Solo-Trans Tasman: 15 crews set to battle strong headwinds for opening stanzas
by Yachting NZ/Sail-World.com/nz 30 May 11:03 NZST
Ray White Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge - Sarau - Malcolm Dickson - April 2023 © New Plymouth YC
Kiwi veteran Malcolm Dickson is back to lead the charge across 1,200 unforgiving miles, as a new fleet takes on the legendary Solo Trans-Tasman — a race built on risk, endurance and raw nerve.
At 79, Malcolm Dickson is not just back for another race — he is back to defend a legacy that stretches nearly half a century.
The oldest skipper in the fleet and the reigning champion will start as the early favourite when the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge leaves Opua on Saturday (30 May), bound for Southport Yacht Club.
It will be his fourth attempt at the race, and, remarkably, it comes on the eve of his 80th birthday.
“We all felt we were pioneering something for the future,” he recently told RNZ’s The Detail, reflecting on his first race in 1978.
“It was very different in the days of celestial navigation from what it is now. The boats were a lot smaller and probably pretty primitive compared with some of them nowadays.”
That sense of pioneering still defines the event — now in its 15th edition — even as the boats, technology and preparation have evolved.
Dickson’s own yacht Sarau, which he designed and built, has been painstakingly refined again for 2026.
“Coming from an earlier generation, I find this IT stuff and communications and all this weather mapping stuff pretty intimidating. I do my best to understand it all.”
He has also stripped weight wherever possible in search of marginal gains.
“There’s a two-page list of items on the hit list,” he told The Detail. “It’s interesting when you start to unload a boat … each item weighs almost nothing, and you stack them in a fish bin and find you can hardly lift it.”
For all the upgrades, the philosophy remains unchanged. “I’ve always felt that no matter how bad the conditions, one way or another, we’ll get through.”
For the rest of this story and backgrounders on the competitors, click here: www.yachtingnz.org.nz/news/2026-solo-trans-tasman-yacht-race-kiwi-veteran-malcolm-dickson-return-lead-fleet-gruelling-1200-mile
Website and Yellowbrick tracker: www.solo-tasman.co.nz