Starmaker returns to the PIC Coastal Classic with a new boss on board

By Suellen Hurling

A year after pulling off one of the great underdog victories in PIC Coastal Classic history, Matt Krogstad is heading north again aboard Starmaker - but this time, his wife Kim will be in charge.

The couple will race their Farr 1020 two-handed in the 2026 edition of New Zealand’s 119nm dash from Auckland to Russell, with Kim named as skipper and Matt taking on the tactical role.

For Kim, entering the race was an easy decision.

“It’s one of those iconic New Zealand events that is always a cornerstone of the calendar,” she said. “It’s so much fun and it’s great competition.

“Matt and I have done a bunch of double-handed and offshore racing together. Having moved down here from San Francisco three years ago, it has become what we love to do on a holiday weekend.”

Kim compares the Coastal Classic with the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac - the famous freshwater race on which she and Matt first crossed paths.

“I feel like the Coastal Classic is the Chicago Mac equivalent,” she said.

While this will be their first Coastal Classic together, the couple is anything but an untested combination. They have been racing together for around a decade and recently completed a successful SSANZ Triple Series campaign aboard Starmaker, winning their division and finishing second overall.

“We had a pretty good SSANZ series,” Matt said. “Then it was like, ‘Well, should we just keep going and do the Coastal?’ Kim said yes, so here we are!”

Starmaker returns to the start line with a formidable title to defend.

In 2025, Matt and co-skipper Rhys Cole sailed the 41-year-old Farr 1020 to victory in Division 4 and the two-handed category before claiming the biggest prize of all: first monohull overall on PHRF.

They completed the race in 26 hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds, recording a corrected time of 19 hours, 29 minutes and 55 seconds.

It was the kind of result that demonstrated exactly why the Coastal Classic remains such a compelling race. A well-sailed production cruiser-racer, crewed by just two people, had beaten a fleet containing much larger and more specialised, carbon rich racing machines.

Matt, however, is keeping expectations firmly in check.

“I think the stars aligned on last year’s race,” he said. “We’re going into it the same as last year, really - trying to do well in the two-handed fleet. If things go our way, maybe we can get something in the division, and then we’ll see about the rest.”

This year’s forecast could give Starmaker another opportunity to play to her strengths, but it could also turn the race into a battle against the clock. The official cut of time for the race is 1400 hours, Saturday 24 October.

Light and variable conditions are expected to make the trip north a tactical match, with crews searching for pressure and weighing up options along the coast.

“Well, it’s going to be slow and tricky, with potholes,” Matt said. “But as a tactician, that makes it really interesting because there are genuine decisions to be made.

“It’s not just a one-way racecourse. There’s a real left, right or middle choice in front of you.”

Kim is equally aware of how difficult the lighter conditions could make the race.

“We’re hoping we’ll make the cutoff,” she said. “That might be the tricky part for us.”

Kim and Matt have a plan though.

“We’re going to go north, keep focused and try to get every little ounce out of every little moment, because it all adds up. If we make it to the finish line before the cut off given the light conditions, we will be very happy, but if we don’t, then we won’t consider that a loss at all. It’s all part of racing!”

Those conditions should at least suit the boat better than a hard blast reach. A Farr 1020 can become a physical handful without a full complement of crew on the rail.

“If it was 20 knots and blast-reaching the whole way, we’d absolutely hate it,” Matt said. “The 1020 really loads up and you need giants on board. For us, going upwind or downwind is wonderful when you’re double-handed.”

Racing offshore with your spouse might sound like the ultimate relationship test, but Matt and Kim have developed their own system for managing the pressure.

“When things get heated on board, we have a couple of funny things that we say to one another,” Kim said. “It’s a bit of code that we both understand as, ‘All right, it’s time for a reset.’

“After 10 years of racing double-handed together, I feel we have a pretty good balance.”

That balance is built on trust - something Kim considers non-negotiable when heading offshore.

“I don’t go offshore with people I wouldn’t trust my life with,” she said. “I couldn’t be prouder to go offshore with Matt, so that’s really special.”

Although Kim will carry the skipper’s title, she says responsibilities aboard Starmaker are shared.

A large part of her contribution happens before the start. As a stay-at-home mum, Kim has taken the lead on much of the boat’s preparation, juggling the demands of getting Starmaker race-ready with family life.

“A lot of the race is how you set up for it, and we started that a long time ago,” she said. “It has been a very busy time, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed that we have enough wind to carry us all the way there before the cutoff.”

The husband-and-wife campaign continues a relationship etched by sailing. Matt and Kim met through the Chicago Mac and will celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary in July 2027.

There is also a wider family dimension to the campaign. Their sons, aged just six and eight, will meet Starmaker in Russell before joining the delivery home to Auckland.

Both boys have been around boats since they were babies, sailing with their parents in San Francisco while still strapped into car seats.

“We’ve always had them on board,” Kim said. “We’re really excited that they’re starting to take to it themselves, because we really, really love this sport and we’re so grateful that they enjoy it too.

“Part of them finding their own competitiveness, their own sports and that work-hard attitude towards their passions is seeing Matt and me do the same.”

The boys already have Coastal Classic experience of their own. In 2023, the year the family returned to New Zealand, they travelled north aboard the cruising catamaran Sanga Na Langa, owned by Edward & Lizzie Massey. They were just three and five at the time.

This year’s return voyage aboard Starmaker is set to be their second delivery south following the race.

Including two young children adds another layer to an already complicated campaign, but Kim says it is well worth the extra logistics - and occasional bribery.

“They’re looking forward to the delivery home,” she said. “It’s our time to put the devices down and enjoy being together - hopefully spotting some animals or learning something along the way.

“To be together without devices is really important at this phase, and we enjoy it.”

Charlie, their eight-year-old, is already beginning to find his own way into the sport. He sails a Sunburst previously owned by Mike Sanderson and is keen to try Optimist sailing over the summer.

For Kim, giving young sailors opportunities is essential to the future of the sport. It is a subject that extends beyond her own family, particularly when it comes to supporting women and young people into bigger boats and more competitive roles.

“I would really love to see more women’s sailing take off,” she said. “We were blessed in San Francisco to have a lot of financial support as well as opportunities, and I would love to bring some of that energy down here.”

For now, however, Kim’s focus is firmly on Friday’s start and the long, potentially very slow journey north.

Starmaker may be returning as the defending PHRF champion, but there are no bold predictions from her new skipper. The plan is simply to keep the boat moving, make every moment count and reach Russell before time runs out.

And if things become tense along the way, Matt and Kim already know the code words.

For all the latest, visit www.coastalclassic.co.nz