Three Kings Race: Clockwork takes early lead

Three Kings Race: Clockwork takes early lead

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com 16 Apr 05:58 BST

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