2005 Sydney Gold Coast line honours winner drifting to the finish line Gold Coast Bulletin

Opening the bar has more connotations than quenching sailors’ thirsts when it comes to recalling the history of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s annual Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.  The introduction of this new ocean race was an event of great significance to the Gold Coast region of south-east Queensland, to ocean racing along the East Coast of Australia and, indeed, for the expansion of the CYCA.

Promoted as 'the great winter escape', the annual Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race is second only in status to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race among long ocean races conducted by the CYCA. 

The race, which starts from Sydney Harbour and finishes off Main Beach on the Queensland Gold Coast, was first conducted in 1986 following the opening up of the Southport “bar” (entrance) to deep keeled yachts, pleasure cruisers and large fishing boats, the result of extensive harbour works by the Queensland Government. Officially, it is called the Gold Coast Seaway.

The driving force behind the CYCA involvement was the late Peter Rysdyk, supported by Peter Campbell on the promotional side.  Obtaining a sponsor was a vital part of getting the race underway and Rysdyk and Campbell spent many days in negotiations with potential Gold Coast backers, with Jupiters Casino becoming the sponsor for the first seven years. 

	SYC Commodore Tony Goldner, winning Pendragon crew and CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis CYCA Staff

Appropriately, the Official Starter of the inaugural Jupiters Gold Coast Race Yacht Race in 1986 was the then Premier of Queensland,  Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who fired the starting cannon to send a fleet of 83 yachts heading north - with the promise of much warmer weather!  An equally colourful character in the late Jack Rooklyn sailed his famous maxi yacht Apollo to a double victory, taking line honours and first on corrected time, a rare achievement for a maxi yacht.

Since then the 384 nautical mile race has attracted fleets of between 70 and 80 yachts each year, with entries mainly coming from New South Wales and Queensland, but also from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and New Zealand, with the occasional other overseas entrant. In 1997, a record fleet of 86 boats took part.

The Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race is a prestigious race in its own right, but adding to its status is that is the opening event of the CYCA’s ocean racing season for the Blue Water Pointscore and is a feeder race to the popular northern Queensland regattas.

The CYCA has always conducted the Gold Coast Race, with club sailing office staff flying north to join a dedicated team who finish the fleet off Main Beach, Southport. 

Since the race’s inception the host club has been Southport Yacht Club, a large club with excellent marina facilities for members’ yachts and motor cruisers. SYC provides escort vessels and berths for the visiting yachts, mostly on a floating marina in front of the clubhouse.

	Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin crossing Bass Strait in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

The Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race has become an important test bed for the CYCA’s changes to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, including handicap rating systems, safety rules, and multiple entries (eg IMS and IRC), one design and other divisions.

Apollo set the pace with a time of 49 hours 19 minutes 41 seconds in the inaugural race in 1986 and the following year another Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honours winner, Bernard Lewis’ Sovereign, got the gun.

That year the Overall IOR winner of rugged 1984 Sydney Hobart Race, John Eyles’ Indian Pacific, won the Gold Coast Race on corrected time.  

Taking third place on corrected time in 1986 and 1987 races was Bruce Staples in his Farr-designed 40-footer, Witchcraft II.  Staples,  later to become Commodore of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, has been the most successful competitor in the history to date of the Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.  With Witchcraft II, between 1986 and 1994,  he recorded a first, a second and three thirds Overall under the old IOR rating. Then rated under IMS, Witchcraft II  scored a third Overall and a first and a second in Division B. 

Back again in 2001 with Dark and Stormy, Staples placed first in IRC Division B.

The 1991 race saw the emergence of joint owners Roger Hickman, Bruce Foye and Lance Peckman,  as a formidable team with their Farr 43,  Wild Oats.  They won IOR that year, placed second in 1992 and 1993 and won IMS Overall in 1994. In 1993 they also won the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on IOR corrected time.  

The 1994 event was a qualifying race for the 50th Sydney Hobart and among the winners (IMS Division C) was the veteran Southerly, skippered by Don Mickleborough and his equally veteran crew.  Southerly went on to win the 30 Year Veteran Division of the 50th Hobart.

