trans tasman single handed yacht race

• Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge

SYC Hosted Finish for NZ The Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge

Race start: 13:00 9 april 2023.

The Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge competitors spend days at sea alone and pit their skills, mental capacity and physical agility against ferocious weather conditions, huge seas and the worry of being hit by a ship, whale or frequent gear failure.

SOLO TRANS-TASMAN CHALLENGE 2023

The Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge has been an inspirational link between New Zealand and Australia for more than 50 years, so it’s fitting that our new major sponsor also has Trans-Tasman links.

Ray White New Plymouth has come on board with the naming rights for the next race starting at Easter in 2023. That’s a level of support that the real estate franchise owners, Jane and Carey Simonson, say reflects the reach of the Ray White brand. The brand began and grew in Australia before extending its business across the Tasman to New Zealand and Ray White is now a leading real estate business throughout Australasia.

“We liked the link between New Zealand and Australia,” Jane says. “The challenge event starts here at the New Plymouth Yacht Club, and with the supportive relationship between the Ray White offices in both countries, our sponsorship is a good fit.”

A change in destination for the 14 th  race also improves the fit, Jane notes. Instead of Mooloolaba, the race will now finish further along Queensland’s Gold Coast at the Southport Yacht Club. “There’s also a Ray White Marine office there, and a Ray White Marina.”

An association with ocean-going yachts is a new experience for Jane, although Carey can draw upon an earlier career that involved offshore surveying.

“I really respect the challenge of doing a solo yacht race,” Jane says. “It’s outside anything I could comprehend and I admire their courage.”

Carey has been on a few yachts over the years, and his offshore surveying work gave him a taste of the conditions that the solo sailors might encounter. “I was on a 45m boat in 10m seas for eight or nine hours before we came back to port. It felt like chaos.”

His experiences though were as part of a crew – seriously different to a solo sail. “I do like yachting, but I couldn’t do it.”

The couple have sponsored a variety of community events and organisations through their Ray White business. Jane says they are happy to help. “The reward is being part of the community and we are proud we are able to help fund all those things. There are so many volunteers involved and to help fund their amazing work is the least we can do.”

The solo yacht race sponsorship adds a different aspect. “The solo yachties are inspirational … there’s a parallel with achieving dreams that people respond to … whether it’s tackling something challenging like that or developing their dreams for a new home or business.”

Jane and Carey say they are looking forward to being part of the excitement that will be generated by the mass departure of the yachts from Port Taranaki – and also being there at Southport to welcome the first yacht in.

Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge race director Dianne Holdt and race secretary Annette Lamb welcome the support of their new sponsor.

“Ray White is a relatively new franchise in New Plymouth, giving us both an opportunity to build a lasting relationship,” says Dianne. “Ray White is building its profile in New Plymouth and is already synonymous with community involvement. Their local knowledge and nationwide network backs up the race position in the community.

“We are looking forward to working with the team to promote the race, led by Jane Simonson’s infectious passion for the adventure that solo sailors have ahead of them.”

Annette says the race committee is excited that both sides of the Tasman are represented by the real estate firm’s involvement. “Ray White has a high profile and there is a lot of awareness of the brand and support for them.”

It’s also appropriate that a New Plymouth sponsor is behind the event again. The race began in New Plymouth in the late 1960s, a vision of New Plymouth Yacht Club members Howard Vosper, Dennis Lobb and Phillip Goodsell. They planned a race every four years in a similar format to the Observer Singlehanded Trans Atlantic Race from Plymouth in the UK to Newport, Rhode Island in the US and the first Trans-Tasman event took place in 1970.

Local naming rights sponsors over the years have included Fitzroy Yachts and the Daily News. Such support now from Ray White New Plymouth will help carry the race through into its second 50 years, Annette says. “It’s still very popular on the world scene and the international yachting community follows the race. It’s the only solo ocean race in the southern hemisphere.”

Initial plans for the 14 th  Solo Tasman event were to see it set off at Easter 2022. But the uncertainty of all the Covid conditions prompted a reassessment of the options. With as much as a year needed by the yacht skippers to plan and prepare for the event, a decision was made to postpone the race until Easter 2023.

The last Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge in 2018 was won by Hamish Dickson in nine days and nine hours. His father Malcolm was 12 hours behind in second place. There are three divisions planned for the 2023 race – First Adventure Monohull, First Adventure Multihull, and IRC (International Rating Certificate), with the Sir Francis Chichester Trophy awarded for Line Honours.

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Trans- Tasman Solo Yacht Race 2023: Race entries roll in

Sailors will race single-handedly across the Tasman Sea from New Plymouth to Southport in April 2023.

New Plymouth’s local paper, The Daily News, hit the nail on the head in a 1967 editorial: “There is an exciting challenge in the proposed singlehanded yacht race between New Plymouth and Brisbane,” it said.

