Kiwi entry among Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race greenhorns
by Di Pearson / RPAYC media 18 Mar 19:50 NZDT
27-29 March 2026
V5 flying under spinnaker - Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race © Brian Petersen
Kiwi Brian Petersen has entered V5, his TP52, for the 40th Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race, joining other first timers who will contest the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Race's (RPAYC) annual coastal classic.
"Yes, it's a first for me," confirms Petersen who is continuing on from his busy 2025 sailing itinerary. "It looks like a nice little slide up the coast. I'll be happy to finally get the boat to Pittwater, after dipping out on the Club's (RPAYC) Sydney to Auckland Race last year.
"We were doing the CYCA's Sydney to Auckland Ocean Race but it got cancelled. Because the boat is sitting ready in Newcastle, I decided to run a similar program to last year. We'll start with the Pittwater Coffs race," says Petersen, who has a mix of Kiwi and Aussie crew.
A bluewater sailor through, Petersen says, "Next we'll do the Brisbane Gladstone, Sydney Gold Coast and Brisbane to Mackay races, then Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island, then go back to Southport for Sail Paradise."
That is the joy of the Pittwater Coffs placement in the sailing calendar - it allows competitors a choice of other races to do afterwards and Annie Stevenson is another taking advantage.
The Pittwater Coffs will mark Stevenson's debut as skipper. In another first, she will sail double-handed on Employment Hero Alliance, a Dehler 30 One-Design with co-skipper, Peter Winter.
A lead platform engineer, 26-year-old Stevenson is among a growing number of converts to shorthanded sailing. "I want to focus on the race as a perfect first offshore race for two-handing," she says.
"This race is a great leveller with small boats having every opportunity to win - and it has relatively benign conditions in March. It's also the perfect length and a beautiful course," said the Kirribilli sailor who has chartered the yacht with a full season in mind.
Sailing as 2IC/navigator on First Light's all-women crew in the 80th Sydney Hobart last year fired Stevenson up for a double-handed campaign.
"Offshore sailing for women is an emerging space. I hope to help change the sport and make a difference. I really like the ownership of all activities too. When you sail fully crewed, you normally do one job. When you sail double-handed, you get a sense of it's your win - or your loss. And you learn to understand the boat and how it works.
"I like sailing north. It's a good size race for a first. It'll be good to see what the boat is capable of - work out what's right and wrong - sort it out. This is the start of our campaign and perfect for the bigger races ahead. It will be a test," Stevenson says.
Saltwater Wine's owner, Tom Woods, is also a race greenhorn and is double-handing with his JPK 10.80.
"I'm going with David O'Dowd, a mate from our 505 days," says Woods of the pair from Newcastle. "It's the first time for both of us in the race. I've double-handed with my son Jamie, but work got in the way last couple of years, so I'm looking forward to it."
Woods says his boat is ideally set up for double-handed racing. "It's identical to Leon," he says of the yacht that initially won the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart sailing double-handed until a protest knocked it back to second to another double-handed boat, Min River.
"We only decided to do the Pittwater Coffs race a few weeks back, because we saw there's all these Sydney two-handers doing it. There's not as many restrictions in place as in other races, so it suits us."
To prepare, the duo did the Newcastle to Bird Island Race double-handed. "We bashed all the way up to Bird Island in 30 knots - then nothing on the way back," says Woods, the 1984 505 Worlds winner with Dean Blatchford.
This Way Up's owner, James Macken, candidly says, "I haven't done the race before. When my kids were young, I used to take them surfing and ended up at Coffs. I used to watch the boats coming in and thought it was the best sort of race - beautiful conditions and coast line."
Macken races weekends, does twilights, Sail Port Stephens and did the RPAYCs Pittwater Regatta. Sailing his Sydney 36CR fully crewed, the Novocastrian says, "I'm most looking forward to getting to the start line - there is so much to do before to get there!"
Jeffery Payne owns Carpe Diem X, an Elan Impression 434 and is going double-handed with Paul Van Denburg. "This will be our first time in the race. We did the Hunter 100 at the end of last year out of Newcastle in very heavy weather, which was just fabulous.
"Double-handed is easier on crew management. You get organised and get set up for short handed sailing and mine is set up for it. It's a comfortable boat to do it on and easy to sail."
Payne's rationale for doing the Pittwater Coffs: "I'm only 73 and one decent ocean race was on my bucket list. I've had a few goes at getting to Lord Howe and succeeded twice. The last time we had four crew and two were seasick. It was like sailing two-handed, so I thought it we could do that, we could do the Pittwater to Coffs two-handed."
Payne ended, "We've done two-handed man overboard (MOB) trials and we can recover a person from MOB and back on the wind in just 5 minutes. We have a process that actually works. We've made a shepherd's crook we can hook with and have a long halyard," Watch Payne's demonstration: www.youtube.com/@jeffpayne-carpediemx
Pittwater to Coffs Harbour race entries have closed, but late entries are being accepted. So far, 36 have signed up in IRC, ORC, OMR and Short Handed categories.
Being the 40th race, RPAYC Commodore, Rob McClelland, will present the 40th entry received with a nice bottle of bubbly, so get your entry in quickly at: www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au.