Surf to City
by John Curnow, Sail-World.com AUS Editor 8 Feb 13:00 PST
Great weather, so let's go sailing - 2026 Surf to City race © Ben Kelly
It's kind of a big deal. Southport to Brisbane. A plethora of divisions, two courses, one outside from the surf off the Gold Coast, and then up and over back down to Shorncliffe. The other, inside past South Stradbroke Island, and then weave your way through the maze, up past the mouth of the Brisbane River and on to home where Cabbage Tree and Nundah Creeks meet Moreton Bay at Shorncliffe.
Outside (93.6) 26 monohulls and five multis took it on, and inside (48.4nm) it was 23 monos and six multihulls that made the most of a glorious day. In 2026, it just got a little more special, too. How so? Well who better to tell us all about it than the Commodore of the Southport Yacht Club, Glenn Burrell.
"Southport Yacht Club is proud to be the starting line provider of the Gladstone Ports Corporation Surf to City Yacht Race, which has been run by the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club for 33 years. This year, through a combined effort from all of the Southeast Queensland yacht clubs, this race commences the Queensland Offshore Sailing Championship. This comprises the Surf to City Race, the Julian Rocks Race run by SYC, the new Brisbane to Bundaberg Race run by Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, which is scheduled for June 18, the Gladstone Ports Corporation Brisbane to Gladstone Race, and the Gold Coast City Marina, Gold Coast to Mackay Race," stated Burrell.
"So the combined series will go towards winning the Peter Harburg Black Jack Trophy, in honour of the iconic Queensland yachting identity and boat. It's going to be a good race today. We've got pretty much perfect conditions, reaching up and then reaching back down for the offshore boats, and the inshore boats will be making their way up the river. I look forward to a lovely day's sail."
Adrian Relf, who is the owner of Indian Chief, aka the carbon Red Raider, also happens to be the Commodore of the Multihull Yacht Club of Queensland, and a big supporter of Multihull sailing, generally. Ahead of the event, Relf said, "I'm absolutely looking forward to the race. A little bit more breeze would be good, but I think that Easterly forecast would suit the red boat. We're also definitely looking forward to continuing our battle with particularly El Toro, but also Excess and Intrigue."
"We've got a fantastic little fleet going inshore, and we've got a great fleet offshore, with some fairly high-performance boats, including Rare Groove (Irens 12 Trimaran), which is probably going to set the pace. It's been good to see the numbers build up, after a few years with the overall numbers a little bit down for a few years, and also good to see some new boats going out this time."
"So obviously the perennial favourite, XL2 (Crowther Super Shockwave), is one of the classic multihulls of Australian multihull racing, and they're out there doing this as a precursor for the Brisbane to Gladstone race. Obviously Rare Groove, the ex-Carbon 3, which I think is going to be tough to beat, has certainly shown a lot of pace, but also there are some other new boats. Stealth Mode, a new Asia Catamaran Stealth 13.2C, and you'd think at the moment they're probably the boat to beat under the OMR rating system, as well as Bolt Out of the Blue, Allan Bolt's Prescott Whitehaven 10.95, and they're always an OMR weapon."
The MYCQ manages the OMR rating rule for multihulls, and it's applied to both inshore and offshore fleets. "We cooperate with QCYC by helping them with the Performance Handicap, where they seek input from us about the different boats, and with the OMR, they get all the data, we put it in and manage it. We're currently actually doing a bit of a review on OMR, which we'll published a few weeks. It's about making sure the rule's reflecting where the boats are at, and to try and keep multihull racing as competitive as possible," said Relf in closing.
Looks like an interesting season ahead. In terms of results, Offshore Multi under OMR went to Rare Groove, then XL2, and in third was Stealth Mode. Offshore Mono under IRC was Spetsig (a 30 Square Metre), then M52 (an R/P TP52 ex Maritimo/Patches), and Aramex Shining Sea (a Botin and Carkeek GP42).
Inshore Mono under OBH went to No Dough (Stealth 8m), then Rush (Thompson 8m), both of whom had a ding-dong tussle, and Billy Cart (Elliott 7m). Inshore Multi under OMR was Intrigue (Corsair F28R Trimaran) first, then El Toro (Cassius 9m Trimaran), and 2XS (Farrier F22R Trimaran).
Ben Kelly, the Global Head of the Multihull Segment for North Sails, and the owner/driver El Toro, was part of the inshore fleet. Kelly said of it all, "We got a great start out in front of the fleet going gybe for gybe with Excess (Morelli and Melvin SL33), which is the ex-Team New Zealand test foiler from back in the day. Just down past the Coomera River we got a bit greedy on the bank trying to line up the channel markers on the next gybe, and went about five metres too far, so managed to get the T-foil rudders fully stuck. Luckily, we didn't break anything, but we went from first to last and had to overtake everyone."
"It was a beautiful day on the water, the boat went really well, and so our keep-it-simple plan worked. Part of that was sailing three up, so the boat was nice and light and pretty happy. Peter Hackett's, Intrigue, has a habit of winning these races up the drains, and did so again with a flawless race. They came off the line with us, but you always know he's going to not leave a lot of time on the track."
Kelly would have been very happy to have some 13 minutes over friendly rival, Indian Chief, who rate bit higher than El Toro.
"My crew didn't like it when I said I was a bit sore and tired, because I didn't do anything, apparently. In an Easterly, the inshore route throws a lot of gybes at you, and we used every sail on the boat, going from Spinnaker up, to Screecher, and onto the jib when the wind funnels down some of the channels," added Kelly.
"Offshore, Mike Peberdy's refurbished 40-foot Trimaran, Rare Groove, was not too far off record pace, despite the mild conditions. It is a super-quick boat. The crew had a great time, and referred to it as 'perfect sailing conditions'. We did a new North Sails wardrobe for the boat, and like us, they used every sail on board. Mike wants me to take El Toro offshore next year. We'll see if Huey offers up the same conditions..."
"Did new sails recently for Nick Catley's XL2, which did well, too. Classic Boat Builder, Peter Kerr, did a fantastic job with the 30 Square Metre, Spetsig, and deserve the win. Aramex Shining Sea is the new hot boat on the Gold Coast. They used to have a Farr 40 that won a lot of stuff. The 40-footer scene's pretty hot at Southport at the moment, and there were four in the race."
So, with a new combined championship to vie for, seems like racing in Southern Queensland has a great season ahead of them.
Thank you for being a crucial part of Sail-World.com
John Curnow
Sail-World.com AUS Editor