write up courtesy of Waikawa Boating Club

Last Friday, 14 February saw the 2025 running of the WineWorks Marlborough Wine Race, organised by Waikawa Boating Club and co-sponsored by Liquid Action and Interpack. The inaugural race was first run in 2001 and was traditionally run from Picton and across Cook Strait to deliver the first of the year’s Marlborough vintage to the capital – loosely based on the traditional Beaujolais Nouveau delivery from France to the UK each year. Along with the New Year Regatta and the highly successful Women’s Regatta, the WineWorks Marlborough Wine Race is one of the three flagship (pun intended) events of the Waikawa Boating Club annual racing calendar.

More recently, with the unpredictability of the Cook Strait weather and the higher cost of maintaining boats to offshore capability, the race has been run from Picton to Resolution Bay, essentially from the base of Queen Charlotte Sound to the upper reaches close to the Northern Entrance. Yachts carry wine from the wineries that enter, in a race to see who can deliver this year’s vintage first. Racing is on a first over the line basis and a handicapped basis to reflect the variety of yachts taking part and their range of racing capabilities.

It was a nervous wait for the Race officer and organising team running up to Race Day, with relatively gentle breezes forecast. Around 9am the first of the nine racers headed out of Waikawa Marina and were greeted with steady breezes and bright sunshine ahead of a 10am starting gun. Some of the early arrivals hoisted sails and had a practice run from the start at The Snout, over towards Allports Island. Things were looking good for a flying fleet start…until the wind dropped as predicted. Undeterred, the starting gun went off at 10am sharp, with all nine yachts of varying sizes jockeying for position across the line between The Snout and the sponsors’ luxury launch Freedom, generously made available for the day by Chris McCallum.

Despite the dropping breeze, it was great to watch nine yachts of different sizes and racing pedigree all fighting it out to see who could get an early advantage. Those honours went to Matt Michel, the only solo sailor in the fleet, onboard his racing yacht Astruso and carrying the pinot noir from Catalina Sounds. Matt picked the best line over towards Whatamango Bay, closely followed by Clive Ballett on Coup d’Etat carrying Grove Mill. Next to get the better breeze was Aaron Blackmore onboard the quick racer Oldsmobile carrying two wines, Eradus and Cirro and these three boats set the pace for the rest of the fleet for the initial part of the race.

Tom Hutchison picked up the pace on Indelible carrying Rock Ferry, closely followed Tom and Maree van der Burgh on Satu with the Catalina Sounds sauvignon blanc and Chris Williams on Tequila II carrying The Marlborist. Mike Williams in the little Easterly 30 Felice picked a more central line looking for the breeze to fill in. Whilst Felice isn’t your typical racing yacht, and the smallest in the fleet, she added a bit of fizz to the fleet by carrying the No1 Family Estate Assemble on board.

The starting breezes were less kind to Phil Jarvis on Ocean Gem, carrying Nautilus and Ant Moore wines and the wind gods seemed to be looking the other way for the unfortunate Geoff Brodie on Duetto, carrying the Two Rivers entry.

With the first three boats looking like they had a healthy lead on the rest of the fleet things were getting much more mixed up in the chasing boats, who were all struggling with the patchy wind. The fickle nature of the breeze divided the fleet up into three distinct groups of boats and it remained that way heading towards the Tory Channel entrance at Dieffenbach Point.

The early part of the race was starting to look like a foregone conclusion until the wind gods struck again. The solo skippered boat Astruso mostly managed to stay on the move, closely followed by Coup d’Etat but things were getting a bit mixed up behind them. Indelible was hunting for more breeze and Oldsmobile were heading towards land looking for a bit of a catapult back out. Felice and Satu were having a bit of a tussle swapping places regularly before Felice got a bit more of a steady run, at one point looking like they might catch the usually fast Indelible. However, normal service was resumed when Indelible took off to chase down the faster boats ahead. Satu picked up some great breeze heading across the mouth of the Tory Channel and soon started to show the following fleet a clean pair of heels.

