Malcolm Dickson and the beautiful Sarau have taken Line Honours and first place in the 2023 Ray White Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge in the Adventure-Monohull division at 1453.

Malcolm Dickson finished in a race time of 10 days, 1 hour, 53 minutes, 50 seconds.

This sets the first race record for a new destination of Southport.

Malcolm led the race from New Plymouth all the way across the ditch, giving nothing less than 80nm to his nearest competitor.

The race for second, third and fourth place has kept me glued to the tracker and up through the night. At 2pm yesterday there was only 3minutes between the ETA of Mister Lucky and Allegresse at the finish line. The update at Wednesday night’s schedule report claimed 1nm between them. As the sun set speeds dropped and the drag race to the finish between these two continued to the finish. Hullabaloo was heading to the finish on a beam reach at 8kts ahead of them.

Congratulations Jim O’Keeffe and Hullabaloo, sailing over the finish line at 0319 (NZST) and claiming second place in the 2023 Ray White Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge. A fantastic race from start to finish by a legend of a sailor from the Port of Yamba Yacht Club. It’s been great having the club following the race with snippets of commentary.

Crossing the line in third place, Mark Hipgrave onboard Mister Lucky claimed Winner of the IRC division in a corrected time of 10 days, 23 hours, 25 minutes and 18 seconds. Congratulations Mark and Mister Lucky. I have thoroughly enjoyed your tantilising Tasman crossing with all the tacks and weather experiences you have shared through your reports.

 Ray White Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge – Sarau – Malcolm Dickson – April 2023 © New Plymouth YC

So close behind Mike Carter and Allegresse crossed the line at 0357 finishing their debut Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge. Mike’s southern strategy gave us a great spectator race to get engrossed in. It has been a pleasure to cross the ditch with Mike through his email updates of ‘how it’s going’.

Still racing, Crocus is punching through 24kts of wind passing by Lord Howe and its reefs and is set to pick up some building winds for her final wild ride into Southport. Frontier is hugging the rhumbline and looking forward to arriving in Southport later today in time for a weekend of celebrating with brother Malcolm.

This 14th race has delivered so many stories…

• 45 years on from the 1978 race between Malcolm Dickson & Jim O’Keeffe, they came back to compete against each other for a second time. • Six entrants had previously sailed the race, returning for a second and third time • Brothers Malcolm & Alister Dickson racing against each other at 76 & 74 years. • Four Septuagenarians sailing solo across the Tasman • Two personally designed and built boats • Two yachts built by their skippers

This race is in NZ sailing history for a reason.

Website: www.solo-tasman.co.nz

by Ray White Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge