Six yachts have signed on to sail up Australia’s East Coast and across the Coral Sea to New Caledonia’s capital Noumea as part of the 2025 Ponant Sydney Noumea Yacht Race.

The competitors are Awen, Llama II, Pacman, Smuggler, Serene Summer, and Wild Thing 100.

CYCA Media caught up with a few of the competitors. In this piece we meet Serene Summer’s skipper – Tina Courtenay.

The Ponant Sydney Noumea will be the first Category 1 race for Tina Courtenay’s Tayanna 55 Serene Summer. Courtenay will be joined by four crew members for this journey east.

Tina Courtenay on board Serene Summer. Credit – Tina Courtenay

“We are just wanting to gain experience and gel as a team,” Courtenay said. Courtenay reckons it will take around five days to get to the finish line. To make the trip more comfortable, she has decked out the yacht with essential luxuries. And the crew will enjoy French cuisine prepared by Courtenay, a graduate of a French cookery course at Sydney Cooking School, Neutral Bay.

While in New Caledonia, Courtenay and her crew plan to dine on fresh seafood and green papaya salad at Baie des Citrons (Lemon Bay), “go shopping at the outdoor market and visit the Parc zoologique et Forestier to say hello to a Cagou bird [endemic to New Caledonia]”.

Serene Summer on the hard stand. Credit – Tina Courtenay

Courtenay is looking forward to the race. “I have the respect of my crew and faith in my own abilities to make this the exciting adventure of a lifetime,” Courtenay said.