Race News

16th March 2008

King of the Cape

King of the Cape 2008 started from Kaimaumau harbour Kaitaia in 25kn South Westerly winds and a 3m Easterly swell with 14 racers entered. This provided a small following sea up the coast which although being the calmest section of the race provided the most carnage. First to retire was Demon Black who drove 1100km from Wellington and seized their motor in warm up before the race even started. Their King of the Cape was spent following the race in a 4wd.

Within 15 minutes of race start there were flips from Fusion, Novotec, Ruff Rider and Jungle Coffee. Only Jungle showed the skills to reinstate and continue and all others finished their race under tow of one of the safety boats. By the time the boats reached Parengarenga harbour winds, contrary to forecast, were 30-40 kn and holding up some big swells at the harbour entrance. Just prior to this Bit Defender were forced to anchor offshore and retire with a seized engine and await the rescue boat. After Parengarenga the “kids” in Line 7 who had until now been very competitive retired with a broken throttle.

Special thanks must go to  Darren and Brett (Taxi) in Spaceships who withdrew from the race to take Line 7 under tow for a hard slog into the wind (for an hour) to deliver them to the Spirits Bay pickup. The same must go to Quicken (Zane and Anthony) who towed Bit Defender to the same pickup point and to their wives and Wayne Powell who negotiated the hazardous road to pick them up.

This left only 6 boats to endure Cape Reinga which was surprisingly calm and then the horrible confused seas from there past Cape Maria van Diemen down to Scotts landing. With the wind now gusting to 30kn and a 3-5metre sea swell conditions were challenging (understatement) but all crews rose to the occasion and finished without incident and with ample spare fuel. The size of the west coast surf appeared daunting to the support crews on the shore but the capabilities of the Thundercat boats were well proven in these conditions. It was nearly 3 hours before the first boat Zee Coffee appeared through the surf followed some time later by 2^nd place Plumbquick then Lasermark, Goodyear, Yokohama and after nearly 4 hours of racing 6^th place Jungle Coffee.

Because of the wind and sea conditions Stage 1 (120km) of the King of the Cape had taken longer than both stages combined (200km) the previous year. Because of the late time and lapsing of NRC permits it was necessary to cancel stage 2 after which most competitors were happy to adjourn to the bar.

As is usual with most longhaul races most competitors vowed never to do it again but the event proved to be a great club social gathering, a great road trip for the Wellington crew (Demon Black) to sit and watch the race, a great mental challenge for all finishing boats and a learning curve for organizers.

Special thanks must go to Race Director Kerry Wood, Sandra Davis and Relda for scoring (and moral support to the race director), Chris Hornell from Bay of Islands Marine who provided the safety boats, Annette Hall from Far North radio for communications and all the thundercat support crews.

Residents and the local constabulary of Kaitaia were most enthusiastic about the event and several turned out to watch the start.

 Next year we could do better by

1/ more local advertising and involvement

2/ sponsorship of the event (sponsors required) to possibly allow tv coverage plus the use of a helicopter for filming and as a safety facility for the event.

Final placings and times to follow

Regards

Steve

thanks to Wayne Powells camera for the photos

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Revised:  March 2008