Dragon Ted Albert Memorial Trophy at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club - Day 1
by John Roberson 4 Jan 11:06 UTC
4-5 January 2025
Willy Packer leads Race 1 comfortably in the Ted Albert Memorial Series © John Roberson
Willy Packer sailing Scoundrel sailed to a comfortable win in the opening race of the Ted Albert Memorial Series, the warm up regatta for the Dragons' Prince Philip Cup, their national championship. Crewed by Randall Harding and Jock Packer, Willy was ahead at the first mark and did not relinquish his advantage through the race.
Commenting on the race Packer said, "We started at the committee boat end of the line, it was not the favoured end, but it was where we wanted to be. There were some big shifts out there and we played the middle of the course on the first upwind leg.
"The second windward leg was shifty again and you had to play the shifts, but by the time we got to the last leg is had settled down and we just sailed conservatively to keep our position." Indeed Packer and his team ploughed a lonely furrow up the middle of the first beat while most of the fleet headed for the south shore of the Swan River.
At times it looked as if those along that southern shore might get to the windward mark first, but the pendulum swung in favour of the Scoundrel team and they rounded about two boat lengths ahead of Grant Alderson sailing French Connection.
Behind Packer there was plenty of place changing with Andrew Foulkes and his Tatsu team moving into second place when Alderson and his team messed up a spinnaker drop. Third place went to Peter Bowman sailing Akula.
The event is being hosted by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and sailed on the Swan River, with 24 entries from as far afield as England and Hobart. The race started in a comfortable 12 to 15 knots of south westerly breeze that built to a more challenging 20 knots and more by the finish.
Top female skipper of the day was Trish Ford sailing Canewdon Witch, she was mid fleet at the first mark, but sailing well downwind gained places, before overtaking a couple more boats on the final upwind leg to take sixth place.
There are two more races for the Ted Albert series on Sunday before the Prince Philip Cup starts on Monday.
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