Queensland Cruising Yacht Club

The Queensland Cruising Yacht Club is a Brisbane offshore and cruising club at Shorncliffe on Moreton Bay. Founded in 1948 to create an ocean race from Brisbane to Gladstone, it remains the organiser of that race — the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race — and pairs a genuine offshore pedigree with a regular club racing programme and a waterfront home on the bay's northern foreshore.

The club

The Queensland Cruising Yacht Club (QCYC) sits on the water at Shorncliffe, on the northern side of Brisbane, well away from the city's busier eastern bayside clubs. Its clubhouse and marina front Moreton Bay, and its identity is built around one thing above all: ocean racing. The club was formed for the express purpose of running a long-distance coastal race, and that founding intent still shapes how it presents itself today.

In practical terms it is a working sailing club with a waterfront licensed venue attached. It operates a marina with a reported capacity of around 62 berths for vessels up to about 15 metres, available for short- and long-term use, and it runs a calendar of club racing on the bay through the season alongside its marquee offshore event. It is a smaller and more focused organisation than the large full-pathway clubs elsewhere on Moreton Bay, and its reputation rests less on fleet size than on the race it has run continuously for three-quarters of a century.

For readers weighing up the north-bay clubs, QCYC is best understood alongside its neighbours: the much larger Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron at Manly, and the all-boat Wynnum Manly Yacht Club, also on the eastern bayside. Between them these clubs cover most of the keelboat and offshore racing on the bay.

History

The club was established in 1948, and its origins are unusually clear-cut. The idea came from Doug Drouyn, who had sailed his yacht Sea Tang in the 1947 Sydney to Hobart. He did not finish that race — a broken boom ended his run — but he came away wanting an equivalent blue-water event for Queensland. The club was formed to make that happen.

The inaugural Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race was run at Easter 1949. Seven yachts started, watched by a large crowd gathered on the foreshore at Woody Point. It was very much a race of its era: only two of the boats carried radios, and the others were reportedly issued homing pigeons to relay their positions back to shore. First across the line was Hoana; on corrected time, under the handicap system then in use, Sea Prince was declared the overall winner despite being last to finish.

The race was originally framed as a cruising event — the boats were required to be sturdy cruising designs rather than the lightly built inshore racers of the day — but the competitive edge was there from the outset, and the "cruising" label soon gave way to a genuine race. From those beginnings the Brisbane to Gladstone grew into one of the most recognised names in Australian offshore sailing, and the club that created it has organised it ever since.

Where it sails

QCYC sails on Moreton Bay, the large, sheltered bay on Queensland's south-east coast. From Shorncliffe on the northern foreshore, the bay's protected waters make for a forgiving and dependable venue for club racing across the year, with generally warm water and reliable seasonal breezes.

The offshore racing is a different proposition entirely. The Brisbane to Gladstone starts on the bay and then heads out onto the open Coral Sea for a run of roughly 308 nautical miles up the Queensland coast to Gladstone. That takes crews well beyond the shelter of the bay into genuine ocean conditions, where coastal weather, current and sea state all become serious factors. It is this contrast — a sheltered home venue and a demanding blue-water classic — that defines the club's sailing.

If you are newer to the sport and getting your bearings, our guide to sailing in Brisbane and Moreton Bay sets out the local conditions and geography, and the sailing terms glossary covers the vocabulary that comes up around offshore racing.

Racing

The club's signature event is the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, held over the Easter weekend and starting on Good Friday. First run in 1949, it is now among the longest-running ocean races in the country and is widely regarded as one of Australia's flagship offshore events. The overall winner on handicap takes the Courier-Mail Cup, one of the oldest perpetual trophies in Australian sailing — a prize with real standing in the offshore fleet.

Around that headline race, QCYC runs a club racing programme on Moreton Bay through the season, giving members regular keelboat competition on the bay in the lead-up to, and beyond, the Gladstone campaign. As a smaller, offshore-focused club, its calendar is more concentrated than those of the large multi-discipline squadrons, but the through-line is consistent: a club built around ocean racing, still doing exactly what it was founded to do.

For those wanting to follow the club, QCYC publishes its racing calendar, Notices of Race and results through its official website, and the Brisbane to Gladstone has its own dedicated race site each year. Exact schedules, entry requirements and membership categories change from season to season, so confirm current details directly with the club before planning around any specific event. If offshore crewing is your interest, our guide on how to join a yacht racing crew is a practical starting point for finding a berth on the Queensland coast.