Sydney to Gold Coast – Australia

This is a great race to take part in. It starts in Sydney Harbour, Australia and transitions up the coast of NSW into Queensland.

The Sydney to Gold coast race is a great excuse to flee from the cooler weather in Sydney and sail to the warmth of Queensland. This race is organised by CYCA and represents and ideal opportunity to test and run-in your Sydney to Hobart race crew.

The Track:
The directions are pretty easy. Sail out of Sydney heads and turn left. Stop when you get there. Well not quite that easy.
The challenge with this race is the currents that exist up the coast of Australia and the type of head winds versus currents that you are expecting to encounter. Here is an example of the possible challenges which indicates strong head current close into the coast.

Planning for the race is important to be able to read both the wind direction and strength in addition to the currents while balancing your yacht’s performance. Typically you can expect that a large amount of the fleet will hug the coast line and in very close. This requires attention to depth and hazards including “bricks”. Remember to zoom in close on your chart plotter to check depth and for things that go bump in the night.
If you are unlucky enough to experience misfortune with equipment failure, there are a number of places to call into up the coast and lot of places to stop and re-provision, dodge a wet patch or see the sights on the way back. Due to the distances involved, the conditions will change and it is typical to experience 180 degree wind shifts along the way.

Post Event
Getting towards the Gold coast will generally see a large increase in temperature and plenty of activities to take part in on arrival around the gold coast or just relax within the club. The amenities are well presented, regularly cleaned and capable of receiving the large number of arrivals at the same time that might be looking for a shower, rum and a feed. The presentation will generally occur after the large majority of yachts have completed the race. There are some yachts that battle against enormous odds to complete the race including low performance heavy yachts and very small vessels that do not perform well in particular conditions. But they make it! The Gold coast present a great spring board to continue up the coast to complete the Hamilton Island races or just explore the coast.

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More on this article to come