SOLAS Big Boat Challenge: Maxis on Sydney Harbour

The SOLAS Big Boat Challenge is the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's spectacular maxi race on Sydney Harbour — a short, sharp invitational contest each December that serves as the charity curtain-raiser to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. It puts the biggest and fastest yachts in the country on display close to shore, in one of the world's great natural arenas, days before they head out to sea for Hobart.

What it is

The Big Boat Challenge is an invitational harbour race for maxi yachts, run by the CYCA. Rather than a long offshore passage, it is a compact spectacle: the largest boats in the Sydney Hobart fleet — supermaxis and maxis among the fastest monohulls in the world — racing a lap of Sydney Harbour where everyone can see them. It has been held for over twenty-five consecutive years and reliably opens the festive-season build-up to the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

That role as a curtain-raiser is central to its character. The race is a chance for crews to tune up, for the public to get close to boats that usually race far offshore, and for the city to mark the start of its most famous sailing fortnight.

The course around the harbour

The race is a short circuit of Sydney Harbour. The fleet starts off Point Piper, races a lap around the harbour, and finishes near the Sydney Opera House. Keeping the whole contest on the harbour, rather than out at sea, is a deliberate choice — it brings the maxis in tight against the headlands and foreshores where the racing can actually be watched.

For the boats, harbour racing is its own discipline. Where offshore racing rewards endurance and navigation, a tight harbour course demands sharp boat-handling — quick manoeuvres, precise starts and clean mark roundings in a confined space, with big, powerful yachts that take real skill to turn in close quarters. The contrast with the long ocean grind that follows is part of what makes the event compelling.

The fleet

The entry list is an invitational gathering of the biggest racing yachts on the east coast. Past editions have featured the line-honours contenders that define the modern Sydney Hobart — boats such as Wild Oats XI and Black Jack — alongside other maxis and large racing yachts. Seeing these machines short-tacking up a harbour, metres from the shore, is a very different experience from watching them disappear over the horizon on Boxing Day.

For anyone trying to make sense of how such different yachts race together, our guide to line honours versus handicap explains why the first boat home is not always the official winner, and the sailing terms glossary covers the language of the commentary.

SOLAS Trusts and the charity purpose

The event's full name carries its meaning. SOLAS stands for Safety of Life at Sea, and the CYCA's SOLAS Trusts were established after the 1998 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, in which six lives were lost. Since 2006 the club has dedicated the Big Boat Challenge to raising awareness and funds for the SOLAS Trusts. That gives the spectacle a serious underpinning: a celebration of the sport that also honours its hardest lesson and supports safety at sea.

How to watch

Because the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge is run entirely on Sydney Harbour, it is one of the most accessible big-boat spectacles in the country to watch from land. The foreshores, parks and headlands around the course offer clear views of the maxis manoeuvring close in — a rare chance to see yachts of this size up close. Race details, timing and the entry list are published by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. For how curtain-raisers and feature events sit within a season, see our racing program.