Spectacular inshore yacht racing is on offer for beachgoers on Sunday as the Tauranga Yacht Club's Tornado fleet races to Papamoa and Back.

The two person catamarans will be staying within 800m of the beach and coming inside Rabbit Island on the way out and the way back.

'This is a first for the yacht club and should be spectacular for those on Leisure Island especially,” says Club member Stuart Pedersen.

'It is part of our celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Tornado class catamaran which until recently was raced at the Olympics and remains one of the fastest sailing classes in the world."

Start is 12 midday at Sulphur Point and given the wind forecast, spectators should start to see the five boats around the Mount by 12.15 and at Papamoa around 1pm.

'Tornadoes are the ex-Olympic multi hull class, they sailed in the Olympics up to about 2000 I think,” says acting multihull division chairperson Winston Ordish-Benner.

'They are a 20ft racing catamaran.”

Light winds are forecast for Sunday

'It looks pretty light in the morning. We are hoping to get underway about mid-day, so hopefully a little bit of a sea breeze should have picked up by then.

'It's meant to be coming from the north east, and hopefully if we get a bit of heat off the land, that should build up to a reasonable sort of speed for us.

'Hopefully the wind angle will be suitable to put up the gennakers and hopefully show off a bit of speed. These things can do 15 knots in 10 knots of breeze.”