“Over 1,400 miles of the Tasman Sea, an area that can produce seas to test the skilled yachtsman, the race could be one of the most demanding ever held.”

Little did the writer realise that the race would become the oldest continually run singlehanded yacht race in the world, be contested by the first women to complete a singlehanded offshore race, and generate some of the country’s best sailing stories.

And the next four-yearly race is scheduled to sail from New Plymouth for Southport in April 2023 with a fleet of about 11 entrants.

One rule change imposed by the race organisers, the New Plymouth Yacht Club, is a ban on yachts 9m (30 ft) or shorter, on the grounds they are “too dangerous.”

This counters experience from the race. There have been 12 single-handed races from New Plymouth since it first began in 1970 – and 106 entries, of which over ten have been 9m or less.

Andrew Fagan in his 5.3m Swirly World in Perpetuity sailed the 1994 Trans-Tasman and Wild Child, a 6.5m mini Transat skippered by Phil Bowers, finished within an hour or so ahead of Tony Mowbray in his 13.5m Coles design Solo Globe Challenger. Aucklander Trish Lewis put in a creditable performance in her 7.62m Whiting Reactor during the 2014 event.

That is not to mention the hundreds of ocean passages and races safely completed elsewhere in the world by yachts of 9m or less.

When the race was first proposed, there was only one other singlehanded ocean race in the world – the Observer Singlehanded Atlantic Race (OSTAR). The around the world Golden Globe Race, currently being run, which doesn’t allow the use of electronic navigation or communication, has started to honour the early sailors and their skill sets.

But meanwhile there have been several cancellations of OSTAR events, which means the Solo Tasman is the longest continually run event. Previous races have finished at Mooloolaba in Queensland, but it is not a customs clearance port whereas Southport is.

Long-time race supporter Kay Cottee owns a boatbuilding establishment at Yamba just over 200km further south. She competed in the 1986 race in Cinnamon Scrub and went on to become the first woman to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted, around the world.

Next year’s event is sponsored by New Plymouth land agents Ray White and is called the Ray White Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge.

There are 11 confirmed entrants to date, race secretary Annette Arms said. Among them is former Nelson boatbuilder/designer, Malcolm Dickson, who finished 12 hours behind his son Hamish in the 2018 race. His first solo Tasman race was the 1978 event.

Auckland yachtsman Alan Yardley has also entered Melting Point, his 9m Ross, and will be sailing his third single-handed race across the Tasman.

They’ll be up against the record of 6d 7h 13m set by Reini Gelder sailing his Crowther trimaran, Shark Angel, in the 2014 race.

The race is run in five classes: Adventure Monohull, Adventure Multihull, IRC and the Sir Francis Chichester Trophy for the line honours winner. Chichester, was the first person to sail around the world single-handedly by the clipper route and an early supporter of the solo Tasman race.

“Any race is a good race,” he’s quoted as telling organisers of the Tasman event. BNZ

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Ray White joins fleet for Solo Trans-Tasman 50th

The 50th anniversary of the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge in 2023 will not only feature a new finishing destination but also a new naming rights sponsor with Ray White New Plymouth coming on board.

The 14th edition of the race will finish at the Southport Yacht Club on Queensland’s Gold Coast rather than Mooloolaba, which will make it easier for sailors to clear customs. It will once again start next April from the New Plymouth Yacht Club where it has started every time since the first race in 1973.

The Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge is contested every four years and is the second-oldest continuously-run single-handed ocean race in the world. It's also the only race of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the 2023 race will cover 1240 nautical miles.

Three classes will be catered for: Adventure class - monohull, adventure class - multihull - and IRC. The line honours winner is awarded the Sir Francis Chichester Trophy.

Reini Gelder set a new race record in 2014 when he completed the journey on the trimaran  Shark Angel  in 6 days, 7hrs and 13mins at an average speed of just over 8 knots. 

Ray White is a leading real estate business throughout Australasia but it's appropriate a local franchise has come on board as the naming rights sponsor.

“The reward is being part of the community and we are proud we are able to help with sponsorship," real estate franchise co-owner Jane Simonson said. "There are many volunteers involved and to help fund their amazing work is the least we can do.

“The solo yachties are inspirational. There’s a parallel with achieving dreams that people respond to, whether it’s tackling something challenging like that or developing their dreams for a new home or business.

“We liked the link between New Zealand and Australia. With the supportive relationship between the Ray White offices in both New Plymouth and Southport, our sponsorship is a good fit. 

"I really respect the challenge of doing a solo yacht race. It’s outside anything I could comprehend and I admire their courage.”

Carey Simonson, franchise co-owner, has been on a few yachts over the years, and his offshore surveying work gave him a taste of the conditions that the solo sailors might encounter.

See here for more information on the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge and follow their Facebook page here . 

• Main pic: The fleet leaving New Plymouth in 2018.

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