 2h 5m | 2d 9h 38m |
| 5 | Equilibrium | Graham Matthews | 1.059 | 284 NM | 208 NM | 8.3 kts | 200 NM | 18 Apr 21:04 | 2d 10h 4m | 2d 13h 30m |
| 6 | Akonga | Nick Roberts | 0.833 | 328 NM | 159 NM | 6.5 kts | 156 NM | 19 Apr 13:22 | 3d 2h 22m | 2d 13h 57m |
| 7 | Higher Ground | John Seely | 0.888 | 319 NM | 169 NM | 6.9 kts | 165 NM | 19 Apr 09:20 | 2d 22h 20m | 2d 14h 28m |
| DTF = Distance to Finish. VMG = Velocity Made Good. 24h DMG = Distance Made Good in 24 hours. Corrected elapsed = estimated elapsed time × handicap factor. All times NZST. Provisional results — refer to race website for official results. | ||||||||||
The most striking handicap story in the fleet belongs to Carpe Diem. Rowan Smith's Elliott 1060 sits last on the water by a considerable margin, yet a handicap of 0.778, the lowest in the fleet, has lifted them to fourth on corrected time, ahead of both Equilibrium and Ākonga despite occupying the rearmost position on the tracker. Last on the water, fourth on the leaderboard that matters for the trophy. Offshore handicap racing doing exactly what it was designed to do.
At the opposite end of the rating scale, Graham Matthews' Botin/Carkeek 55 Equilibrium shoulders the heaviest handicap in the fleet at 1.059. Third on line honours and sailing well, they drop to fifth on the corrected sheet. For a boat of Equilibrium's capability, outright speed is the only currency available and the handicap is a fixed cost that cannot be argued away. Racing to the absolute limit of what boat and crew can produce defines a good campaign here, whatever the corrected results eventually record.
Two groups have taken shape on the tracker and remained largely stable since the race began. Clockwork, Mr Kite II, Equilibrium, and Motorboat III form the leading pack, pushing north toward the Three Kings Islands. Some distance back, Higher Ground, Ākonga, and Carpe Diem are conducting their own separate contest, close enough among themselves to keep that battle genuinely alive.
Nick Roberts' Dehler 41 Ākonga has provided the most entertaining commentary of the race so far. Transiting the Tiri Passage yesterday, the crew noted weather building ahead and a reef back in the main, though the more pressing concern on board was five beef and mozzarella pies in the oven, with Sandy on galley duty and a 20-minute ETA. A knockdown near Kawau Island added a brief jolt of excitement, absorbed by the crew without much fuss. "A bit of a gust caught us and we went over a little bit. I should have kept filming."
By this morning, rounding into Doubtless Bay, Roberts had settled into a quieter register. He described a beautiful evening racing in company with Carpe Diem and Higher Ground, shooting stars during the night watches, and good rest between shifts. "No major challenges," he said. It reads like the account of a crew that is tired in exactly the way offshore sailors hope to be, and precisely where they want to be in the race.
PredictWind is forecasting manageable but building conditions at the Three Kings Islands through today and into tonight, covering the window when most of the fleet will be rounding and turning for home. Wind this morning sits westerly at 3 knots, building to north-westerly 6, with mostly fine conditions and a south-westerly swell of 2.7 metres at 10 seconds. Through the afternoon the north-westerly builds to 8 knots under partly cloudy skies, strengthening further to 12 knots into the evening as the swell eases slightly to 2.6 metres.
Overnight the picture changes. A northerly is forecast to build from 12 knots to 20, with gusts reaching 25, and the swell holding at 2.5 metres at 11 seconds through until 5am. Higher Ground, Ākonga, and Carpe Diem will most likely be making their approach or completing their rounding in that window, turning for home into conditions considerably more demanding than those Clockwork will encounter earlier in the day.
How each boat times its rounding could shape the final result as decisively as anything from the opening 24 hours. Turning for home into 20 knots with gusts to 25, after a long first leg, will ask hard questions of both crews and boats. The race may yet be decided on the return.