George Snow emulated Jack Rooklyn’s inaugural race feat in 1995 when he sailed Brindabella to a line honours win and first place in IMS Class A. (At that stage there was no Overall winner of the race).  Brindabella repeated her line honours win the following year and again in the 1999 race when the Jutson-designed maxi set the existing race record of 27 hours 35 minutes 03 seconds.

The 1999 race also saw the introduction of the Peter Rysdyk Memorial Trophy for first place Overall under the IMS handicap category. The first winner was the Victorian maxi Wild Thing, skippered by Grant Wharington, while IMS Division B went to another Victorian boat, Chutzpah, skippered by Bruce Taylor,  then Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria.

Wild Thing reversed the line honours order in 2000, with the many times CYCA Blue Water Champion Syd Fischer achieving his first success in the Gold Coast Race, sailing his Farr 50, Ragamuffin, to IMS Overall and winning the Peter Rysdyk Memorial Trophy. 

Despite being beaten across the line in 2001 by Grundig Xena, George Snow received some compensation by winning IMS Overall with Brindabella.  Grundig Xena completed a double, also placing first in the IRC Division A.

The extended Wild Thing gave Wharington his third Gold Coast Race line honours win in 2002, with IMS Overall going to Terry Mullens’ Farr 50, Sting (ex Yendys), another yacht to achieve the Sydney Hobart and Sydney Gold Coast handicap double. 

The 2003 Sydney Gold Coast Race was a very significant race with the introduction of a number of new initiatives. It was the first CYCA race to score using the International Rule Club handicap (IRC) and IMS with the subsequent demise of IMS scoring altogether for the 2004 race. The 2003 Sydney Gold Coast was also the first Australian offshore race to incorporate the International Technical Committee’s recommendation that water ballast be included in the IMS handicap system and for the first time, the Sydney 38s raced in their own one design division, a sign of the growing popularity of this class of racing.

Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin scored its second Overall IMS win in 2003, the other was in 2000, while Sean Langman’s Grundig also scored its second line honours win in this race, the other in 2001, as well as claiming first overall on IRC handicap.

In the 2004 Sydney Gold Coast, the order of the top handicap results were reversed when Bob Steel’s Quest pipped Ragamuffin in the IRC Division A results while the Stewart 34 Pendragon (Andrew Cochrane) sailed into second place Overall on IRC handicap, the handicap system now adopted by the CYCA to establish the outright winner of this race and its premier ocean race, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

In the race for line honours, Stewart Thwaites’ first time entry Konica Minolta, the 30 metre New Zealand maxi, took lines honours somewhat controversially after Skandia, which was leading the fleet, retired from racing so owner Grant Wharington and some of his crew could dash to Moooloolaba for the Etchells World Championship.

In the 2005 Sydney Gold Coast, Andrew Cochrane’s Pendragon, a previous multiple divisional winner in this race finally scored an Overall win while Bob Oatley’s 66 foot canting keel Wild Oats X, which should have been competing at the Admiral’s Cup at the time of the Gold Coast Race (the Admiral’s Cup was subsequently cancelled) instead raced north to take line honours.

In the 2006 race, Grant Wharington's Skandia Steven David's Wild Joe took top honours in IRC Division 1 while line honours went to Skandia.

In the 2007 race, Steven David's Wild Joe won IRC Overall, with Rob Hanna's Shogun second and Bob Oatley's Wild Oats X third, after she won line honours.

In 2008, Ray Roberts' Quantum Racing took the line honours and IRC Overall double, with Bob Steel's Quest second IRC Overall and Cockatoo Ridge - The Goat (Foye Syndicate) third. 

One of the longest and light air races is what the 2009 Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race will be remembered for. The fleet of 80 started in a 3-5 knot ESE on Sydney Harbour and battled head winds all the way up the coast, with some of the fleet going over 90 nautical miles offshore to find some breeze. After 49 hours, 29 minutes and 23 seconds, the Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats X took the line honours win from Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki, who finished second across the line, just over one hour behind Wild Oats X. Ed Psaltis & Bob Thomas’ modified Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler claimed the overall win for the only east coast offshore yacht race that the duo had not won! Henk Wellman’s Sydney 36CR Aileron finished second overall and Rod Jones’ Archambault 40 Alegria, the eventual Audi Australian IRC Champion, placed third

© Peter Campbell, Lisa Ratcliff & Jennifer Crooks

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