South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Race Officers: Sara Bennett and Elena Balycheva Safety Boat: Tara Yamashita and Henry Cook If anyone asked me if I would prefer to be in the Race Box rather than out on the water I would say “you cannot be serious”. But yesterday was different and different in spades.. Having cancelled the downriver race earlier in the week, there didn’t seem to be any sign of decrease in the forecast wind strengths for Sunday and I wondered if anybody would be mad enough to even turn up for the local race around the buoys. Slowly but surely by about 1.45 seven of the club’s very best sailors turned up, as did the rest of the race team. As the wind whistled through the yard and the gusts whisked with scary regularity over the water, a plan was laid and Renato agreed to go out for 10 minutes on the water with the safety boat and see if he and they felt a race was doable for everyone. Tara and Henry in the safety boat fairly quickly contacted the Race Box to confirm that they all f...

Race Officers: Tim Bishop Safety Boat: Ray Burnett and Peter Mack The race having been moved from a morning downriver to an afternoon round-the-buoys because of the forecast high winds, I as acting RO set a port-hand 4 lap 3 buoy course. Cue much muttering, but for the forecast (SW 5 gusting 7, or 4 gusting 6, depending on which one you looked at) it seemed reasonable to me! Unfortunately . . the wind hadn’t looked at the forecast. The seven Lasers with varying rigs and one Albacore set off OK and got to the high-set first buoy fairly quickly, but were unable to sail across the river. The sailors agreed to restart the race at that point, reversing the course, but progress downstream for the small-rigged boats was slow, and it was clear that the race would have to be shortened. Matters were further complicated when I misunderstood a communication from the safety boat, so that three competitors set off on a 3rd lap which I thought the small-rigged boats would be unlikely to complete befo...

Race Officers: Jane Deith and Elena Balycheva Safety Boat: Steffan Ciccotti and Laurent Gustin A great turnout at the club for the 8th in the Campbell series. Twelve boats took to the water, perhaps a little disappointed the forecast strong winds hadn’t materialized. A triangle course was set. But with a southerly wind behind them the fleet set off for the first mark at a brisk pace. After crossing to the top mark on the north bank it was the customary weaving their way back towards Fulham FC. The race officer watched the fleet’s slow progress with alarm. Would we have to shorten the four laps to two? In the end we settled on three, and happily, the wind started to build – hopefully making it more fun for the sailors. Allan and Steph decided to go it alone on the south side of the river and it did them no harm, they completed the first lap not far behind Renato. Sara followed in third. Then Hugh and Ana. The pack was soon pretty spread out. Jonny in his Laser was following Hugh an...