Albert Gold Cup

Albert Gold Cup

Since the early 1960’s, the Albert Gold Cup has been awarded to the winner of the invitation
race (latterly the first heat) at the Australian International Flying Dutchman National
Championships. It is a keenly fought for trophy within the Australian International Flying
Dutchman class at each Nationals and is engraved with a list the who’s who of FD sailors in
Australia. The winners of the Cup over the last 25 years are listed below.

The Albert Gold Cup has a fascinating history and is somewhere near one hundred years old
and is 24 carat solid gold and is priceless.

The Cup was commissioned by Mr Frank Albert in the early 1920’s in Sydney and was
originally awarded to the 21-Footer restricted class by Frank Albert. It was first raced for in
1922 as the invitation trophy to the Forster Cup, the trophy for the 21-footer National
Champion. The 21 footers raced up until 1955 when the class failed to proceed, and the
Albert Gold Cup lay dormant.

In the early 1960s the International Flying Dutchman Class (also a recent addition to the
Olympic sailing classes), was making a name for itself amongst the young yachting fraternity
around Australia. In Sydney in particular, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron was building up a
strong fleet of FD’s which included Mr Ted Albert, son of Sir Alexis Albert and grandson of
Frank Albert.

In 1963 Ted Albert thought the Albert Gold Cup would make a great trophy for the new FD
fleet at National Titles and subsequently bequeathed the Albert Gold Cup to the Australian
International Flying Dutchman Class Association as the trophy for its invitation race as the
lead up to its national championship. The cup had been lying dormant and unraced for since
1955 and Ted Albert was the only person with the authority to hand this magnificent trophy
to the Australian Flying Dutchman Class.

The Australian Flying Dutchman Class have raced for the Albert gold cup in all the
ensuing years. Ted Albert was very proud that the Cup carried on with the Flying Dutchman
Class which still bears his family’s name. Ted Albert died in 1990.