Oldsmobile was next to fall victim to the soft patches and stalled following the line of eastern bays up beyond the Tory Channel. Whilst Oldsmobile hunted whatever breeze might be available the sparkling Nautilus on board Ocean Gem fizzed up a little and finally pushed her up past Felice. Never one to give up, Felice briefly caught up with Ocean Gem and, in a remarkable turn of events, even managed to get a brief lead on Oldsmobile. Indelible was never far away and worked her way steadily up the racetrack. Poor Tequila II and Duetto never really copped a break all day and seemed to be perpetually stuck in flat waters with whatever breeze there was being tantalisingly ahead or behind them.

Not to be outdone by the smaller Felice and Satu ahead, Ocean Gem hoisted her gennaker and Oldsmobile finally found the elusive breeze to pass Felice and start hunting down Satu. Tom and Maree on Satu don’t give up easily and they kept the pressure on the chasing boats behind as they tacked from breeze to breeze, even briefly flying their black gennaker in a vein attempt to chase down the well-established one and two of Astruso and Coup d’Etat ahead. That one/two never changed throughout the race, with Astruso leading from the front all the way with bright yellow gennaker flying – no mean feat for a single-handed boat! Not to be outdone, Coup d’Etat hoisted her spinnaker and played the tide to try to keep pace in the bigger boat but there was no stopping Astruso. Matt took her to the line, finally crossing first in a time of 4 hours, 45 minutes and 6 seconds. The four closest following boats fought hard to get to the finish line at Resolution Bay in soft and patchy wind with Coup d’Etat eventually coming home thirteen minutes later in second place. Next over the line was Oldsmobile in third place, followed by Satu and Ocean Gem.

Disaster struck further down the fleet. With time ticking away, what little breeze there was died completely preventing Indelible getting across the line despite being so agonisingly close. Further behind Felice, Tequila II and Duetto all stalled, and the brakes went on hard as the sails hung limply in the still air and blistering sun. All three boats just could not make any progress past the Bay of Many Coves – so close to the finishing line and yet so far away!

Nine boats started the race carrying 11 of the finest Marlborough wines and, whilst the corks only popped for five boats in the end, the consensus at the wine tasting and dinner back onshore at beautiful Resolution Bay was that it had been a fantastic day in the glorious Marlborough Sounds!

WineWorks Marlborough 2025 Wine Race – Results

Line honours – Catalina Sounds pinot noir, Astruso (Matt Michel)

Handicap results

1st – Grove Mill, Coup d’Etat (Clive Ballett)

2nd – Catalina Sounds pinot noir, Astruso (Matt Michel)

3rd – Catalina Sounds sauv blanc, Satu (The van der Burgh’s)

4th – Eradus & Cirro, Oldsmobile (Aaron Blackmore)

5th – Nautilus & Ant Moore, Ocean Gem (Phil Jarvis)

6th – Rock Ferry, Indelible (Tom Hutchison)

6th – No1 Family Estate, Felice (Mike Williams)

6th – The Marlborist – Tequila 2 (Chris Williams)

6th – Two Rivers – Duetto (Geoff Brodie)

Waikawa Boating Club would like to say a huge thank you to our generous race sponsors WineWorks Marlborough and our co-sponsors Interpack and LiquidAction. Thank you also to Foley Wines, Grove Mill, Catalina Sounds, No1 Family Estate, Ant Moore Marlborough, Two Rivers, Rock Ferry, Nautilus and The Marlborist. Finally, a big shout out to the Seabreeze Cafe who provided outstanding catering on the sponsors’ boat – Freedom. We hope you will all be back again next year, with a little more breeze, for the 2026 Wine Race.

If anyone would like to learn to sail, Waikawa Boating Club runs regular Tuesday night races throughout the year and the Club welcomes all new boats and new crew members. For budding racing skippers no racing experience is needed, with three racing divisions available to choose from. For those looking to crew no sailing experience is needed, existing skippers are happy to take new recruits. All are welcome!