No Napier offshore powerboat race this year

Colleen Carson in 2018 at Perfume Point, Ahuriri, from where she watched the Napier Offshore 100 for most of the last 30 years. Photo / File

The Napier offshore powerboat race held almost annually for more than four decades won't go ahead this year.

New Zealand Offshore Power Boat Association president Scott Lewis said the national drivers' championship series has been cut to just four races amid the uncertainty of the Covid-19 crisis, particularly impacts on costs, sponsorship and funding.

But the Napier race is also in need of new faces following the retirement from the organisation of NZOPBA life member Colleen Carson, husband Ken, and son Tony, who have each served more than 30 years keeping the race on the water.

The family was integral in reviving the race after its recess in the late-1980s, as Tony Carson and Auckland-based brother Wayne Carson embarked on racing careers which would bring them multiple national titles, including two drivers' championships together in the 1990s, the first in 1995 being the last time it was won in a monohull.

Construction company director Wayne Carson won five more titles with Auckland racer Richard Shores.

At its peak, more than 30 boats raced, including big-banger Class 1 or Superboat teams including memorable pink catamaran Jager with Australian champion and flamboyant Queensland hairdressing tycoon Stefan Ackerie, the 40ft Riviera of compatriot Bill Barry-Cotter, and New Zealand offshore racing icons the later Graeme Horne (EIT Mover) and Peter Turner (Sleepyhead).

The Napier Offshore 100 was raced in the January-April window, at one stage holding a date in the Auckland Anniversary Day weekend, key to attracting the mainly Auckland fleet and teams of the national classes.

Colleen Carson in 2009 with son and racer Tony as he rebuilds the former Auckland boat Placemakers, which had been badly damaged in a race crash. Photo / File

Lewis, who also races, is currently expecting about 15 entries in the series which starts with two days in Gisborne on February 13-14. Other rounds are at Whitianga on March 6, Marsden Cove on March 20, and on Lake Taupo on April 17.

The crisis has impacted on teams, with many boats reported to be parked-up awaiting better times.

Colleen Carson says it's sad there is no Napier race this year, particularly for the large number of race day volunteers from the Napier Sailing Club, Coast Guard Hawke's Bay and others who took to the water as patrol, mark and rescue crews.

"But it could be just the one year," she said, reiterating she retains the interest and will help if the race gets going again, but not without the responsibility she has taken on in the past.

"It does need new people, and what it really depends on is for all those other boats to come out of the shed and race again," she said.

Tony Carson, still an occasional racer and likely to be with Taupo-based team Gulf Force in at least two races this year, believes the Napier race will be back again, possibly next year.

"There are a few who are keen, and once the numbers come back the sponsors will be back, when they can see a good event happening," he said.