South Bank Sailing Club Blog

A SBSC Singapore contingent showed the locals a clean pair of heels last week at the Constant Wind Sailing Club. Tom G and Jane SH hired a Bahia on a gusty day for the princely sum of £50 an hour!  Makes £7 for a Laser sound exceptionally cheap! Jane is a wonderful crew and she hoisted the spinnaker only to get caught out ending in a major capsize.  She lost her Croc and had to come off the water one-shooed, having had a major dunking!  Poor Jane.  It didn’t end that badly though – a beer each and  an extra large one for Captain Blonder…… Tom.

    Having delayed the race start time, panic swept the club as we rushed to avoid the tide turning before we reached the downriver buoy. With drone circling overhead, the fleet set off. Joe D scrambled to launch in time, while Graham and Peter were leisurely getting changed and agreed to catch up as best they could. The drone operators insisted they were filming the Fulham game but it seemed obvious they were shooting us instead. Joe(‘s sail) even made a brief appearance on TV in the warm-up to the football match. In the end there was a nice break by the downriver mark, during which Graham and Peter in their 420 were able to catch up and finish the first leg race. The sun was shining for a good stint during the race too, and at moments there was substantial hiking too!   Drainage issues ruined Graham and Peter’s sandwiches, but they seemed to be enjoying the water-resistant remainder of their picnic, while Justin and Ollie enjoyed their half-time oranges on the safety boat...

To misquote T.S.Eliot (horribly) : ‘A cold coming they had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a sail, and such a hard sail: The water cold and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ Actually, the sailing wasn’t that hard, but the weather was sharp.   It wasn’t only cold, it looked cold . . . grey in any direction. Seven boats took to the water for this race: five Lasers, one Enterprise and a 420, with all sailors well protected against the chill.   The course set was somewhat like an inverted isosceles triangle with two long edges and a short one that boats went round twice on each lap.   The wind was from the east swinging sometimes to south-east and at slightly less strength than predicted.   The original length of four laps was shortened to three after the first lap so that the race would last approx. one hour. A clean start saw the field speeding to the first buoy in a couple of minutes, then bunching up as they completed the first ‘sausage’.   There was a difference...

There is a Spanish saying that goes like this ‘Nadar para morir en la orilla’ which translates into ‘Swimming to finally die at the shore’, I suppose you could also say ‘only to fall at the final hurdle’. Well that is how I see this race. It was a typical winter day, winds from the North and not a ray of sun could be seen, the only ray in the club was Mr. Burnet who kindly stepped in for a duty. It was a downriver race and as sometimes happens the winds just died before the start and Josh in a Laser and Henry Koe in a Topper were over the start line and although they briefly attempted to beat the current, the mighty Thames didn’t seem to like that. Then the magnanimous Ben Thomas and James Pratt appeared in the safety boat allowing them to re-join the race. By that time Allan and Steph in an enterprise had a commanding lead with Sally and Henry Cook in their lasers following closely. Unfortunately the second enterprise sailed by Amy and Max had to retire and wait in the shore. Alan and...

(Who better to tell us about the annual club dinner than Commodore of Vice, Sara Bennett…) ) Another great End of Season Supper on Saturday night.  For the second year running Jamie cooked up a storm.  25 of us sat down to a Michelin quality menu – take a look at what we had   Pre starter: smoked haddock veloute Starter: pressed ham hock, apple salad and pea foam. Main: pan fried duck breast, braised duck leg wontons, pal Choi, spiced carrot purée and a red wine and star anise sauce. Dessert: dark chocolate tart, honey comb and raspberry sorbet. Ray handed out the year’s trophies, most of which as usual went to Renato who unfortunately was away on holiday.  Highlight of the evening was Ray changing Renato’s name to Armand Attard and suddenly Armand was a new champion and receiving all the prizes.  How he enjoyed that! Sara

It was a rainy, windy, cold January Sunday – what’s better than coming down to the club to sail off the End of Year Supper hangover? We had five standard lasers and an enterprise on the water for the Goodwin race #3, with four boats starting and Meg and Josh having a sail. Joe Driver had the best start followed closely by Allan and Steph, Sally and Henry Cook. The run down to the first mark shook things up – Allan and Steph had taken the lead with Sally in second. With the tide and wind against them, the beat up the wall by Craven’s Cottage was tactful; Joe got a good shift and took Sally’s second with Allan and Steph holding the lead. On the second lap, Sally’s tiller extension broke and she couldn’t sail through the gusts and had to retire. Final positions are Allan and Steph in first, Joe in second and Henry Cook in third. Award of the day goes to Henry for roll tacking too enthusiastically and falling out of his boat on the approach to the finish line. Also to Meg and Hannah, for b...