Wrapping up a successful shakedown voyage off the east coast on New Zealand, which included visits and public open days at five ports, the 70ft yacht and crew of 11 are now in race mode.

Skipper Chris Nicholson said this morning that the trip will take a minimum of six days. “We are heading north-east from Lyttelton and we’re expecting to be on the wind to Auckland. A large low pressure area is developing in the Tasman Sea and we’re keeping a wary eye on that. It could make things very interesting as we get closer to Auckland.”

The crew has already sailed CAMPER in strong winds and big seas in the three weeks since it was launched. Rounding East Cape on the way from Tauranga to Gisborne they encountered 35 – 40 knots on the bow with big seas.

Nicholson said he had heard about East Cape’s fearsome reputation and it certainly lived up to that. “We came through that night in really good shape…. it was a very good test of both the yacht and crew. We had a little damage that was repaired next day at Gisborne.”

The crew has a lot of sail testing to complete en-route to Auckland. That means a lot of sail changes and manoeuvres that will involve everyone on deck during daylight.

Emirates Team New Zealand’s meteorologist Roger Badham says the breeze will be soft around New Zealand today but there’s a great deal of breeze coming from the west and it will be all over NZ at the end of the week and into next week.

“From Lyttelton navigators Will Oxley and Andrew McLean have options of heading north-east, north-west (sailing through Cook Strait and out into the Tasman), south-west and south-east. With the gale force winds coming, anywhere to west is not really an option. It’s a 2000 mile qualifier, not a boat breaking exercise,” Badham said.

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