Up to five Tauranga yachts are expected to start the PIC Insurance Brokers Coastal Classic, which gets underway in Auckland on Friday morning.

The Auckland-to-Russel race has been a Labour Weekend fixture since the first race in 1982. The current race record is five hours, 44 minutes and 31 seconds, set by multihull TeamVodafoneSailing four years ago.

Frenzy photographed during the Auckland/Tauranga race. Photo: Supplied.

Tauranga yachts La Rochelle, Arathusa, Frenzy, Pterodactyl – sailed by Carl Reinsfield – and possibly Enigma will be on the start line, says Tauranga Yacht and Power boat Club keeler division chairman Andy Kennedy.

'Enigma could be going two-handed,” says Andy. 'It's supposed to be really rough into the head winds. Normally, at this time of year it's a sou-wester, so you just go a big right all the way up.”

On Wednesday, however, Frenzy was still looking for a helmsman person.

Frenzy has been moved up a division this year, says Andy. 'They had the handicap raised because they have done quite well in previous coastal classics.”

The yachts are already in Auckland, but he admits they took a bit of a beating on the trip up.

'La Rochelle got 40 knots at Colville, but they had a bit of a rough ride last weekend,” says Andy. 'On Arathusa, a sail fell off the deck and they got a real pasting.

'There's a lot of wind around at the moment, and it's supposed to be like that for the rest of the season.”

Jon Bilger from PredictWind says their models both show 15 knot north-westerlies at the start of the race, strengthening to 20-25 NW further up the coast in the afternoon, throughout the evening and into Saturday morning.

North Sails' advice for headwinds is to short tack up to Whangaparoa and stay inside the Poor Knights. 'The longer route outside can actually give you gains,” they explain.

'With the breeze likely to back, stay on port tack as much as possible to gain the lifts, and spend as little time on starboard as you can to avoid the inevitable knocks.

'A lot happens in the last third of the coast towards Cape Brett. It's a game of patience. Low tide is 10.36pm in Russell, so watch the outgoing until then, and capitalise on the incoming after.”