Maximus to stretch her legs

News of the Auckland to Tauranga race and her 30m entrant

The historic annual yacht race - The Navman Steve’s Marine Supplies Ultimate Coastal Challenge, from Auckland to Tauranga over Easter weekend will include entrant Maximus, the brand new super maxi launched in Auckland only a few weeks ago on February 14th. (Read the Dec 2004 article on the boat here)

This will be the first ever race for Maximus and the last in NZ until 2006 as she is being shipped to the northern hemisphere race circuit immediately afterwards.

Maximus’ owners, Bill Buckley and Charles St C Brown, are confident that they have built the fastest and most innovative super maxi. It is the biggest racing yacht built in New Zealand at 30m (100ft) long. Designed by Greg Elliot and Clay Oliver and built at Cookson’s boat yard in Auckland the yacht’s distinguishing features are its retractable canting keel and rotating wing mast. On board Maximus for the race will be a crew of 24 including America’s Cup veterans, project manager and sailing master George Hendy, the two owners and the designer.

In 2004 fifty yachts entered the race with over half being from out of town. At an average of seven crew per yacht there were over 200 visiting crew members plus their friends and family in Tauranga over the holiday weekend hosted by the yacht club and enjoying the festivities - including the Montana Jazz Festival. There are currently over forty yachts entered for 2005, including 72ft mono hull Beecom, multi hull McMoggy and last year’s record breaker multi hull Sundreamer.

Race organisers are confident that numbers for 2005 will match those of last year by the time the yachts line up at the start.

This year the race briefing will be held at RNZYS at 6pm on Wednesday 23rd with the race start on Thursday 24th March at 10.00 am for multi hulls and 10.05 am for keelers at Westhaven, Auckland. The boats will race to Tauranga and depending on the wind strength could finish any time from approximately 6pm on Thursday night until Friday afternoon.

In their third year of sponsorship in association with Navman and International Marine
Coatings, Steve Glover, MD of Steve’s Marine Supplies has done the race every year since he started walking. No-one has done more races than he and his father. Glover said: “90% of yachting is pretty ordinary, 9% is really cool and 1% is absolutely awesome. Last year was a one percenter. We can only hope that this year’s weather will give us at least a nine percenter but the entrants, particularly Maximus and Beecom will see a great battle on the water no matter what.”

At over 120 nautical miles in its shortest possible distance the Navman Steve’s Marine Supplies Ultimate Coastal Challenge could take up to thirty six hours depending on the conditions. Racing at night, with a couple of narrow channels, the race requires stamina as well as sailing skill. It is more challenging than other races in that this race has a dog leg in it rather than just being a straight course.

Traditionally starting on the Thursday before Easter at Westhaven in Auckland the race takes Channel Island to starboard then down the east coast of Coromandel to pass through "the hole in the wall" between the Mercury Islands and the mainland, then past Slipper Island to finish off the entrance to Tauranga Harbour at A Beacon.

The first race started on Boxing Day 1921 and was run most years until 1966. In 1982 it was resurrected as an Easter race and has been run as such for most years since. Absolute Marine’s Navman Marketing Manager Mike Read said “We are keen to support local club events and to work with motivated distributors such as Steve’s Marine in a prestigious race that has a long standing reputation - such as the Auckland to Tauranga.”

The race record, achieved in 2004, stands at 9 hours 35 minutes held by super maxi Konica Minolta (formerly Zana) owned by Stewart Thwaites and designed by Brett Bakewell-White. Sponsors CRC are again offering the CRC Coastal Challenge - a NZ$5000 prize for any boat that breaks their division record. Last year four divisional records were broken with CRC paying out NZ$20,000.

Race prizes with a total of more than NZ$20,000 will be up for grabs. Prize giving will be held at the TYPBC Clubhouse on Saturday 26th March at a celebration breakfast starting at 8.30am. Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place-getters in each division and line honours in each of the 4 major divisions.

The Yacht Club will be open all evening for the boats’ arrivals on Thursday 24th. On Good Friday, 25th March, the Club will be open breakfast, lunch and dinner with a Jazz Festival band playing in the afternoon and “Night Haze” in the evening. The public are warmly invited to visit the event with family and friends over the weekend and enjoy some Tauranga Yacht Club hospitality. Courtesy vehicles supplied by Sheaff Autos will be available to transport our visitors to and from the marinas or downtown areas.