Albert Park yacht club during the 70’s did number of demonstration day, which where held around the state to promote the sport, they were held at Patterson Lake, Coburg Lake & Latrobe Valley.

Also around this time the Victorian state titles & Bourneville Trophy where been held at Albert Park in both vane & radio and the boats where all hand crafted and planked. If my information is correct one of the first winner of the Bourneville trophy was Bert Hazeldihe sailing a vane M

The 80' saw the beginnings of what we know today as the traditional design Marblehead yacht sailed by radio. This was the strongest class at the time at Albert Park, but soon to be closely followed by the A & IOM classes.

From this point on Albert Park Yacht Club began to grow in one of the strongest clubs in Victoria & Australia. It also saw the Marblehead class give way and embrace the IOM's as the dominate class being sailed by the club.

Today the club enjoys a strong membership with 38 members sailing IOM, Marblehead & 10R class boats.

Unfortunately Albert Park Lake has suffered from weed over the past 2-3 years, which has forced the club to find new sailing venues. We currently are sail at Edgewater, which is salt water feed marina of the Maribyrnong river. The venue would be close to one of the best, if best in Melbourne, with good parking, easy access for launching your boat and most of all great sea breezes that come down from Port Phillip Bay.

Venue update – we are now back sailing Albert Park Lake, (see race page) thanks to the efforts of Parks Victoria and the there work over January 2010. The weed which was the major problem for the lake has seen a slow decline and the cutting of the weed into smaller length has stopped it rapping around keels.  

The club is doing very well in all classes at a State and at a national level, with a number of your members finishing in the top ten at the last National in the IOM and the club also has the National Marblehead & 10r class champions.

A number of use do a lot of travelling, going to most state title in both IOM, Marblehead & 10r class and this year in know different was a number of use getting ready to travel to Sydney at the end of the year for the 2011 National title.

The club also has a diverse number of designs in each of the class. From own design boats, Ice Breakers, Cockatoo, Obsessions, TS2 & Pickantos IOM, to prime number, scalpel and Fuzzy Logic designs in the Marblehead and Diamond in the 10r class.

The club sail every second Sunday at the lake (see sailing venue page) it is all classes, but seems to be IOM & M most weekend. So please come down and see use at the lake and experience radio sailing.

Andrew Reid