Tauranga-built boat Liara II is among the 300 starters in this year's Fastnet Race. When she crosses the start line at Cowes, midnight Sunday our time, one of her builders, Southern Ocean Marine director Greg Prescott will be aboard.

Liara on sea trails in local waters.

'I'm with trimming and driving so I will do steering and sailing,” says Greg today.
It's Greg's fifth Fastnet race. He mentioned to Liara owner Tony Todd that he wanted to do the race, and they told him to get over there.
The forecast for the 608 mile race from The Solent round Fastnet Rock off the Southern tip of Ireland and back to Plymouth, is for light airs – which should be an advantage to for a moderate displacement, big rigged sloop.
'She's still a heavy boat and the tides and various other factors all come into play,” says Greg. 'We'll see how it goes.”
Liara II was launched in Tauranga in February this year. She is the first Performance Yachts 33m to be built.
Liara is intended to be a superyacht that looks good, provides all the luxury trappings, and can sail well.
Fastnet entries are limited to 300. Because of the numbers, starts are staggered over two hours. The race is not for novices and all crew taking part are required to have offshore sailing experience.
It is a bit like the northern version of the Sydney-Hobart, which has also makes international headlines in years where the summer weather takes a sudden turn.
Liara, made her racing debut in the annual race round the Isle of Wight on June 20, two weeks after arriving from New Zealand on board ship.
The luxury superyacht beat stripped-out racing yachts in the 50 mile race which this year was also held in mostly light airs. The round the island race is one of the world's biggest annual races and attracted nearly 1800 entrants this year.
The only race preparation that owner and full racing crew had was over a weekend. For most of them it was the first time that they had seen, let alone sailed, the yacht.
Liara was the second monohull to complete the round the island race, beaten home by 10 minutes by Leopard, a bare-bones, stripped-out racing yacht.