Joker has the last laugh in Princess Royal Sailing Club harbour course under challenging winds

Five yachts in the mixed keel boat division competed in a harbour course event last Saturday in a strong 25-knot easterly that tested boats and crews.

There’s an old saying about sailing in Albany, that if you can sail in Albany that you can sail anywhere, and on Saturday it was proved correct.

The conditions also meant quick times around the course even with extra crews on some boats.

There was a new face in this fleet having its first competitive outing and that was the 40-footer Longshot skippered by Drew Linda, which did extremely well throughout.

It was by far the largest boat in the fleet compared to the likes of Joker and Mary Maitland.

Chris Olham in Joker and Stephen Brown in Mary Maitland are keen rivals and once again these two veteran skippers put on another display of excellent sailing.

Brown won the start over Joker, Jessie James, Longshot and Innes which was rather late starting.

The howling easterly didn’t deter skippers using spinnakers which enabled Joker to get the better of Mary Maitland in the end.

Meanwhile Brett Hawker had put Jessie James over the line first but was relegated to fourth place, recording fastest time in a good showing.

Joker took the race on handicap with Longshot doing enough to finish second on corrected time in a fine effort.

Brown had to be content with third place after another great endeavour.

Only two Flying Fifteens decided to tackle the extreme conditions which saw Simon Lucas in Forever Young pitted against the teenager Eden Gray in Flying Flounder.

It was an even start but true to form Lucas took an early lead which he held throughout with Gray not too far off the pace.

The more experienced Lucas had to sail to the best of his ability to increase his lead but to no avail as Gray shadowed him to the finish to win on corrected time by the slight margin of 49 seconds, with Lucas taking second and fastest in a great display from both skippers and crew.