Trebles All Round For Lucky In Auckland

17th October 2025

WM Nixon

Rob McClelland (left), Commodore of the organising Royal Prince Alfred YC of Sydney, with winning skipper Bryon Ehrhart (NYYC), whose busy programme for the 88ft Lucky includes training for young newcomers to offshore racing.

Bryon Ehkhart’s JK 88 Lucky now has the same relationship with the 1,250 miles Sydney-Auckland Race 2025 as she had – as George David’s Rambler 88 – with the 700-mile Round Ireland Race in 2016.

She has taken line honours, set a course record of 2 days and 20 hours that could well stand for a long time, and gone on to take the IRC win as smaller craft made the best of a sometimes baffling Tasman Sea, with second placed Frantic, Mike Martin’s TP 52 Frantic, finishing with very little left in the way of spinnakers.

Auckland never looked so lovely…..Frantic’s crew finally finish, Trevor Smyth and Michael Martin at left

With a crew including ex-Pat Trevor Smyth of Clontarf, Frantic had the additional satisfaction of leading the former record holder, the Santa Cruz 72 Antipodes, by a substantial on-the-water margin by the finish.

A full night session on the helm of Frantic in mid-Tasman in Springtime can leave a man looking for all the protective gear he can find

Published in Racing

Tagged under

SydneyAuckland Race 2025

About The Author

WM Nixon

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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