31st Wide Bay Water Bay to Bay

by Colin Verrall on 17 May 2011 The 31st Wide Bay Water Bay to Bay organised by the Hervey Bay Sailing club, again attracted a big fleet.

One hundred and fifty Trailable yachts sailed the pristine Great Sandy Straits through the waters of the Great Sandy Marine Park bordered by the Great Sandy National Park of heritage listed Fraser Island to the east and the largely wilderness mainland doted by tranquil seaside villagesThe trophy and record holders came to defend last year’s wins

The mighty multihull MAD MAX George Owen and the most meticulously prepared sports monohull RUSH Graham Coffey sailed by some of the best crew in the country successfully defended their elapsed time trophies and for Graham also the coveted SMS corrected time trophy. Julian Griffiths in his FIRE FLY 650 HOT VINDALOO won the sports multihull OMR prize, Ben Leigh-Smith in the SHAW 650 WHA-KA was the fastest wide sports multihull after NO LIMITS found the sand on Sunday and KISS retired due to equipment failure while Don Ray in his little Careel 18 was unable to beat the challenge of Charles Baker in his well sailed SPIDER 22 BAKERS DOUGH for the monohull CBH trophy against 110 boats.

Strong wind warnings threatened the event in the days leading up to the event with the Brisbane to Gladstone boat AKIMBO unable to sail back to the event due to strong winds and large seas. The weather abated by the Saturday to enable the Bay to Bay fleet to sail the first leg through the Tin Can Bay Inlet and the Great Sandy Straits sheltered from the extremes of the open ocean by Inskip Point and Fraser Island to an overnight stay in Garrys Anchorage for a well earned rest and some on board partying after a bright sail in a 10 to 15 knot south westerly breeze in which the less powerful boats like the Careel 18s and smaller multihulls dominated.

Lighter winds on Sunday saw the more powerful boats dominate and although twenty smaller monohulls were unable to finish the course on Sunday as the winds dropped out against an increasing tide they were not forgotten with results given for the Careel class and the Division 4 boats on Saturday’s times. The sports multihull and monohull divisions sailed their full course while the start for the division 2, 3 and 4 standard monohulls was moved up the course to the Sheridan Flats for a shortened course

The Ross 780s, RL 24s, Careel 18s and the Seawind 24s once again provided large class racing while the remainder of the fleet enjoyed some very close and exciting standard and sports monohull and multihull mixed fleet racing. Ken Ferguson in CANUK won the much sort after Rob Legg plaque trophy on personal based handicap corrected time.

The Hervey Bay Sailing club sincerely thanks all supporters and competitors who have made a contribution to the success of this years Bay to Bay and retrospectively to all those who have contributed for so many years in the past . The club is in the preliminary planning stage for the 32nd Wide Bay Water Annual Trailable Yacht Race.

In doing so we look forward to this most important event on the Australian Trailable yacht calendar with the expectation that we will once again be supported by the trailer yacht fleet making this event one of the largest sailing events in this country.