By David Bradburn
The Tin Can Bay to Hervey Bay (Bay to Bay) Race was conceived by members of the Hervey Bay Sailing Club on 18 April 1980. The two-day, 87 km event features an overnight stop at Garry’s Anchorage at Fraser Island.
Over 114 vessels competed in the 1981 inaugural event.
After a suggestion by Tim Bardon (Cygnet #21), Will Hardcastle (Cygnet #11) and I (Cygnet #1) decided to enter the 2022 (April 30th to May 1st) Bay to Bay and use the trailer-sailer event as a Cygnet Race/Get Together.
Enlisting Khara, who had recently completed a 2nd-leg circumnavigation of Tasmania aboard China Girl, as crew, I trailered Cygnet from Newcastle to Tin Can Bay over two days.
Immediately launching Cygnet, I drove the trailer to Hervey Bay and bussed back ready for the race to start the next day.
DAY 1, 21 nm
The race began at 11:30 am. Cygnet started well, neck-and-neck with Cirrus, until Tim started to break off to port. Not understanding his thinking, we decided to stick with the pack. Before long, Will in Amethyst raised an asymmetrical spinnaker, and flew past us – and most of the fleet too!
Well, after seeing Tim way off to port, next thing we knew, he was an incredible 1-2 nm ahead of us! We poled out #2 and sailed the best we could, being competitive but were unable to hold them off without a spinnaker. Despite that, it was fun being on the water in beautiful conditions.
The race finished around 4:00 pm and we all gathered to have drinks and nibbles and talk about the day’s events. Tim explained his strategy to sail on the edge of the Straits, thus avoiding a head-on current, and effectively leaving other boats, even those using spinnakers, in his wake!
After our catch up, we returned to our boats for dinner followed by an early night, ready for the next day’s racing.
DAY 2, 24 nm
Most boats motored to the line, with crews having fun bantering with each other.
Cygnet was in the first group to start, with the larger and faster classes following later.
It was exciting to be amongst so many boats, especially with some large skiffs slicing their way through the fleet – fortunately without incident.
Initially close, the three boats in our group began to spread out, with Tim and Will way in front and Khara and I just trying to do our best! We sailed along the Great Sandy Straits with the current and, at one stage, were doing over 8 kts!
The two Cygnets were flying with most of the small boats lagging way behind, so I thought we mustn’t be doing too badly!
After some confusion as to its positioning, we crossed the finish line by 2:00 pm, followed by a quick sail to the yacht club marina, with the customary running aground, keel up, and catch up with the others.
At the Awards Ceremony, everyone was keen to see the placings!
Division A was: 1st Amethyst, 2nd Cirrus, 3rd Cygnet. We were astounded, thinking that Tim in Cirrus had outperformed Will in Amethyst.
Eventually the organisers agreed, realising that Will had earlier informed them of his use of a spinnaker, and revised the order to 1st Cirrus and 2ndCygnet.
I stayed overnight at the Marina and returned to Newcastle the following morning, dropping Khara at Kew, near Port Macquarie.
The trip was great fun and we’re already looking forward to next year, and hopefully more Cygnet 20s!
www.herveybaysailingclub.org.au/events/bay-to-bay-trailable-yacht-race/
Published in print January-March 2023
