A FLEET OF OCEAN GOING YACHTS from all over New Zealand, and Australia, have been zeroing in on New Plymouth over the last few weeks.

Cooked Goose

The 15 inbound yachts are lining up to compete in the 2007 Taranaki Daily News Shorthanded Tasman Yacht Race which hits the high seas from New Plymouth, New Zealand, at Easter.

The race, sailed over a 1240 nautical miles (2296 km) course was started by a dedicated group of New Plymouth yachtsmen in 1970 with help and advice from well known single handed sailor/author, Sir Francis Chichester.

Chichester was in New Plymouth at the time as passenger on a freighter and encouraged the local yacht club members to start the race and donated a trophy for the line honours winner.

The only other singlehanded ocean race in the world, at the time, was the Observer Singlehanded Trans Atlantic Yacht Race, which still attracts large fleets of competitors.

The Solo Tasman Yacht Race has run every four years since and, in 1978 and 1986, fleets of 15 yachts left New Plymouth to tackle the Tasman.

"We're back up to 15 boats again this year," organizing committee chairman Wayne Sattler said, "which bodes really well for the future of the event." A two handed division was introduced in 2007 and three boats will be racing in it.

Late in 2005, the then organizing committee announced plans to can the race, citing lack of interest and a shortage of small boat facilities at Port Taranaki. The announcement sparked public protest and a public meeting voted unanimously to maintain the race. A new committee was formed including some local offshore yachtsmen.

"Within a few months we had 20 entries - then we really did have to close them due to lack of facilities." Five have since withdrawn for personal reasons.

Line honours likelihood will be Beerwah sailor and boatbuilder, Bruce Arms, in his brand new 14m Chamberlin catamaran, Big Wave Rider. Arm's boat is the only multihull entered after New Plymouth sailor, Lindsay Wright's 9m trimaran, Loose Goose, was holed and written off after colliding with a whale in January. Big Wave Rider was built near Mooloolaba and her delivery voyage, from Brisbane to the New Zealand, came very close to equaling the race record of 6d 8h 50m set by Australian Ian Johnstone's trimaran Bullfrog Sunblock in 1986. Big Wave Rider's designer, Sunshine coast resident, Robin Chamberlin, was 1998 Solo Tasman Yacht Race winner in his catamaran, Excess. The following year he sailed south to become to first catamaran to visit the Antarctic ice pack.

The very experienced team of Keith Munro and Kevin Ebbitt in Timelord, a production fibreglass Bavaria 50, have a reputation as a hard chargers and, given the right conditions, should be nipping at Arm's heels for much of the course and look likely to be the first two handed boat home.

Still, the two handed division looks like becoming the battle of the Bavarias. Munro and Ebbitt's first enquiry, after thundering into Port Taranaki during a storm a couple of weeks ago were: "where's that bastard Lidgard?…he's the one we're after."

Duthie Lidgard is sailing Pebble Rebel, a Bavaria 46, with owner Bill Byford.

But it would pay to keep an eye on Moonrise, sailed by retired New Plymouth engineer Bob Millen and his taxi driver son Ralph, among the two handers. Moonrise, a 10.9m Luders cutter is arguably about the best looking boat in the race and the pair pack a power of experience gained during a circumnavigation under sail in a previous yacht and subsequent races and delivery trips.

Another New Plymouth entrant, Blondie Chamberlain, is looking to transfer the aggressive style that earned him several NZ Saloon Car Championships to the long wet course across the Tasman. He has spent the last few years refitting his 11.9m ferro cement cutter, Gypsy Rose especially for the solo Tasman challenge.

Lining up against him on the grid will be Auckland businessman Alan Yardley in Mephisto, a Kaufman12.6m fiberglass cutter, Grahame Perrem from Christchurch, sailing an 11.5m plywood sloop, Uncle Arthur ; Ian Lillie sailing Island Girl a 12.2m Farr design and Richard Martin (Wellington) sailing a 12.19m Spencer design Xanadu 11. Tony Florence, a retired farmer from New Plymouth, has also packed in a power of offshore experience in the last few years, much of it in Jellyfish, his 13.7m Jenneau sloop.

The southernmost sailor is Queenstown dentist Ross Buchanan sailing Scoundrel, a 10.5m Ron Holland designed sloop he keeps at Milford Sound. He is likely to be duelling with John Burns, a Napier yacht delivery skipper, sailing his 11m sloop Phantom.

Smallest, but by no means least, is Auckland sailor, Richard Raea, who sailed with the Millens during their circumnavigation. His 6.99m sloop Nimbus 11 is capable of producing a few surprises and he's known as someone to keep an eye on during races in the City of Sails.

"The neat thing about the fleet is that they're pretty evenly matched," Sattler said. "It should provide some really close racing…it'll soon cut the skippers who go to bed at night, from those who keep on driving hard 24/7."

"The solo tasman race is a unique, iconic sailing event - it shows there's still plenty of people out there ready to tackle the challenge of crossing the Tasman short handed under sail. We inherited a shambles from the previous organizers about 14 months ago and now we have a great race….the race can only get stronger from here on in…"