Classic keeler turns back clock

While Simon Hull, skipper of impressive multihull Team Vodafone, wants everything Mother Nature can throw at him, former Tauranga yachtie Jason Prew is after slightly calmer waters for the annual Auckland to Tauranga yacht race which sets off tomorrow from Westhaven Marina.
Hull's impressive 60-foot trimaran won last year's coastal shootout as Team G3, taking overall line honours in a time of 13hr 56min - well outside maxi Zana's 2005 race record of 9hr 35min as the 53-strong fleet was frustrated by light winds.
Hull believes the six-hour mark, or less, over the 120 nautical mile course is achievable in the right conditions, with Vodafone G3 clocking speeds of up to 40 knots in transatlantic races.
But Prew is hoping Hull will again be thwarted as he eases his 106-year-old, 34-foot keel yacht Wairiki down the coast, reliving the boat's glory days in the Easter weekend Auckland-Tauranga race which she first competed in in 1923.
The recently restored Archbold Logan-designed classic keeler notched up a formidable racing record as one of the fastest in her class in her day, coming first on handicap in the Auckland-Tauranga Ocean Race in 1926, 1928 and and 1930, second on handicap in 1923 and 1925 and third on handicap in 1927.
Prew, who grew up in Maungatapu but left Tauranga at 21, will have to complete the race as an unofficial entrant, with the boat's design and construction meaning it doesn't have a Category 3 international safety certificate needed by all competing yachts.
"We deliberated but in the end couldn't take Wairiki as an official race entrant," organising committee chairman Ross Sheerin said yesterday. "If something happened we needed to be covered, and because of the era and make of the boat it won't get a Category 3."
Prew is undeterred and he and his four-strong crew, which includes his 10-year-old nephew Connor, will throw everything at the race regardless.
"She might be old but we're not setting out to plod our way down the coast - we'll be racing as hard as the others.
"I fully understand the issues around the safety requirements, that's fine. We've been looking at the forecast all week and it's for 5-10 knots of breeze, which should be superb for us."
"Wairiki is like a submarine in the rough stuff but sails strongest in the light winds."
Wairiki will be unofficially racing a racing fleet made up of some of today's fastest, high tech models like Team Vodafone's flying trimaran, the fastest sailing boat in the Southern Hemisphere.
Prew expects Wairiki will set an elegant pace of around 6 knots - against Vodafone's 25+ knots - and could arrive mid-to-late morning on Friday. He brought Wairiki back from Lyttelton where she had been sunk in a severe storm in 2000, sustaining major structural damage.
"Her owner had made some repairs but clearly the boat required major restoration to regain structural integrity and original configuration."
Prew bought the yacht, with the restoration overseen by the New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School at Hobsonville.
"We were very fortunate she has been able to be restored to her original glory, indicative of the quality of her initial design and construction methods."
Wairiki joins a formidable line-up of classic yachts from the Logan stable already restored, including Jessie Logan, Waitangi, Thelma, Rainbow and Rawene.
"These yachts were amongst the best designed and best built yachts in the world of their time and are part of the superb heritage of fine yachts that exists in New Zealand, to the envy and admiration of the rest of the world.
"It will be a thrill to take Wairiki through her paces on the ocean with a modern fleet of sailing boats and retrace the race that she participated in so successfully so many times."
Tomorrow's race begins at 10am, with Sheerin hoping for some puff which could get Team Vodafone to the finish at A buoy off Mt Maunganui by dusk.
Entries are down to just 40, with Sheerin citing a number of factors for the drop-off.
"It's perhaps a reflection of the times we're in, while the number of Auckland entries are down and some of our Tauranga entries are undergoing repair.
"Also with the multihulls there's some ongoing issues around getting insurance."
There will be a progress board at the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboard Club and GPS tracking on a quarter of the fleet.