South Bank Sailing Club Blog

– Race Officers: Carla Caturri-Gispert and Victoria Grubb – Safety Boat: David Fletcher and Patrick Chardon If you were not down sailing on Sunday you missed one of the nicest days so far this autumn; mild temperatures, constant breeze and slight gusts. The Thames barriers had been closed at low tide around 11am meaning that there was not much water and the course needed to be laid in the middle of the river. A sausage course was decided to interfere the least with Ranelagh S.C. Victoria plus guest RO Henrik and myself sent off the boats. At the moment of the race start the safety boat manned by David and Patrick had laid the first buoy. Enough time to lay the second one, we thought, if the safety boat had not broken down!! Panic in the race box, mischief on the VHF and Henrik jumped on a club bike to join the stranded safety boat. A Barn Elms rowing safety was sent to rescue our rescue Henry and by the time the safety boat was changed the boats had wisely chosen to use one ...

Race Officers & SB1: John Parke and David Joo Safety Boat 2: Miguel and Rita Ferreira The Bernard Driver is our second oldest trophy race, it used to be held at the beginning of our winter series early in October to lead members back onto the water as the cold weather set in. It was inaugurated by Bernard Driver (Joe’s father) when he was Commodore and traditionally the course is set by the Commodore who tries to make it more interesting than usual. However on Sept 6 that was not to be. Windguru and the Met Office had been forecasting winds of 13-14 with gusts of up to 25 and that was not to be either, there was a light wind and the was right on the nose so that we considered postponing the start until the tide had slackened. We could not decide on the best side of the river and so laid four buys with the choice of coming down either bank and agreed helms what helms could do and how they would be scored if they could not make the start line in time. A lady from the Tideway Scu...