South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Saturday 29th July – fun on the river in the pouring rain doing a capsize drill. Our 4 plucky participants – Erkka, Elaine, Leo and Elli – all had to capsize and recover  a Xenon and we included a bit more trickiness by getting them to invert the laser and get that back upright as well. They all passed the tests with flying colours – well done guys!

With the summer being pretty gosh darn excellent this year I thought it was time to lay on a spread of big, meaty treats for people to get their chops around. I headed for the butchers and bought half a tonne of pork ribs which were marinated in homemade BBQ sauce. These babies were big enough to give Fred Flintstone the meat sweats. Accompanying them were some Indian spiced chicken kebabs and satay sauce, burgers, sausages and enough Halloumi to send you into a cheese induced coma. Top notch puddings were created by various members, one of which can still be found in the fridge to this day (the pudding not the member). Unless you want to get food poisoning – maybe to get out of a boring work meeting or family gathering with the in-laws – I suggest you stay well away from it. A right rabble turned up to booze the night away and a lot of fun was had trying to keep the paper plates on the table thanks to the hefty breeze that kicked up. That pesky wind knows exactly how to an...

The club was originally part of the London County Council sports club and I was allowed to join it about 45 years ago because Wendy was teaching for the ILEA. We sailed only Enterprises and Gp14s then. Some Lasers trickled in but the Old Guard insisted that they carried anchors and they left in a huff. When I first joined we usually got about 8 boats on the water and 12 for the Cope. But Thatcher abolished the London Council and our membership fell to the point that we got 2-4 boats out and we seriously discussed amalgamation with Ranelagh. We were rescued by the 5 th Cavalry in the shape of Ian Malcolm, Chris Philips, Jeremy Khan, Alan and Sara. The rotten boats were thrown out and Chris led a massive yard tidy up and Ian and Jeremy repaired club boats. Alan, a property man, took on the renegotiation of our lease – and Sara has inspired our social life. The club steadily came back to life. I have had 45 year’s pleasure from SBSC – in spite of regular capsizes and being too...

The “Ruby Bell” is a coveted trophy, awarded to the winner of a special Ruby Race each year. The Ruby Race is a downriver event, run as a single leg, where racers choose their own start time to (hopefully) coincide with them rounding the downriver mark at the moment the tide changes. Competitors must consider the wind, tide, rainfall and the astrological alignment. Leave too early and you’re stuck fighting the outgoing tide as soon as you round the mark, leave too late and you’ll be fighting the incoming tide before you even make the mark. Your result is the elapsed time adjusted for your PY / handicap as normal. During the race briefing, the downriver mark was declared to be the central arch of the Victoria railway bridge, just west of Battersea Power Station; a little further than a typical downriver course. It’s typically advised to ignore any “tips” from other members of the club; it’s one day in the year when you should trust nobody! ...

Sunday 9 July 2017 Bevington 7 10 boats Sunday was a lovely warm and breezy day. 10 boats waited on the tow path to be launched. Jamie set a course of 4 laps all to starboard. Lap 1 saw the boats struggle to make headway towards Putney along the Fulham wall. It was a very close pack but Renato rounded the buoy first. Closely followed by Sally and Sara. By now the fleet was fairly well strung out. Lap 2 saw Tom and Sina deploy the spinnaker possibly prompted by Renato as he lapped them. Renato, of course, rounded the marker first, then Sally and Sara.   Lap 3 was a blur as I refereed a fight between the twins over some balloons left from Ben’s 18th party. They wanted the lights from inside. Lap 4 saw Renato finishing the race as Sara, in third place, was beginning her last lap. So it was safe to say that Renato won and was home, changing nappies, by the time Tom and Sina crossed the finishing line. Yet another lovely afternoon spent at SBSC. 1st Renato 2nd Sara 3rd Sally