Twenty-five yachts will line up on the Waitemata Harbour on Saturday for the start of the Auckland to Musket Cove ocean event.
The 1100-mile race to Fiji is expected to take six to seven days.
Most competitors are from Auckland, but there also are entries from Wellington, Kerikeri,Christchurch and as far afield as Hong Kong and Australia.
The boats, 9m to 15m, will compete in one of four divisions: racing, cruising or one of two measurement divisions.
Wellington yachts Starlight Express, skippered by Stewart Thwaites, and Andiamo, skippered by Andrew Taylor, are two of the favourites to win the racing division.
Ray Haslar-skippered Jive Talking, from Kerikeri, also is expected to finish strongly.
Yachties have tested themselves and their boats in ocean races to Fiji for the past 50 years, and 11 yachts set sail when the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron ran its first race to Musket Cove in 2001.
The squadron commodore, Bill Endean, said the organisers were delighted to have attracted as many as 25 entries this year.
"It is going to be a fantastic race."
Besides the skipper, each crew must have a navigator and a qualified first-aid member.
"That passage of water can throw anything at you," said Endean, who will skipper his 12.5m yacht Transformer in the race.
"It really depends on the weather."
The 25 yachts have already started to assemble in the Viaduct Basin.
The fleet sets sail off North Head at noon on Saturday.
