South Bank Sailing Club Blog

A normal Februarish forecast, overcast with an E. wind well into the teens and gusts well into the twenties, temperature 5-8deg. A welcome challenge for young laser sailors or so one of them said; I thought it was a good day to be well wrapped up in a stable safety boat with a flask of hot (fortified) coffee and a penguin for half time. Actually the river did not look threatening, no whitecaps and the gusts looked sparkling rather than black and threatening but it seemed that nearly all the club felt as I did because only six boats launched. The RO was Stefan, a compassionate man, and he agreed to a shorter race. However he spends much of his time patrolling the Thames with the RNLI so he was specially concerned about safety on the river and in his briefing required all boats to use the centre arches. Not everyone remembered. The fleet made a clean start with Sara well ahead but when they reached Putney Bridge Renato was in his usual place with Stephanie (4.7) close behind. And so they...

Race Officer:Sara Bennett and Lucy Edgar Safety Boat:Giles Harrison and Anne Hauger Gusts of 36mph had been forecast all week and all my hopes that it would reduce to something more manageable came to nought. So that was it for me, I didn’t fancy yet another swim after the previous 2 Sundays, and was pleased to swap with Henry as Race Officer so that he could go and sail! Contact was made with Ranelagh by phone at midday and they confirmed they were fielding six boats – two Solos and four Lasers – and would leave their slipway once the pre Boat Race trials had come through The course was explained on the phone, and I suspect it flummoxed them somewhat as was to be seen later……. Giles and Anne busied themselves getting the safety boat ready, and our sailors rigged and and before we knew it the Ranelagh sailors were appearing up the river – now that a lot of the trees along the bank have been cut down we can see right to Putney Bridge, so nobody can sne...

Cold. Very, very cold. I arrived early, determined not to repeat the errors of my previous RO effort. Ah, well, the best laid plans…. The view from the front of the fleet. A gusty force 4 northerly breeze did not deter a full-rigged Laser (Renato) and Enterprise (Allan and Steph), a small rig Solo (Sara), a reefed Albacore (Armand and Jane) and 2 4.7’s (Tara and Henry). Given the strong ebb flow, the plan was to start at 12.45 and finish near Battersea Power Station, by which time the tide would at least be on the turn, thus reducing the early finishers’ waiting time. Regrettably, it was close to one o’clock when I got on the water with Anita. Add a false start because most of the fleet didn’t hear the first set of signals, and the actual start time was 13.07 – giving the fleet about 8 minutes to get to the finish before the time I expected the tide to be turning! Working hard, Renato quickly pulled out a lead, followed by Allan and Steph, then Tara, ...

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