Three Kings Race: Clockwork holds onto lead – with breeze bonus ahead
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com 16 Apr 14:16 BST
Equilibrium passes downtown Auckland soon after the start of the Three Kings Race – April 16, 2026 © Richard Gladwell – Sail-World.com/nz
0100hrs April 17:
The Shaw 12, Clockwork (Steve Mair), continues to lead the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race by 15nm from the Cape 40, Mr Kite (Nathan Williams).
At 2330hrs, Clockwork was making just over 9kts, with 90nm remaining until they turn to starboard to round the first of four islands in the Three Kings group about 35nm north of the tip of the North Island of New Zealand.
They are still expected to round around dawn on April 17, but the forecast winds are expected to lighten in the early hours of Friday morning. After they round the first island in the group, Ohau or West Island, they sail 10nm along the rugged coastline before turning again to starboard and heading south on the return leg to Auckland.
The wind models are all in broad agreement that the race leader will be sailing in single-digit wind strength for much of Friday, and only starting to hit double digits late Friday afternoon or early evening.
Another point of interest in the race will be whether the leaders can beat the time of the Bakewell White 52fter, Wired (Rob Bassett) of 2 days, 3hrs and 42mins set in the inaugural race in 2022. Although Wired won the second edition on line and rating, they were unable to beat their race record. Whether that records stands or falls will be largely determined by how quickly the breeze fills in on Friday morning.
The fleet was started off Westhaven Tower in a 15–20 knot south-westerly breeze, with some strong gusts, which gave them fast downwind conditions right from the opening stanza of the 500nm race.
Several yachts in the compact seven-boat fleet were hitting average speeds of 12 to 15 knots. However, as the race progressed on Thursday evening, the leading pack —including Clockwork (Steve Mair), Mr Kite II (Nathan Williams), Motorboat III (Damon Jolliffe), and Equilibrium (Graham Matthews)—were all tracking ahead of Wired’s 2022 record pace. Clockwork established an early lead on the water as they charged north toward Cape Brett.
But by the latest update at 0100hrs on Friday morning, the virtual boat, Wired, displayed in the 2022 race positions, was level-pegging with Clockwork as they approached North Cape. At that point, although winds were forecast to be light in the area, to the west at Cape Reinga, the real-time observations function of Predictwind was showing the breeze as having increased to 12 kts, over the hours since midnight – which would be an unexpected bonus for Clockwork, and maybe improved their chances of taking the race record.
However, a lot of things have to go in Clockwork’s favour if the 40fter is to beat the record set by the well-performed 52fter four years ago.
1530hrs April 16:
Steve Mair’s Shaw 12, Clockwork, leads the Three Kings Offshore Yacht Race, just over four hours after the start in Auckland.
She was making a fast 18kts off the Northland coast, pushed by a fresh southwesterly breeze. According to weather routing using the polar profile of a similarly sized, and featured yacht, Clockwork is expected to make the Three Kings Island around dawn on Friday.
At 1530hrs NZT, Clockwork was reported as having 414m to sail of the 500nm race, which has attracted seven entries, several of which completed in the recent Two-handed Round North Island race.
At 1620hrs,the Cape 40 Mr Kite II (Nathan Williams) had moved into second place, ahead of the biggest boat in the race, the Marten 55/Botin Carteek55 Equilibrium (Graham Matthews). At that point, Clockwork was off Tutukaka – just past Whangarei Heads.
Starting off the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron the fleet was pushed along by a 20kt breeze which gusted higher after passing Kawau Island. However, the weather routing from PredictWind forecast that the breeze would lighten down to single figures as they approached the top of the North Island.
On PHRF Clockwork leads Mr Kite with Motoboat III (Thompson 1150) in third.
To follow the race on the Yellowbrick Tracker click here
