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Four Australians hope to leave New Zealand this week and row an 11m boat 2250km across the Tasman to be in Sydney in time for New Year.
"We're fighting fit and raring to go," crew spokesman Andrew Johnson, 30, said yesterday as their 400kg "rowing boat" hit the waters of the Hokianga Harbour in the Far North after being unloaded from a container trucked from Auckland.
The quartet, all from Sydney, hope to emulate what New Zealander Colin Quincey did in 1978, when he rowed across the Tasman to Australia in 63 days - the first Tasman crossing under oars. "We're all adventurous types. It's mainly for the adventure," Mr Johnson, an Air Force employee, said.
His rowing companions are Kerry Tozer, 34, a cosmetics importer, Sally Macready, 25, a physical education teacher, and team leader Steve Gapes, 38, who has a roping and high-window-cleaning business.
Mr Gapes is expected to join the crew in Opononi in a day or two.
Their boat, named Sarag after the initials of Mr Gapes' daughter, has a balsa wood interior and a fibreglass shell. It was made in north Sydney over the past year and shipped to New Zealand this month.
It will weigh about 1300kg with the four crew, water and food for at least 30 days on board.
Mr Johnson says they hope the journey to Sydney will take about a month, depending on conditions at sea.
"We'll see some wild weather out there, no doubt - but we've had good help from the Australian Met bureau."
They'll take turns rowing - two on and two off - with each doing 12 hours a day.
Preparation has included a row across Bass Strait to Tasmania and six months' physical preparation - gym work, rowing and aerobics. "We've been told there could be 17ft [5m] over the bar when we leave.
"We just have to ease into it, get into our routines and head for Sydney," Mr Johnson says.
"If the current grabs us off the coast over there, we'll go in somewhere else. By that time, we'll be ready to get off anyway."
Mr Johnson says maritime authorities in both New Zealand and Australia are aware of their attempted 1900km Tasman crossing and a Maritime New Zealand official had checked out the Sarag in Auckland on Saturday.
