Brisbane to Gladstone

Thirty two boats will contest the 67th Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, organised by the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club, starting in Moreton Bay at 11am on Good Friday. Last year’s line honours winner in the 308 nautical mile race, Black Jack, will be competing, as will Alive, which scooped up the race on handicap last year.

The race record for the 308 nautical mile race is 20 hours, 24 minutes, 50 seconds, set in 2004 by Skandia.
This year there are two new racing categories – for the first time, a short-handed category, and the old cruising division is replaced with a cruising and classic category. Recognising that many people entering the cruising and classic category will not be frequent racers, the race committee has offered additional ways of proving stability.

Race organisers expect around 60,000 people to watch the start of the race from the shore with about 300 spectator craft in the water to see the fleet off.

Today’s electronic communication and navigation equipment is a far cry from the tools used by sailors in the first race in 1949. Seven boats sailed in the first race, two with radios and the rest with pigeons supplied by Brisbane’s Homing Pigeon Club to report their position along the way. Each boat released two pigeons each day.

The 2015 race will be run as a Yachting Australia Special Regulations Category Two race. However, in a significant variation to the regulations, all yachts will be allowed to use satellite phones in lieu of an HF radio. Boats already equipped with HF radios can continue to use these and all boats will still need to carry out Skeds.