Sir Peter Blake's former maxi Lion New Zealand is one of 22 yachts competing in the Auckland to Fiji race which starts today.
At 24m long and 5.4m wide, it is the biggest yacht in the 1100 nautical mile race.
Yachts in the cruising division started their journey on Thursday.
Among those lining up are Graham Dalton and his new Open 50 class yacht A Southern Man AGD, which he will use in the Velux 5 Oceans race, Pussy Galore, a Cookson 50 footer and Sportivo, an Elliot 50 footer.
Lion New Zealand navigator Alistair Moore said the forecast isn't looking good, with strong head winds predicted.
"We will prepare for the worst but hopefully it will swing round to the south somewhere and we'll have a nice spinnaker ride."
He said seven days would be a conservative target for Lion New Zealand. The race record stands at two days and 20 hours.
Lion New Zealand was third over the line last year. Their efforts were documented in the TV series The Ultimate Challenge which followed a group of novice sailors. This time the 15 crew are experienced sailors.
Lion New Zealand competed in the 1985-86 Whitbred round-the-world race. With Blake as skipper and a crew that included Grant Dalton, Tony Rae and Kevin Shoebridge, they finished 7th.
"It is pretty much as Sir Peter Blake had it ... the owners are quite passionate about what Peter got up to and they want to keep this as a bit of a legacy to him," said Moore, who sailed with Blake on Seamaster during the Antarctic and Amazon expeditions.
Lion, now owned by William Goodfellow and Cameron Malcolm, has been in Auckland since 2002 where it is used for trips to the Bay of Islands.
Before that it was in Wellington doing trips around Cook Strait, and Los Angeles.
After the race, Moore will take it to Tonga and spend the winter season taking passengers between the main island groups.
"It is a bit of a sailor's paradise. It is very unspoiled and unpopulated. I think it will become a very popular spot to go so we are trying to get in before it goes ballistic."
They will return to Auckland in October for the summer.
Sir Peter Blake's former maxi Lion New Zealand is one of 22 yachts competing in the Auckland to Fiji race which starts today.
At 24m long and 5.4m wide, it is the biggest yacht in the 1100 nautical mile race.
Yachts in the cruising division started their journey on Thursday.
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