Up the coast, with a paddle

Murray (Muzz) Clear, Kumero Dillon and Wayne Trot from Raglan's Team Nekeneke. Photos and video: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

On Saturday, 20 teams of six paddlers from around New Zealand competed in a 32km ocean race, paddling from Pilot Bay to Karewa Island, back around Rabbit Island, and returning to the Mount.

Paul Roozendaal organised the race partly as a fundraiser, and to also provide an opportunity for teams to get in some race practice leading up to the 2017 IVF World Distance Championship being held in June in Tahiti.

Paul, along with nephew Ash Roozendaal, are part of the New Zealand team that will compete in the inaugural event.

'I run the James Moore-morial Race which is from here in Pilot Bay, and we run from the Mount to Maketu. It's for singles only,” says Paul. 'I've always wanted to do it for teams.

”There was a race cancelled in Wellington so I thought let's make a race. So I invited a few teams. I put a cap on it of 20 teams only because I didn't want it to be too big because it's a busy area. There's six in a team and 20 crew so there's 120 people paddling.

'I called it the M2M because we make a course dependent on which way the wind is going. It's either from Maketu to the Mount or the Mount to Maketu. Today because the wind was so small, there was no wind, so it was Mount to Mount – M2M.

Paul set the course from Pilot Bay, around Karewa Island, then around Rabbit Island – Motuotau Island, and back to Pilot Bay.

The M2M race, tracked on the YachtBot website, included the boats Aotearoa Belles, Bhutty Boys, Herbert's on Tour, Matukutareia, Mauao Paddlers, Nekeneke, Ngauora, Team Kina, Turangawaewae, Uruhina, Vaka Manu Master, Waihuta, Whiriwhiri and Y.T.B.

The distance of 32km for the Mount to Mount race is also the distance that would have been paddled if the teams had gone from Mount to Maketu.

The teams had eight safety boats out of the water accompanying them.

'There were a few teams racing, some from Tutukaka up north, some from Wellington and Napier. It's from all over New Zealand.”

In March, Waka Ama New Zealand announced the selection of paddlers for the Para Va'a team. This completes seven national teams that will take part in the first ever IVF World Distance Championships.

Te Aurere team from Rotorua.

YachtBot website tracking GPS signals from the boats.

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