Kawau Race Week

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Author: Kawau Island Media

  • Kawau regatta merges with RNZYS Squadron Weekend for late January racing

    Kawau regatta merges with RNZYS Squadron Weekend for late January racing

    Next weekend’s Kawau racing will now run alongside the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Squadron Weekend, after organisers confirmed a combined format with RNZYS. KRWSquadron

    The change follows a decision made after recent uncertainty, with both fleets now sharing start lines and courses across Friday and Saturday. The organisers say the move creates a clearer plan for crews and should help boost numbers on the water. KRWSquadron

    Racing starts on Friday 30 January. The warning signal is set for 6.00pm, with a mass start off the Westhaven start tower. The fleet will finish between Te Kouma, where the RNZYS committee boat will be stationed, and Momona Point. RNZYS will handle the results for the combined racing. KRWSquadron

    There is also a practical win for crews already committed elsewhere. Boats entered in the Commodore’s Cup can race in both events, without needing to choose one over the other. KRWSquadron

    On Saturday 31 January, Kawau boats will again join Squadron Weekend racing. Courses will be based around island options and are not expected to be limited to laps of Kawau Island. Further course details will be issued ahead of racing. KRWSquadron

    Race documents, including the Notice of Race, are available via the RNZYS website. KRWSquadron

    The social calendar splits in two. The Kawau regatta prizegiving will be held at the Kawau Boating Club after Saturday racing, with sponsor prizes to be awarded and a live band booked. RNZYS will host its own prizegiving on the Lidgard House lawn. Tickets and wristbands are required for the Squadron function and are available directly from RNZYS. KRWSquadron

    Entries close at 6.00pm on Wednesday 28 January. New entries are welcome. The entry fee is $50 per race, with online entry opening from Tuesday 27 January.

  • Inaugural Kawau Race Week postponed as severe weather closes in

    Inaugural Kawau Race Week postponed as severe weather closes in

    The first running of Kawau Race Week has been postponed, with organisers shifting the event back a week as the weather forecast for the original window deteriorated.

    This week has already been rough around the upper North Island and the outlook for the weekend was worse, with strong winds expected to hit during the period the regatta was meant to run. For a first time event, the call was straightforward. Better to delay than force a debut in conditions that would be hard on boats, hard on crews, and unlikely to deliver fair racing.

    New dates are now Friday 30 and Saturday 31 January. Organisers are working to keep the format simple and enjoyable. The current plan is a 4pm start on Friday, racing up to Kawau, then two island races on Saturday.

    The weekend will still finish with a prizegiving at Kawau Boating Club, with a live band booked to carry the night. It is the sort of end point the event was built around, race hard, tie up, then settle in for a proper Kawau evening.

    Further details will be confirmed soon. In the meantime, organisers are asking skippers to let them know if they intend to join the rescheduled weekend, so numbers and logistics can be locked in.

    This weekend’s forecast may blow the doors off, but the first Kawau Race Week is not going anywhere. It is simply waiting for a better window to get started.

  • Kawau Race Week as the perfect Farr 1020 playground

    Kawau Race Week as the perfect Farr 1020 playground

    Five Farr 1020 yachts have entered the inaugural Kawau Race Week, highlighting the design’s ongoing suitability for mixed format coastal racing.

    As a first time event, Kawau Race Week presents an unknown test for competitors. Racing around Kawau and surrounding islands introduces a demanding mix of conditions, with a single lap involving sailing in all four directions. Crews can expect shifting wind angles, variable pressure, and strong tidal influence close to the shoreline. With courses ranging from 10 to 14 nautical miles and both clockwise and anticlockwise options, success will favour boats that are balanced, predictable, and easy to sail well across a wide range of conditions.

    That profile matches the Farr 1020’s strengths. Designed by Bruce Farr and built in New Zealand, the Farr 1020 has long been recognised as an all round performer rather than a specialist. Its ability to sail efficiently upwind, reach strongly, and remain manageable as conditions change has kept the design relevant across decades of club and coastal racing.

    Farr reaching success: The Farr 1020 story

    Among the entries is Share Delight, owned by Mike and Sheryl Lanigan since 1996. One of the most actively sailed Farr 1020s in the country, Share Delight has competed extensively in class racing, National Championships, and coastal sailing, reflecting the design’s durability and depth of use.

    Starmaker arrives with recent offshore and shorthanded form, having won the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic on handicap. Co-owned by Matt and Kim Krogstad and Roger Hudson, the Farr 1020 was purchased just over a year ago and has since been developed into a competitive racing platform. The programme has focused on SSANZ racing, Gold Cup events, and the Farr 1020 Nationals, building consistency across multiple formats ahead of Kawau Race Week.

