North Sails SR26 National Championships.

The regatta is run by Bucklands Beach Yacht club with 8 races scheduled over Saturday and Sunday in the area by Bean rock.


The SR26 was designed by Gary Lambert in the 80s. The concept was simple: a performance racing boat with enough room for comfortable cruising and most important of all- affordable. SR stands for syndicate racer, which has remained true as half the boats are still owned by Syndicates.

Nicknamed the ‘Family Frightener’ by most who have cruised in the SRs, due to the large sail plan and narrow easily driven hull shape, they have proven to be popular racers in mixed fleets as well as class racing.


5 years ago the class was re established with the first National championships being held out of Bucklands Beach. That regatta was won by the then recently refitted ‘Aqua Vitae’. Since then it has proved to be a very tight regatta with ‘Rattle and rum’ Taking the championships twice in a row.

Last year The ‘Jagged Edge’ won the most tightly contested championships so far with a very narrow win over ‘Trainsmash’ and ‘Rattle and Rum’.


Now with 9 boats entered in the regatta, it has turned from a very relaxed event to a full on competitive regatta with every boat having extensive work done to ensure the best possible chance of a result.

Jagged Edge has undergone a major interior and structural rebuild and looks set to be a contender. Trainsmash is sporting a brand new mast and plenty of other little ‘go fast’ modifications. Rattle and rum, Mercenary and ‘TRex’ are still out of the water getting the final sanding and fairing done on the bottom. ‘Gaucho’ is once again making the delivery trip down from the Weiti River to Bucklands Beach to give the title another shot. ‘Aqua Vitae’ has called in a gun helmsman for the event hoping to get back the winning form. ‘Traveling Man’ who is always a serious contender on the longer courses is back to see if he can stamp his mark on the Sprint series. Finally  the ‘Markone’, with a new set of sails and a gun RNZYS youth training program graduate crew, are sure to be giving the top boats a good hurry up.

The last few weeks has seen everyone keeping a close eye on each other to ensure no little ‘go fast’ modifications are overlooked and every boat is set up as well as can be.


This is by far going to be the most hotly contested SR regatta ever. Every boat has stepped the game up substantially and it is sure to be a very exciting and close fought event.

With some generous support from Crew.org.nz and Mount Gay the social side of the regatta is also looking good.

Traditionally the Saturday night has always been good with everyone participating fully in the ‘shore based activities’ on the dock after racing. This year will be no different with most of the boats all tied together outside the yacht club and a few bottles of Mount Gay to be consumed.

Although not a strict one design class the boats remain very similar in speed. There are a few different keels and rudders on the boats and some slightly different rig configurations. All the boats have 2 modes, non class with prods and gennakers, and class racing with set sizes for mainsails, genoas and spinnakers.

For the nationals the boats get stripped of all non class gear and put into class racing configuration. Having the rules open allows everyone to play with different setups and set the boat up for each event.

The Simrad 2 handed series will also see about 5 SRs competing against each other with no holds barred. The biggest possible sails, longest prod, you name it, the SR fleet has tried it!

Currently there are 2 SR26s up for grabs, come and join the fun. Check out the SR26 forum for more details and information.

Thanks to the regatta sponsors North Sails, and to Crew.org for supplying the Mt Gay rum for the SR26 dock party on Saturday night at Bucklands beach.

Josh Tucker.