South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Race Report: Not The Goodwin Downriver 19 March 2017 Unpredictable, gusty, erratic, fractious: These are just some of the words used to describe to language directed towards the Race Committee during the course of the race that was supposed to be The Goodwin Downriver. It had promised to be a belter. St Patricks Day hangovers, the end of the Six Nations and winds were blowing 17 knots and gusting 30 – we had honestly only expected a handful of the brave ones to arrive. To our surprise 15 sailors were ready to embrace the challenge with 11 boats between them. The 4 Race & Safety Boat team joined these competitors, comprising of Lucy Edgar, Chris & Allison Barnes and myself, Richard Graham.  We quickly decided that, with the volume of the fleet and the gusty weather, a full downriver wasn’t the best option, so we set a fairly long sausage course between The Crabtree and Putney embankment. As the tide was still ebbing its way out, the space to sail was narrow but a gusty sout...

A few small adjustments are being made to the handicaps for a couple of boat classes, effective from today (16 March 2017). Our handicap system uses the Portsmouth Yardstick tables from the RYA as a base, with SBSC-specific adjustments to reflect conditions on our stretch of the river. For up-to-date handicap values and more information, see the Sailing: PY / Handicaps page. Details of the changes are as follows: Xenon PY has increased from 1080 to 1111 (making it equivalent to Laser Radial). This should make the Xenon more attractive for racing and increase usage of the boats especially on Sundays. Topper PY has fallen from 1340 to 1240 . Albacore PY has been split into two sub-classes: Wooden (retaining existing PY of 1082 ) and Fiberglass (taking the official RYA number of 1043 ). All other classes remain unchanged. We hope these changes improve fairness when sailing these dinghy classes on our stretch of the river. As always, numbers can be tweaked in future, especially when mo...

I was surprised so many sailors turned up given the forecast was a measly 5-6 knots. But Southbank faith kicked in, and after an hour or so the tide had come up enough, and the wind had come up fractionally enough, to venture onto the Thames. We set a three-buoy triangle and off our 8 boats went – making decent speed towards the first buoy. Coming back along the north bank was slow, as expected, but has been slower! Rounding the third buoy and starting the second lap, Renato was followed by Sally, Henry, Elaine. Allan and Steph were towards the back, but as the fleet spread out over the race they gained all the time until they were breathing down Renato’s neck on the final, third lap. Some mental calculations were probably going on in both boats as Renato’s lead narrowed towards the line. Would it be enough for him to hang on, despite the Enterprise’s handicap? It was, by about 20 seconds on corrected times. Johnny also did very well on his new Solo adventure, co...

Well I did ask that people arrive on time for Sunday’s race because of the late start time, but I was really taken aback that Renato, renowned for arriving half an hour before race start, was the first sailor to get to the club!   He wasn’t taking any chances! The team consisting of Johnny and Esteban in the safety boat   and Jane SH and I in the Race Box, had been there for a while, and everything was ready to roll.   Jamie, Steph, Henry, George and Allan all piled in, in no particular order,   and got their boats ready. Whilst everyone was rigging, there was an almighty clap of thunder right overhead and a flash of lightning which made us all wonder whether sailing was going to be possible at all. Luckily Peter who is the Putney High School rowing coach next door gave us the official rowing guidance on lightning which was that one shouldn’t go on the river for 30 minutes   after. That was good enough advice from an official body like British Rowing so the sailors too...

Storm Doris had been and gone, but unsettled weather continued for race 7 of the Goodwin cup and the six boats taking part faced difficult conditions for the six lap upriver course. Of the Laser sailors Renato, Johnny and Joao confidently (or boldly) opted for full sails, with Amy choosing a Radial and Christina a 4.7. The fleet was completed by Alan and Steph in the Enterprise. The race got off to a smooth start (to the relief of the novice RO) with everyone getting away well from above the line. The challenges became clear on the upwind leg, with most boats seeming to have to stay well off the wind. The exceptions were Johnny and Renato who pulled away, to complete their first laps in under ten minutes. And it was the battle for first place between Johnny and Renato that was the story of the day. Johnny had pulled ahead to an almost two minute lead after three laps, but something then seemed to fall into place for Renato who had recovered 30 seconds after lap 4 and another 30 after l...

A devout group gathered to mark Shrove Tuesday at the club this week – or was it to wolf down delicious sweet and savoury pancakes? New member Josh showed fearsome focus and a winning technique with the pan. Elaine nailed it too. Sina, Henry, Allan and Steph all helped cook and eat. Most of us managed three pancakes. Some of us four! Thanks to Allan for bringing the goods and everyone who took a turn at the pan.    

Wednesday the 1st of March 2017 was almost the end of days for 3 fearless sailors as they attempted to battle storm Doris. Please watch the video below of the end of the race to see just how harrowing it was. Be warned, it’s extreme and some viewers might find it disturbing…