Swedish classics race

Light winds greeted a varied fleet of wooden boats for the August edition of the Albert Race, held in Rossö, a seaside town south of Strömstad in Sweden, writes Erik Norlander.

Sixteen boats started in northern Bohuslän’s classic wooden boat meeting, but none of them could threaten the course record of 54 minutes.

The boats sail to a local handicap, called RYS, which loosely interpreted means Rossö Yard Stick. Regatta organisers set a boat's RYS number arbitrarily, largely basing it on last year’s results.

The start at Killingholmen was taken elegantly by Bengt Jansson who, with his Tango, an Olle Enderlein-drawn Ballerina, had the pleasure of leading the field out through Rossöhamn. There the wind dropped and so did the boat, allowing more easily powered boats to pass.

Race tactics include choosing the best route at Vadbodskäret – sometimes it pays to lead the fleet through, but if you stall in a wind hole, they will sail around you!

The winner was a former fishing boat, Frifararen, recently restored to working condition by owner Johan Goksöyr, and probably the only boat of its kind left.

Albert Olsson, after whom the Albert

Race is named, was a fisherman and chairman of SVC, the Swedish Fishermen's Central Association.