Hervey Bay Regatta
The Bay to Bay trailable yacht race is an annual sailing event held on the first weekend in May each year, in the Great Sandy National Park. The race is sailed from Tin Can Bay, at the southern end of the Great Sandy Strait, and Hervey Bay, at the northern end, with an overnight stop at Garry’s Anchorage, Fraser Island. The race is Queensland’s largest yacht race and the second largest in Australia, although it is limited to between 200 and 250 competitors for navigational safety. Because of the shallow depth of some sections of the course, the event is limited to trailer sailors of both mono and multihull types.
The Bay to Bay race was originally conceived by members of the Hervey Bay Sailing Club on 18 April 1980. Originally suggested as a one-day trailer yacht race from Tin Can Bay to Hervey Bay, the course length of 87 kilometres (54 mi) saw it modified to a two-day event, with an overnight stop at Garry’s Anchorage on Fraser Island. Although it was originally thought that no more than 30 people would participate in the race, over 114 vessels arrived to compete.
