40 YEARS OF THE ‘CLASSIC’
In 1982 a real entrepreneur and extroverted sort of fellow called Roger Dilly suggested to the committee of the Auckland Multihull Sailing Association (later to become NZ Multihull Yacht Club), a drag race from Devonport to Russell, loosely based on the speed record attempts of the 1930s and 1950s.
“I was tired of being the poor cousin,” says Roger. “People who sailed multihulls were considered fruit loops. The general comment was, ‘why don’t you get yourself a real boat?’. So I thought, well, why don’t we organise our own race”.
The original idea was to have an all-out blast up the coast, open to anybody, no handicaps, no restriction, no classes. The first one from Auckland to
