![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sarau-1024x811.jpg\")
A view from the side of Malcolm Dickson\u2019s 55-foot Sarau from in the Tasman Sea during the 2026 Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge. \/\/ Photo credit: Malcolm Dickson<\/p>\nAt 79, Malcolm Dickson bookends a Solo Trans-Tasman career with a second handicap win.<\/p>\n
Bookended by wins<\/p>\n
There is a few words for what Malcolm Dickson has done across nearly five decades of Solo Trans-Tasman racing. His career has been bookended \u2014 a handicap win in 1978 when the race was young and conditions turned cyclonic, and a handicap win again in 2026 at 79 years old, in some of the worst weather the crossing has produced in years. Everything in between \u2014 another two entries, a first across the line, a second, and now this \u2014 adds up to one of the most remarkable records in New Zealand offshore sailing.<\/p>\n
A view from the side of Malcolm Dickson\u2019s 55-foot Sarau from in the Tasman Sea during the 2026 Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge. \/\/ Photo credit: Malcolm Dickson<\/p>\n
Dickson is emphatic, this 2026 edition was his last one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s probably time to hand on to the next generation. Step back and enviously watch them sail out at the start of the next race.\u201d<\/p>\n
No easy passage<\/p>\n
The 2026 race gave him nothing easy. Forty-eight knots off the top of the North Island in the opening days, conditions he knew from New Plymouth in 2023. Then, off Lord Howe Island, something worse. Fifty knots plus in squalls, briefly touching what he suspected was over sixty. He rolled away the genoa, tucked a deep reef in the main, and kept going.<\/p>\n
– Advertisement, article continues below – \u201cI didn\u2019t have any significant breakages at all. All the systems continued to work as hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n He had expected a close race with three boats, Bill Kidman\u2019s Young Ross 12m Pretty Boy Floyd, Glen Jeffery\u2019s Grand Soleil 50 Wave and Kevin Le Poidevin\u2019s Lutre BOC Open 40 Roaring Forty. All three retired. Kevin\u2019s withdrawal at Lord Howe, a structural failure that forced him to turn back, removed the most recent remaining contest. What remained was a battle with Peter Elkington\u2019s Young 11 Pacman, and it went to the wire. The final night, knowing Pacman was close, Malcolm pushed Sarau hard rather than do what his body was asking him to do, sleep.<\/p>\n \u201cI needed to push it to make sure he finished behind me. If there\u2019d been another day in it I would have snatched more sleep, but I knew I\u2019d be able to sleep after I finished.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarau crossed the line in the early hours just after half-past-six in the morning as the light was beginning to show. Dickson had been sailing non-stop since he left Opua nearly 8 days earlier, the clock officially ticking over at 7 days 18 hours 38 minutes 44 seconds. The important figure for Dickson is the PHRF handicap is the time of 6 days 4 hours 56 minutes 35 seconds which saw him come first in the monohull PHRF handicap division.<\/p>\n The secret weapon<\/p>\n With winds and gusts so high, and asked how his 55-foot monohull Sarau coped, he said the boat was very sturdy, but the winner for him in this race was something most competitors overlook: the pilot house. Warm and dry throughout, this made it easier for him to readily go forward and trim sails or change a headsail without the hesitation that cold and exhaustion impose on open-cockpit sailors. It is not the first time we\u2019ve heard this piece of wisdom from sailors who have been around the sailing circuit for years: keep your crew comfortable, and that comfort will pan out in the end.<\/p>\n Crossing \u2018the Ditch\u2019 alone: Malcolm Dickson and the rise of a record Solo fleet<\/a><\/p>\n – Advertisement, article continues below –<\/p>\n \n Bavaria 49 2003\n <\/p>\n \n NZD $205,000\n <\/p>\n \n 2003 Bavaria 49 \u2014 14.95m offshore cruising yacht, Auckland. Spacious, proven blue-water pedigree with 4.65m beam and 250L fuel capacity. Exceptional value at NZD $205,000. Ready to sail.\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe contribution of the pilot house is probably underestimated. If you\u2019re warm and dry, you tend to go and do things straight away. The performance gain isn\u2019t obvious to many people, but it\u2019s a big plus.\u201d<\/p>\n Joan: steady as the boat itself<\/p>\n Joan Dickson, watching the tracker from New Zealand as the weather built, felt none of the anxiety those conditions might reasonably have caused. Her confidence in Malcolm and the boat runs deep, forged over years of hard miles together.<\/p>\n \u201cTotal confidence in Malcolm and the boat. It\u2019s never been an issue knowing what we have put the boat through. She\u2019ll always look after us.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarau comes home<\/p>\n Joan will join Sarau for the trip home, along with the couple\u2019s 16-year-old granddaughter. A fitting way to bring the boat back to the Bay of Islands.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Boating-NZ-Rayglass-728-x-90.png\")
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Malcolm Dickson \/\/ Photo credit: Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764235993_752_logo.png\"){kind=logo}
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Julie Kidman, Race Manager, and Celia Carson Race Officer, are cheering the very successful start of the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Challenge 2026. Photo credit: Kirsten Thomas<\/p>\n