A new breed of waka, a renewed club enthusiasm and a reformatted race plan were all on show for the relaunch of the Sugar Loaf Ocean Challenge OC6 race hosted by Mitamitaga Ole Pasifika Va’aolo at Tutukaka, but championship title stayed in familiar hands.

Nga Hoe Horo’s renowned open  mens crew Herberts on Tour won the event, defending the title they won the last time the Sugar Loaf race was staged five years ago.

Steered by Conan Herbert and with national singles reigning champion Tupu King included in a powerful crew, Herberts on Tour had to be at their best to take the title though. Paddling the new Moana Nui designed open ocean OC6 waka ‘Papaku’ added to the challenge.

This year’s Sugar Loaf Challenge race was a changes event, becoming the only true open ocean changes race in the country, with the course extended from the 34km circumnavigation of Sugar Loaf rock to included rounding the ‘Pinnacles’ adding another 6km to the race.

The Mitamitaga Club provided support craft to most of the crews and plans to develop a relationship with the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club based in Tutukaka to foster even more support boats in years to come.  There was a waiting list of local boaties keen to be part of the event as well.

Club president Charlie Roughan was pleased to get the event back on the Waka Ama race calendar and hopes to reveal plans for next year’s event soon.

“The race has a long history and a proud history with the club.  Getting more paddlers out there in the open ocean is the aim.  I think everyone who raced had a tremendous experience, it was new water for many of the paddlers, even some of our most committed club members had never been past Sugar Loaf to the Pinnacles before,” Roughan said.

“It is pretty early days but we are looking at ways of including a junior division changes race on a shortened  course next year and really promoting it more to all paddlers here and across the Tasman in Australia and maybe even elsewhere,” he said.

Conditions on race day were challenging but enjoyable and the addition of Yacht-Bot GPS trackers enabled shore based crew and spectators to keep an eye on the unfolding drama once crews had disappeared from sight.

The entire race can be viewed on the Yacht-Bot website http://www.yacht-bot.com/races/6740

Matariki, the Parihaka womens crew, lead from start to finish in the womens race and, with a 30 minute handicapped start and a determined crew effort, almost made it all the way to Sugar Loaf (16.5km) at the head of the field.

Nga Hoe Horo were chasing hard though leading the mens pack after taking time to find their rhythm.  Team Kina, the Mitamitaga open mens crew had the lead at first but the pack were all within a 500m spread until the turn around.

With a following sea and a 10-15 knot tailwind things changed quite dramatically on the return leg.  Nga Hoe Horo took off, reaching speeds of up to 13 knots.  Team Kina bullied their way into second and the Miti Masters crew surfed their way to third place.

The race had a long list of generous sponsors enabling an impressive table of spot prizes to be offered.  The Mitamitaga club provided a generous meal at the prizegiving thanks to a hard working crew of volunteers.

Results:

Herberts on Tour (Nga Hoe Horo) 3h 30m 28s; 

Team Kina (Mitamitaga Open) 3h 35m 27s; 

Miti Masters (Mitamitaga Masters) 3h 38m 42s;

Parihaka Pirates (Parihaka Masters) 3h 44m 43s;

Team Paua (Mitamitaga Open) 3h 51m 23s;

Ngati Rehia (Snr Masters) 4h 6m 13s;

Parihaka Matariki (Masters women) 4h 24m 23s;

Taniwha Wahinez (Taniwha/Mitamitaga womens) 4h 39m 12s