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After a week of massive (7m) surf on
the West Coast during the week and following an easterly and then a
westerly storm it looked as though the first King of the Cape to
fully round the cape would need to be revised. However race day was
fine with light winds and swells down to 2 metres.
The race began at Ranguanu harbour
20km north of Kaitaia at 10am. The run up the east coast to the
first checkpoint at Parengarenga harbour was in flat conditions and
those who chose their flat water props soon established a lead of up
to 1km over the rest of the bunch.
After parengarenga the lead bunch of
PCI electrical, More FM, Fujitsu, Reaction and Ruff rider rounded
Cape Brett to small rolling swells and still, light winds. The sight
of major white water in the vicinity of Cape Reinga was but an
indication of things to come. The marshalls (and the tourists)
positioned at Cape Reinga were privileged to watch the idiots below
in 4m boats negotiate an unpredictable washing machine of seas that
is synonymous with the meeting of the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman
Sea at the Cape. Some exciting video footage was achieved.
Conditions were such that some boats were surfing down breaking
waves, as the the waves moved away from
the coast.
Once the boats reached Cape Maria van
Diemen conditions were more predictable
but still lumpy west coast swells made it challenging. The finish of
the first stage was at Scotts Landing the northern most point of 90
mile beach. One of the leading boats Ruff Rider could not see the
beach over the swells and continued another 20km to the Bluff before
they ran low on gas and came ashore (achieving a DNF for stage 1 and
stage 2)
Reaction started to follow but turned
back at the last minute and made it to the finish of stage 1 behind
the winner More FM and then followed closely by PCI Electrical.
Fortunately there were no flips or incidents on the first stage and
all boats made it safely to Scotts landing.
The safety plane which had been
producing some excellent low level footage for the cameraman (who
obviously had a strong stomach) joined everyone on the beach for the
refueling break before the restart at 1.05pm.
The race to the first checkpoint at
the Bluff was marked by a burst pontoon for PCI, a flip by More FM
in 4th place, temporary mechanical failure by Plumbquick
in 3rd , then later a flip by
Fujitsu in 2nd place.
This enabled an eventual overall
aggregate win by Reaction, a 2nd by Safari Print and then 3rd
by Jungle Coffee.
Special mention must go to More FM who
went out through the surf, circumnavigating
Matapia Island thinking it was The Bluff , returned to shore,
flipped the boat, reinstated the motor then proceeded to
circumnavigate Matapia Island again.
Although last to finish under power Tony still
achieved 6th place overall.
The race was an adventure not only for
the racers but also for the support crews who watched the start on
the beach at Kaimaumau then traveled
either to Cape Reinga or down Te paki
stream and onto the beach to follow the boats down to
Ahipara.
In all a great day, but disappointing
to see such a low turnout for such a challenging event.
Roll on next year.
Special thanks must go to all who
helped run the day, RD Gary Morrison,
scorers Alison and Relda, safety boat Ian and Brett, marshals Mark,
Graham Goodwin, Diane and Murray, safety plane pilot Gordon Spence,
Mike Warren (monsoon) who foolishly donated his brand new boat as a
safety boat and Lasermark who provided
the wonderful trophies.
Overall places and times were;
Reaction 3hrs
11m
Safari Print 3 hrs 25.m 9s
Jungle Coffee 3h 26m 25s
Zee Coffee 3h 30m 50s
Plumbquick 3h 50m 56s
More FM 3h
55m (time for stage 2 84 km was longer than stage 1 120km)
PCI (2nd in stage 1 but DNF
in stage 2)
Fujitsu ( 4th
in Stage 1 but DNF in stage 2)
Ruff rider (DNF stage 1 DNF stage 2)
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TRA-NZ
all rights reserved
Revised: March 2007
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