    Starmaker arrives with recent offshore and shorthanded form, having won the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic on handicap. Owned by Matt and Kim Krogstad, the Farr 1020 was purchased just over a year ago and has since been developed into a competitive racing platform. The programme has focused on SSANZ racing, Gold Cup events, and the Farr 1020 Nationals, building consistency across multiple formats ahead of Kawau Race Week.

    PIC Coastal Classic: Stars align for Starmaker

    They are joined by Duncan Leach with Near & Farr, Miles Addy with Aquiline, and Sam Frost with Farrari, completing a compact but representative Farr 1020 group. The appearance of multiple Farr 1020s at the start line points to a design that continues to attract owners looking for versatility, durability, and honest performance.

    Design and specifications

    The Farr 1020 measures just over 10.3 metres overall, with a 3.2 metre beam and a draught of approximately 1.7 metres. Displacement is around 3.7 tonnes, carrying more than 1.4 tonnes of lead in a fixed fin keel. A fractional sloop rig delivers a powerful but manageable sail plan. Built in GRP by McDell Marine Ltd and Sea Nymph Boats, the yachts adhere to strict one design standards, ensuring consistency and close racing across the fleet.

  • Attitude: a JT 8.5 built to be sailed hard

    Attitude: a JT 8.5 built to be sailed hard

    Attitude has never pretended to be anything other than what she is. A small, light 8.5-metre catamaran designed to get moving early, stay quick in marginal breeze, and reward crews prepared to keep her in the groove. Two decades on from her original build, she remains a regular reference point whenever Open 8.5s line up together.

    Thrills without bills (the JT 8.5m racing catamaran)

    Designed and built by John Tetzlaff in the early 2000s, Attitude was conceived as a counterpoint to rising costs in the class. Lightweight, simple, and built from compounded plywood, she traded comfort for acceleration and agility. That DNA still shows every time the breeze drops into the low teens or the course tightens up.

    In 2009, under previous owners, Attitude set the Open 8.5 Coastal Classic record at 8 hours, 1 minute, and 6 seconds. In 2024, she added her name to the Sundreamer Cup, awarded for the shortest aggregate time in the SSANZ Triple Series.

    Her modern racing record reflects that. In the 2022 PIC Coastal Classic, sailing with Steven Dunlop, Attitude finished third on line in Division 7 and first 8.5-metre multihull home, completing the 170-boat race in 14 hours and 42 minutes. Not a bad time, especially as conditions were mixed. The story sounds familiar: early gybing up the coast, fast running through Omaha Bay, then a long, painful fade north of the Poor Knights. For a time she stretched away from much larger boats before being reeled back in light air near Cape Brett. It was a Coastal that underlined both her strengths and her limits.

    More recently, the 2025 season offered mixed results. In the Lewmar Triple Series race shared with Freedom and Hooters, Attitude retired. In the 2025 Coastal Classic, she finished fifth on handicap, behind Hooters.

    Having a hoot with Hooters
    Three GBR’s to line up at Kawau Race Week

    Kawau Race Week sits comfortably in her wheelhouse. Short legs, frequent transitions, and an emphasis on boat handling suit a boat that has always been happiest when sailed actively. Attitude does not need novelty value. Her record speaks well enough on its own.

  • Three GBR’s to line up at Kawau Race Week

    Three GBR’s to line up at Kawau Race Week

    Three Great Barrier Express catamarans sharing a startline is always a moment of note.

    When Malcolm Tennant sketched the Great Barrier Express in the late 1970s, the brief was not complicated. Get across the Hauraki Gulf quickly and do it without fuss. At 8.5 metres long and roughly five metres wide, the boat relied on narrow hulls, low wetted surface, and fine bows to get moving early and stay upright when pushed. A tweak or two followed, and before long the GBE gained a reputation. Sail it properly and it would reward you. But if you pushed too hard, she’d also let you know. The idea caught on. More than 300 were built worldwide, and the design worked so well that the Open 8.5 Multihull box rule later lifted its core dimensions to suit.

    If you really want to spin the calendar back, Jenny Green was already putting the Great Barrier Express through its paces in 1979, filing a Sea Spray review when disco was still a thing and fibreglass multihulls were considered faintly suspicious. Her write up captured a boat that was quick, direct, and unapologetically focused on getting across the Gulf in a hurry.

    By 1991, Boating New Zealand took another look with the GBE Mk III. In the dozen years since, the design hadn’t really changed. A little refinement here and there, small changes layered onto a shape that had already proved its worth. The Mk III was still recognisably a GBE, just sharpened around the edges for a new decade.

    Freedom is the first of the Mk II boats. The Mk II lifted the main beam slightly, added some usable volume, and stretched the cabin without dulling performance. It remains the version many sailors picture when someone says GBE.

    Sublime, skippered by Ben Howson, arrives with more scars. About two decades ago, before Howson owned her, she managed the unusual feat of capsizing twice in a single Two Handed Triple Series. She came back.

    VOOM! is the quieter presence. According to a former owner, she started life as one of the early moulded ply GBEs. Over the years she has been worked on with intent. The bow was reshaped to something close to plumb, while the length taken off the front was reused aft as a stern step, keeping the overall length honest. Now racing as VOOM!, she previously answered to Jubilee and, before that, Lunatic Fringe. When that owner wrote about her in 2011, she was around 35 years old and, in his words, still looked the part. George Gautrey will be at the helm for Kawau Race Week.

    For context, the fleet also includes Attitude, a JT 8.5 catamaran, and Hooters, a modern Open 8.5 built right up to the edge of the rule. With that mix, Kawau Race Week starts to look suspiciously like its own small class race.

    Attitude: a JT 8.5 built to be sailed hard

    Attitude comes from a different school altogether. Fine deep V hulls, minimal rocker, very little in the way of comfort. Everything is traded for acceleration and agility.

    Having a hoot with Hooters

    Hooters takes the modern Open 8.5 route. More beam, more rig, and a bowsprit that opens up a bigger sail plan. Downwind, she carries serious power compared with a stock GBE.

    The 2025 SSANZ Lewmar Triple Series offers a useful reference point. In the one race where Freedom, Hooters, and Attitude all featured, Freedom finished second, Hooters third, and Attitude retired. As does the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic; on handicap, Hooters came in second, with Attitude fifth.

    Kawau Race Week suits the GBE. Short legs, constant changes, and an emphasis on boat handling play to its strengths. Three on the line, lining up against newer Open 8.5s, should make for a quietly revealing few days on the water.

  • Having a hoot with Hooters

    Having a hoot with Hooters

    Hooters arrives at Kawau Island Race Week as one of those boats that quietly embodies what the week is about. Campaigned by Craig Haslip, the silver Sele Open 8.5 catamaran sits firmly at the sharp end of the grassroots multihull fleet, light, simple, and built purely to race. We caught up with them soon after the 2025 PIC Coastal Classic. Even then there was no attempt to dress Hooters up as anything else. Comfort is secondary, weight is everything, and the boat’s purpose is clear the moment the sails go up.

    Hooters would normally compete in the NZMYC Open 8.5 class, where strict box rule limits keep hulls, rigs, and sail plans closely aligned. The result is close racing and small margins, exactly the kind of competition that suits Kawau’s closer inshore courses.

    For Haslip and his crew, goals are as much about having a bit of a wind-down as getting good results. Race hard during the day, stay competitive in a balanced fleet, and then make it to shore in time to enjoy the evenings.

    It is a formula that fits Kawau perfectly, and one Hooters continues to chase with quiet determination.

    Photo: Keith Edwards

    https://www.coastalclassic.co.nz/post/hooters-and-the-friday-night-goal

    Attitude: a JT 8.5 built to be sailed hard
    Three GBR’s to line up at Kawau Race Week
  • Harken Fosters Chandlery confirmed as sponsor of Kawau Island Sailing Week

    Harken Fosters Chandlery confirmed as sponsor of Kawau Island Sailing Week

    Harken Fosters Chandlery has been confirmed as a key sponsor of this year’s Evolution Sails Kawau Island Sailing Week, providing industry support for the inaugural running of the event.

    Harken Fosters Chandlery is a well-established supplier of marine hardware, rigging equipment, and deck systems, servicing both performance racing programmes and cruising yachts throughout New Zealand. The business represents a number of international brands commonly used across the local sailing fleet.

    Event organisers welcomed the support, noting that backing from established marine suppliers is an important part of building a sustainable regatta in its first year. They say the involvement of industry partners helps underpin an event that aims to balance competitive sailing with the social side of time on the water.

    Harken Fosters Chandlery joins a growing list of sponsors supporting Kawau Island Sailing Week as preparations continue for the event around Kawau Island later this summer.

    https://fostersshipchandlery.co.nz

  • Cadillac lines up for Kawau Race Week with proven Beale pedigree

    Cadillac lines up for Kawau Race Week with proven Beale pedigree

    Cadillac may not arrive at Kawau Race Week with a long list of recent results, but her credentials are clear before the first start gun fires.

