Ray White Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge - Trial by Tasman
by Lindsay Wright 1 Apr 2023 04:15 PDT
2 April 2023
Start Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Race © New Plymouth Yacht Club
The rocky shoreline of down town New Plymouth is face to face with the often turbulent Tasman Sea. There are no offshore islands or reefs to protect the township and inbound rollers smash against the rocky seafront.
Hardly the makings of the start line for a solo yacht race, but at 1.00pm on Easter Sunday, the ten entrants in the Ray White Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge will sail out from between the harbour breakwaters, along the foreshore and square away for Southport, Queensland about 1400nm (2600km) away.
Race skippers will work alone, with no one else for company or encouragement, day and night, storm or calm for two weeks or more to make their fastest possible Tasman crossing.
Some of them have designed and built their own boats and others are headed across the Tasman in the family yacht.
The event began with a battling trio of local sailors; Howard Vosper, Phillip Goodsell and Dennis Lobb.
"They'd just held the second OSTAR (Observer Singlehanded Trans Atlantic Race) and we thought "what a great idea - we could have a race like that here,"" Vosper recalled.
"I'd never been offshore in a yacht," he said, "but I could see what a great idea, a challenge and an adventure it would be."
So, fired up with enthusiasm, the men approached the 1967 AGM of the New Plymouth Yacht Club. "We thought they'd get right behind it," he said. But the yacht club gave a resounding thumbs down. "We got the impression it was just too big for them...their business was teaching kids to sail dinghies in the harbour - and if any lunatics wanted to sail across the Tasman on their own - good luck to 'em."
Undeterred, the men approached the New Zealand Yachting Federation but received a similar response.
The trio plugged on, and with advice from the Onerahi Yacht Club, which had organised Whangarei to Noumea races, the first singlehanded ocean yacht race in the southern hemisphere left New Plymouth in 1970 and has done every four years or so since.
Early support came from famous English circumnavigator, Sir Francis Chichester. "Any race is a good race," he told the men, "just don't get bogged down by too many rules." He sent them a copy of the OSTAR rules and a trophy - the Chichester trophy - for the line honours winner.
American Marvin Glenn in his trimaran Rebel took line honours. His interest in the race was mostly pecuniary; "I've been sailing around the Pacific Islands for four years on very little income;" he aid, " the $Aus 500 prize money will really come in handy."
The sole Australian entrant, Charles Ure, tailed the fleet into Moloolaba in a time of 19d 2h 51m.
And ever since the vent has attracted fleets of Australasia's staunchest daredevils, sailors, adventurers and eccentrics.
In 1974 ten entrants turned up in New Plymouth for the next race. Among them was Christchurch laboratory technician, Annette Wilde, who had also built her own boat, Valya.
She became the worlds first female skipper in a singlehanded ocean race and claimed to have crocheted a pillow slip for her mothers birthday en route. She also admitted that she couldn't swim; "there's nowhere to swim to out there anyway."
Waiheke Island engineer, Bill Belcher, won the race with Raha, the Tucker 24 he and his wife had sailed from England in.
Stung by criticism that he must have cheated, Belcher commissioned design guru John Spencer to design a new boat to win the solo Tasman race with. As the boat neared completion, the handicap system was metricated which would have penalised the new boat, Josephine 11. So, ever pragmatic, Belcher took a chainsaw and cut 300mm off the bow of the boat.
"She's the only pram bowed ocean racing boat in the world," he boasted.
In 1978, 15 yachts crossed the start line including Tasmanian skipper Ian Johnstone in Bullfrog Sunblock, the first sponsored entrant. He set a course record of 6d 8h 50m which was destined to stand until 2014.
At the other end of the scale was expat Englishman, Rodger Taylor in his 5.5m ferro cement Roc. He had been wrecked on the north New Zealand coast in Endeavour11, a replica of Captain Cook's ship and landed in New Zealand with a small bag of clothing to his name.
He secured a job in Hamilton, rented a hay barn and built Roc to a Donovan design. It was the only boat he could afford at the time and he planned to sail it home to the UK after finishing the race. In the event, it took him 35 days to cross the Tasman and he elected to give the boat away and go home by freighter.
Meanwhile, navigating by sextant in appalling weather, Belcher ran onto Middleton Reef. When the weather eased, he cast off in his liferaft and and left Josephine 11 high and dry. He drifted for 27 days before being rescued by a Nauru Island supply ship.
She was he first of two boats lost in the race - but no lives.
Another Australian, Kay Cottee, raced Cinnamon Scrub and went on to circumnavigate the World and become Australian Yachts person of the Year. First of the five Kiwis to finish was Peter Clausen in Manaroa.
