Three Kiwi boats 'expecting everything' as unsettled weather tipped ...

Andy Cheung/Getty Images

Michael and Tracey Carter from New Zealand on their cruiser Allégresse before their first Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

A Kiwi couple competing in their first Sydney to Hobart yacht race say they have been told that knowing the Wellington breeze could help them in their epic quest.

Michael and Tracey Carter and their 42-foot cruiser Allégresse, are in the two-handed division of the 638 nautical mile offshore race which started from Sydney on Tuesday afternoon (NZ time).

The pair are members of the Port Nicholson Yacht Club in Wellington.

They told the Sydney Morning Herald they had sailed around New Zealand and had done “thousands of miles in ocean cruising’’ to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

“It’s a challenge,” Michael Carter said. “We look forward to testing ourselves and the boat a bit. And to see how we shape up in a higher-pressure environment.”

He said Allégresse was “nine tonnes, built of timber and a very strong boat’’.

In another interview, with the Sail World website, Michael Carter said: “We are proud that our boat Allégresse can represent the Port Nic yacht club and Wellington. People seem to think, being Wellingtonians, we know how to handle the breeze.’’

New Zealand has another entrant in the two-handed division, Niksen, co-skippered by Marc Michel and Logan Fraser.

Fraser said in a Live Sail Die Facebook page video interview that the pair had sailed the 30-footer – one of the smaller boats in the fleet – across the Tasman in November.

“We’ve already done 1300 miles to get here.”

He said they had clocked up 5000 miles as short-handed sailors together.

Andy Cheung/Getty Images

Logan Fraser and Marc Michel on Niksen at Rushcutters Bay before the Sydney to Hobart race.

Fraser said the race briefing made it clear to “expect everything”, with “very unsettled weather’’ predicted.

“I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep,’’ he quipped.

The Sydney to Hobart race website said Niksen, a Dehler 30 design, will be one of the two-handed division favourites, with the pair claiming the PIC 50 Short-handed Sailing Association of New Zealand Triple Series title and finishing second in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Three Kings Ocean race and the Round North Island Leg 3 event.

Four New Zealand boats have taken overall honours in the Sydney to Hobart race since the iconic event began in 1945.

The best hope this year is Caro, a Botin 52 class craft owned and skippered by German-born Max Klink, and dually affiliated with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Club in Auckland and England’s famous Royal Ocean Racing Club.

Caro was third overall in 2022 at its first attempt. Klink has assembled a crack team of professional sailors as his crew, including Kiwi sailing master Justin Ferris and Ireland’s Gordon Maguire, a multiple Sydney to Hobart champion since his first title in 1991.

It’s been a memorable 2023 for Caro, which won 50th Fastnet Yacht Race last July, and topped their division in the Royal Malta Yacht Club’s Middle Sea event.

Klink said in a video interview on Harken’s YouTube site this week that the Caro crew were “very happy to be back in Sydney and give it another try. It’s the home of racing”

”The boat is in good shape, the crew is good, we’ve been sailing a long time together. It’s just the weather that needs to play a good hand.’’

The previous New Zealand boats to win overall Sydney to Hobart honours were Rainbow (skippered by Chris Bouzaid) in 1967, Pathfinder (Brin Wilson) in 1971, NZ Round the World Committe’s New Zealand (Peter Blake) in 1980 and Giacomo (Jim Delegat) in 2016.

LawConnect made it out of the Heads first in a close and dramatic start to the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day, AAP reported.

Rival supermaxi yachts SHK Scallywag and Andoo Comanche followed in that order as light winds made for a challenging beginning to the 628-nautical mile bluewater classic.

Drama unfolded when Comanche flew a protest flag, accusing Scallywag of tacking too close to her as the pair made their way out.

If Comanche follows through with the protest, Scallywag will need to complete a 720 penalty turn or risk being disqualified from a line honours win on arrival in Hobart.

After scattered showers cleared just before the 1pm starting gun, LawConnect was the fastest on her way.

But when she had an issue furling a sail just after the first marker out of the Heads, she turned towards the spectator fleet and fell behind Scallywag and Comanche.

LawConnect made the best of a change in the wind to begin the journey down the NSW coast in the lead.

Two-hander Currawong, the equal smallest boat in the fleet at 9.1m long, was last out of the Heads.