Famous coastal sprint attracts all types of boats

Whether it’s shaking cobwebs off boom covers or fine tuning America’s Cup style sailing systems, the HSBC Coastal Classic kickstarts the summer sailing season for thousands of sailors aboard all types of boats, big and small, and fast and faster.

In 26 years the 119 nautical mile HSBC Coastal Classic, organised by the New Zealand Multihull Yacht Club, has marked the start of the sailing summer for thousands of Kiwi yachties.

Joining the racing elite of fifty footers and big multihulls in the journey to Russell is a bright spectacle of small boats, classics and family cruisers, who take part each year in order to welcome in the summer sailing season.

These include iconic small yachts such as Pied Pipers, only just scraping by within the minimum allowable length; the Chico 40s owned by the New Zealand Navy, classics aged more than 100 years, and former ocean race campaigners such as Sir Peter Blake’s Lion New Zealand.

“The HSBC Coastal Classic is a fantastic event which represents everything that is great about New Zealand sailing. The race is hotly contested and has a real sense of tradition and community. We are thrilled to be part of the event for another year and are looking forward to another classic race” says Norman Wilson, CEO of HSBC.

As well as welcoming back principle sponsor HSBC, the HSBC Coastal Classic has two new divisional sponsors for 2007: Harken and Donaghys Southern Ocean Ropes. Other long-standing sponsors of the event are: Masport, Line7, Doyle Sails, Cookson Boats, Steinlager, Takapuna Sailing Center, Duke of Marlborough Hotel and Russell Cottages.

This year the race is again offering an IRC division and sailors also have the option of entering specific divisions for multihulls and keelboats based on the boat’s handicap rating, as well as two handed, classics and women’s divisions, and class divisions, which can show five or more entries.

The race start is a spectacle in itself: up to 250 boats jostling for prime position off Devonport Wharf, if it’s the south westerly or south easterly that sailors hope for with spinnakers flying, but if the breeze comes from the north, with headsails trimmed hard in, the crew looking ahead and focused on the work at hand.

The race can take as little as seven or eight hours for the very fastest boats, or as long as two days for the slowest boats in light conditions. The overall race record was set back in1996 by Split Enz, for seven hours and twenty minutes. Contenders for the record this year include last year’s line honours winner X-Factor, a new boat on the scene called Taeping, and possibly even the supermaxi Maximus, currently undergoing a refit prior to the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.

But the answer to the question on everybody’s lips? The theme for this year’s party is a Western hoe-down. Yeehaa!