It seemed like New Plymouths solo Tasman yacht race was in danger of becoming and Aussie preserve.
But in 1990 the balance was back with ten boats from either side of the Tasman lining up for the start. Among them was the winner, 82 year old Australian Alby Burgin in his 16m Adams designed Alstar.
The 1994 race started out with six entrants, four New Zealanders and two Australian. Andrew Fagan, a woolly headed rock musician from the group The Mockers started with his 5.3m Swirly World in Perpetuity. Jim Lowe sailing Chinchilla won in 9d7h17m and Fagan's little plywood sloop bobbed across the finish line about a week later.
The age of the multihulls had started with Johnstone in Bullfrog Sunblock but was cemented in place by Robin Chamberlin, winner of the 1998 event sailing Excess. At 7d 16h3m he wasn't too far off Johnstone's record and Nelson boatbuilder/designer Alister Dickson was second in Solo, a day or so later. There were 12 yachts in the fleet, four of them Australian.
Numbers had dwindled to three in 2002. Phil Bower in Wild Child, a mini transat, Tony Mowbray, also Australian, sailed Solo Globe Challenger and the also ran was Aucklander Brettan Holland in Skiddy Too. Amazingly Wild Child beat Mowbray into Moolooaba by an hour and 50 minutes, despite having slightly more than half the other boats waterline length. "Huh,"Mowbray said, "but how many roast dinners did he have?"
Holland started late and sailed a dismal third but just over a day after the Australian duo.
In 2001, the New Plymouth Yacht Club announced that they were going to cancel the classic race. A public meeting was held and a unanimous vote called for them to recant.
A new committee, mostly non club members but experienced offshore sailors, was elected.
With limited lead in time, they held the next race in 2007, five years after the 2002 event. The NPYC claimed that "No one wanted to race across the Tasman" so the first and last two handed class as introduced. The singlehanded event attracted 12 entries and three entered the two handed.
Bruce Arms, in his Chamberlin designed and self built catamaran was disappointed not to break Johnstones record but won in a creditable 7d7h37m. He went on to set a record for a singlehanded multihull circumnavigation of Australia.
Bill Byford and Duthie Lidgard made similar time in Pebble Rebel and Byford, a motor neurone disease victim, made a lasting impression with his electric wheelchair wheelies in the Mooloolaba Yacht Club and marina.
Ams was back for another crack at the record in 2010 and once again won the Chichester Trophy for line honours followed by two childhood rivals, Trevor Hill and Jennifer McGibbon from Queensland. Hill pipped McGibbon at the finish by two hours or so, both of them promising that the race between them wasn't over yet.
Auckland nutritionist, Trish Lewis, sailed creditable race but finished last of the 11 strong fleet in her Whiting Reactor, Wishbone.
1998 race veteran, Nelson boatbuilder/designer Alister Dickson has entered Frontier the 2023 event and will be up against his brother, Malcolm Dickson in Sarau.
In 2014 Malcolm finished 12 hours after his son Hamish so the Ray White NP Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge is decidedly a family affair and they bring a huge amount of sailing and seafaring expertise to the race.
Likewise Australian, Jim O'Keefe in Hullabaloo. In his early 80's, O'Keefe did the 1978 and 2018 races but his attempt at the 2010 race was stymied by a dismasting near New Plymouth on the delivery trip from Australia.
Alan Yardley did the 2010 race in Mephisto, a 13m Kauffman deign but he's back this time with an Elliot 9, Melting Pot. He also brings a vast amount of experience to the fleet.
English immigranta nd New Zealand surfing chamption, Lucy Te Moananui, may be a bit outclassed n Nerissa K, a Contessa 32 production yacht from the UK. "I wanted to do something special before I turn 40," the 39 year old said, "and here I am."
A 2005 race veteran, Trevor hill is back with Apriori and has the potential to do well.
For classic boat enthusiasts, Craig Ansley will be racing his 11.8m William Atkins designed double ender, Ingrid. Both boat and skipper are vastly experienced and may have potential to do well n heavy weather. Mike Carter in his Bruce Clarke 42 Allegresse is from Wellingtons RPNYC and have done a lot of two handed cruising and may also be able to make time in the rough.
One thing that is up for grabs is Johnstone's 6d 12h race record. In 2014, Austrian orthodontist Reini Gelder bought a sistership to Johnstone's Bullfrog Sunblock, renamed her Shark Angel (for a maritime conservation organisation), and sailed her to New Plymouth. He carried out a major lightening campaign - incuding drilling holes in cutlery handles - broke the race record, sold the boat and flew home to Vienna.
And this Easter, the show will go on ten skippers v the Tasman, fatigue, cold, damp and weather.
Website: www.solo-tasman.co.nz