MYCQ

History of the Brisbane To Gladstone Race
 

In 1963 the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club invited multihull yacht owners to participate in their annual 300 nautical mile Brisbane to Gladstone race. Three multi's entered, one completed the event.

In 1965, twelve multihull owners decided to form a club (the beginnings of the MYCQ) and organise their own race separate to the monohulls race, following an almost identical course and run on the same day (Easter Friday). The tradition continued every year until 1998 when the two organising bodies decided to run the events simultaneously, with the same extended start line (monos up the deep end, multis the shallow end), and following the same course.

The weather in late Summer when the event is held is dominated by South Easterly winds. This augers well for a reach or down wind run for the entire event, conditions ideally suited to the Multi's. Of course, being a sailing race, anything can happen, and often does. With the exception of 1999, the last few years have been more of a headwind race, and often light winds at that.

The first twenty years of the race were dominated by trimarans with catamarans becoming more prominent since the mid 80's.

In this decade line honours have been dominated by Jamie Morris on his catamaran Simply the Best. His four times line honours feat has been matched only twice in the history of the event. Both Syd Luxford and Brian Willey achieved this in the 70's.

Performance Rating honours have proved even more elusive. To win this honour is an event in itself. To win more than once speaks volumes of the sailing ability of boat and crew. The 1999 winners, Cliff Fraser and his crew on Nudgee Budgie Sandgate RSL have walked away with the crown three times. Gordon Meyers achieved the same on Escapade in the mid 80's

In 1993, a race record of 20 hours 50 minutes was set in  by Paul Nudd on his catamaran XL2. Unfortunately for Paul, the record is not recognised by the World Speed Sailing Council as he went to the aid of another yacht and his adjusted time would not be officially recorded by them. 

In 2004, Victorian catamaran skipper Martyn Riley steered Raw Nerve to a record-breaking line-honours win at a remarkable average speed of 16.28 knots. Raw Nerve reached speeds to 28 knots to complete the race in a record-smashing 18hr 55min 9secs
“That was one of the rides that most ocean racing sailors dream about,” Riley said.
"And to complete the race with a record is very special.”

Also in 2004, Geoff Berg’s Raider claimed the OMR Measurement Rating win by the narrowest-ever margin of just 3 seconds over Raw Nerve, with Cliff Fraser on Nudgee Budgee just 2min 25sec away in third place. Now that's REALLY close racing !

MYCQ has developed its own ocean racing Performance Rating system called the Offshore Multihull Rule (OMR) and is based on Texel rule used for off the beach catamarans. This replaced the ageing and cumbersome OMR and has been well received by all. Because of this new rating system, visiting participants in the event will have to make arrangements to have their vessels measured and weighed by club officials prior to the event. To make these arrangements, contact the MYCQ official measurer.

The Brisbane to Gladstone Race is undoubtedly the premier offshore racing event in the Australian multihull racing calendar. Why not include it in your sailing adventures if you are thinking of heading our way around Easter?
  

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26/7/03