WineWorks Marlborough Wine Race sets sail on Saturday

Like every mariner worth his salt, Tom van der Burgh can tell a story so rich in detail that you can all but feel the splash of the waves.

Tom captains Northern Rebel, the vessel he and his wife own and sail in tandem. The yacht is docked at Waikawa Marina; he belongs to Waikawa Boating Club, and early on, he photographed events involving his clubmates.

One such event: WineWorks Marlborough Wine Race. He started capturing craft with his camera in 2009. Back then, and until the pandemic pause, competitors navigated the Cook Strait from Picton to Wellington. For three runnings of the race – including Saturday – the course has been charted within Marlborough Sounds, with Resolution Bay as the end point.

Tom will participate as a sailor this weekend as he did in 2024 and 2025. “Brilliant – it’s a fantastic event,” Tom said last Wednesday at the marina. “All yachties will tell you the same: Two boats going in the same direction, it’s a race. We enjoy the competitive side of it. But this is more of a fun race, a social race.”

It might be even more fun and social with the new route. “Cook Strait can be rough,” Tom notes, “whereas in the Queen Charlotte, it’s relatively calm and really scenic; the views are million-dollar views.”

Also, less seasickness. “Absolutely,” he replied with a chuckle. “We had a rule: no drinking while crossing the strait. That was one of the reasons why.” Tom quickly added that captain and crew still abstain from imbibing until they’re anchored in Resolution Bay.

‘More inclusive’
Like some of the varietals embodied in its name, the wine race combines multiple elements. Each boat carries a lock box with a bottle of wine inside. The box only opens upon crossing the finish line, after which the vintage gets christened on-shore in Resolution Bay. Tastings with food and live music cap the celebration of Marlborough winemakers.

A week out, organiser Juliet Abbott already had more entries than in the previous two years. (The deadline is today, 28 January.)

“It’s very exciting,” she said before Tom joined the discussion. “Everything is coming together. Our sponsors are excited. We’ve got higher interest in previous years from wineries and from yachts.”

The course change opened the way for more participation. Heading into open seas requires a yachtie to meet extensive safety requirements. Standards remain high here, Juliet stressed, “but it’s not to the extent of crossing Cook Strait.”

As such, the race is “more inclusive,” she added. “Club members and more of the community can be involved in the event, which is great.”

So, about Tom’s narrative gift …

Ask him about his surname, and you’ll learn it means “of the castle” – with the “h” in “Burgh” pivotal to that loftiness. “Burg” infers peasantry.

As for sailing the open sea between North Island and South Island, “even if the wind is calmer, the Cook Strait still has a traditional heavy swell that blows through.

“It’s one of the most notorious straits in the world, and a lot of that sea state is driven up from the southern oceans. We’d still be blowing westerly, but our swell is southerly, so that gives you tide against wind and you’ll get pretty steep chop. It’s only in a calm southerly that you end up with a flat ocean.

“But now we don’t have to worry about that,” Tom noted. For the wine race, “now we’re hoping for a northerly.”

Which way will the winds blow Saturday? Check the forecast.