Doyle Sails Round North Island:- Ragnar retains overall lead after Leg 3
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com 11 Mar 10:49 UTC
Explore - Coastal Classic - October 24, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
The Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 Ragnar, co-skippered by Brett Elliott and James Glidden, has retained the overall lead, albeit with a reduced margin following the completion of Leg 3 in the 2026 SSANZ Doyle Sails Round North Island Two-Handed Race.
Elliott and Glidden placed 4th in Leg 3 of the four stage race which started in Auckland on February 28, 2026.
The battle of the European designs vs the New Zealand designed yachts continues with honours evenly split amongst the top eight boats in the 25 strong fleet.
The Thompson 1150 Motorboat III (Damon Jolliffe / Josh Tucker) won the third stage into Napier, which finished at 1100hrs on Tuesday. It was their second win in the series, an 8th place in Stage 2 from Mangonui to Waikawa, cost them valuable points, they will be looking to close that gap further on the final 365nm stage to Auckland. But they are now only 2pts behind Ragnar.
There is also a tight race for third overall with Kick, an Elliott 1050 (Bevan Sands and Ben Roff) placing 5th on Leg 3 - having placed 10th on leg 1 and then winning Leg 2 into Waikawa. Kick is on 16pts, a gap that baring disasters for the lead boats, will be difficult to close. But they will be keeping a close eye on Vixen Racing a Verdier 40 co-helmed by Sharon Ferris-Choat and Taylor Edwards, who are only 2pts behind on 18pts in the overall standings.
The Elliott 50 Explore Racing William Goodfellow and Jesse Turner, which has been first to finish on all three stages, placed 3rd overall on Leg 3, but a 20th overall on Leg 2 has put them out of contention for the overall win, but a third is within reach.
In both legs which have been completed with fast times - less than 24 hrs - Explore Racing has been competitive on PHRF, but they were unable to make their time agains the smaller boats on the longer Leg 2.
For full results Click here
For live tracking, and race results for the event, visit the race website www.ssanz.co.nz/round-north-island-2026 or follow Short Handed Sailing Association of New Zealand social channels.