    The 32 foot yacht is a Beale 32, drawn by respected New Zealand designer Ray Beale, whose boats have built a reputation for punching above their length in local fleets. Owned by Grant and Iris Bartlett but entered into the Kawau Race Week by Dean Grice, Cadillac is at Kawau Race Week for only one thing, to win.

    LOA9.75-metres
  • Frank Racing foiling catamaran joins Evolution Sails Kawau Race Week fleet

    Frank Racing foiling catamaran joins Evolution Sails Kawau Race Week fleet

    The Evolution Sails Kawau Race Week will include a high-speed foiling catamaran in its fleet for the first time this summer, with Frank Racing confirmed as a late entry ahead of the inaugural regatta.

    Event organisers confirmed the entry, noting that Frank Racing will be the first foiling multihull to compete at the event.

    “We welcome our first high-speed foiling cat into the competition in the form of Frank Racing and wish the team a fantastic regatta,” organisers said.

    High-speed foiling enters the fleet

    Frank Racing is a foiling catamaran capable of sustained flight clear of the water, operating in the similar performance space as modern foiling race classes such as SailGP and the America’s Cup. Its entry marks a new development for Kawau Race Week and introduces a type of boat not previously seen at the event.

    The boat arrives with an established offshore record. Frank Racing took multihull line honours in the PIC Harbour Classic in both 2024 and 2025.

    That experience is expected to translate well to the waters around the island. Kawau Bay is relatively sheltered compared with the surrounding coast and is often flatter, conditions that favour high-performance foiling boats.

    Owner and skipper Simon Hull said he was looking forward to racing at Kawau Race Week and expected the local conditions to suit the boat.

    Hull said the bay offered space to sail fast while remaining protected enough to allow sustained foiling across a range of conditions.

    A regatta designed for all levels

    While Frank Racing brings a different style of performance to the fleet, Evolution Sails Kawau Race Week is structured to cater for a wide range of sailing.

    The programme combines relaxed day sailing with more competitive fleet racing, allowing crews to take part at a level that suits their experience and intent. Some boats will be sailed conservatively, others more aggressively, but all operate within the same event framework.

    Off the water, the social side remains a central part of the week. Evenings are based at the Kawau Island Yacht Club, where crews gather after racing to eat, talk through the day, and spend time together ashore.

    Organisers describe Kawau Race Week as a friendly regatta, one where cruising yachts, club racers, and high-performance boats share the same waters without separating the fleet by ambition or budget.

    Interest from performance multihulls

    Organisers say the entry of a foiling catamaran has already prompted interest from other performance multihull owners, both for this year and future editions of the regatta.

    With just over a week remaining before racing begins, the inclusion of Frank Racing is seen as an indication of the range of boats the event can accommodate as it develops.

    An inaugural event

    This year marks the first running of Evolution Sails Kawau Race Week.

    Organisers say the focus for the inaugural edition is on delivering a well-run and inclusive regatta, with scope to build participation over time as the event finds its place on the New Zealand sailing calendar.

    As final entries are confirmed, Frank Racing’s participation stands as an early indicator of the mix of sailing the organisers hope to encourage in future years.

    The regatta is still welcoming more single- and multi-hull entries into the race.

    Frank Racing dominates the 2025 PIC Harbour Classic with blistering pace
  • Carrera 3 brings MC31 muscle to Kawau Race Week

    Carrera 3 brings MC31 muscle to Kawau Race Week

    MC31 Carrera 3, owned by well-known Auckland sailor John Meadowcroft, is on the entry list for the inaugural Kawau Race Week.

    The entry continues the Carrera name in local racing. Meadowcroft’s previous boat, Ker 40 Carrera 2, has since been sold and relocated offshore, but the programme has remained active in New Zealand waters. Carrera 3 was recently featured in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Breeze magazine, where Meadowcroft outlined the shift to a smaller platform while maintaining a regular racing schedule.

    The MC31 is a 9.15 metre performance composite keelboat designed by Harry Dunning and built by McConaghy Boats. The design was developed without reference to rating rules, with an emphasis on hull stability, low drag appendages, and a manageable sail plan. The cockpit layout is open and functional, with minimal deck hardware and clear working space for crew.

    Carrera 3 has already been active through the Gold Cup Series, including the Bean Rock race in which the crew finished second in a fleet of eight.

    The entry places an in-form MC31 into the first edition of the regatta, adding depth to the growing keelboat fleet as Kawau Race Week continues to take shape.

    Learn more: https://issuu.com/rnzys/docs/breeze_-_spring_2025

    LOA9.15-metres
    Beam3.05-metres
    Draft2.60-metres