I entered the 36th Bay to Bay race for trailable yachts from Tin Can Bay to Hervey Bay [Urangan] all the way up the Great Sandy Strait between Fraser Island and the mainland. It was held as usual on the May Day long weekend, 30th April and 1 May. There are normally two races, day one around 30 kms from Tin Can Bay to Garry's Anchorage and day two around 60 kms from Garry's Anchorage to the finish just off Urangan. This year for the first time ever the second race was cancelled due to there being NO wind at all.
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| After the long drive to Tin Can Bay the race started to feel real when I put up our race number. I admit I was getting nervous. Had I bitten off more than I could chew? |
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| Little Dragon spent the night before the race in Tin Can Bay marina. |
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| Steve Millard, enthusiastic crew, trailer backer and official photographer trying to look nautical |
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| On race day we anchored in less than a metre of water off the Tin Can Bay Yacht Club and waded ashore. We had hoped for the buffet breakfast but they had run out. After registering, attending the briefing and a final coffee we sailed off to the start. There were 130 entries making it the largest Trailable Yacht and Sports Boat race in Queensland. We were amazed at the variety of yachts that came within the definition of "trailable yacht" which is less than 9.4 m LOA and can be transported by road on the same trailer used to launch it etc etc - from huge trimarans that fold up to classic boats. |
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There were 28 of us in Division 4 for "Standard Trailable Yachts". As we were slowest division we had the first start and soon most of the faster boats overtook us. Although I had both paper and digital charts it was almost irresistible to navigate by following the fleet ahead of us.
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| Boat Works from Noosa simply flew past us. We took 3 hrs 1 min and she took 1 hr 14 mins. Our CBH was 0.570 (the slowest) and hers was 0.941 (the fastest). |
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This classic yacht Boxer (?1908) an Oak class was truly splendid and very reminiscent of the yacht my Grandfather raced in 1909 at Burnham-on-Crouch, England. (see photo below)
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Boxer again. Magnificent. They even have a wooden rack for rum glasses and rumour has it that they had the occasional tot.
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Once the race started we stayed on the same tack the whole way in around 13 knots on our beam. A great way to settle my nerves.
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We never saw the finishing line. However when we saw everyone around us taking down their sails and motoring into Garry's Anchorage we decided to do the same. We found a spot to drop our pick and settled in for a quiet evening and good night's sleep. Some did the same but many had other plans - partying.
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| We had been speculating where some crews would sleep as they clearly had no bunks. We found out. They had support crews in hired houseboats stocked with beer. Is that cheating? Apparently not. |
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| We watched and listened to the partying at Garry's Anchorage, many of the yachts rafted up. |
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| I needed to cool down at Garry's Anchorage. |
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| There wasn't a breathe of wind at dawn when we motored out of Garry's Anchorage, determined to be on time for the 7.30 am start. Come 7.30 am there was still no wind. Soon we were told on VHF 77 to "follow the start boat north". Off we motored for a few kilometres and again stopped and waited for wind. Still none. So off we chugged again following the start boat. Eventually the start boat decided to go fishing. We calculated that if we didn't start motoring soon to Urangan we wouldn't make it, so we radiod in that we were withdrawing. Ten minutes later the race was abandoned. |
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| Some enlivened the motor north by rafting up - but it may be because a few were running low on fuel. |
It was a long, long motor all the way to the end (around 60 kms) but we made it. We didn't go aground once but I did think that if we were racing with wind on the nose that the channel was pretty narrow in places to tack.
The most stressful part of the whole event was our arrival at Urangan. There are two 4 lane ramps and Steve had parked the car and trailer close to the ramp on Friday afternoon. That holiday Sunday afternoon it was total bedlam, queues of boats, queues of cars, frayed tempers....
How did we do? Well better than my wildest dream. Of course the results could only be based on one day's racing. We came 8th out of 28 on CBH (class based handicap) in Division 4.
Steve claims we could do even better next year with a spinnaker. Maybe or maybe not.
