South Bank Sailing Club Blog

                 Report on the 5th Goodwin Feb 18   (Club opened at 13.30) My day started badly. A collision on a level crossing had closed the line from E. Croydon to Clapham Junction, rail substitute buses are notoriously slow so I caught the next train to London Bridge, although it was a stopper, intending to take the Northern Line to Charing Cross and the District Line to Putney, Well the train ahead of us broke down so we stopped and kept on stopping at every tree it seemed. As every (other) Londoner knows the Northern line from London Bridge does not go through Charing Cross and by the time I had found the Jubilee line in the cavernous underground London Bridge station it was 13.45. I eventually got to the club at 14.30 thinking that with so little wind the start would be postponed until the tide slackened but no, Jane had everything organised, including the course. Eight boats were rigged and all I had to do was pretend to be in charge and start the race at 15.10. Unfortunately ...

The sunshine, strong breeze and (almost) freezing cold attracted ten sailors for the fourth race of the Goodwin series. The wind and later start/high tide allowed the use of the full river width and so a course consisting of a triangle in a triangle was set out by safety boat crew Giles and Polly. Unfortunately nine boats took a while to rig and so the race did not start until 10:46, shortly before the turn of the tide. Estrid had a great (almost controversial) start and was followed closely by Allan and Steph in the GP and Tom. Shortly after the start Rex was held up by a string of rowers, which allowed his father and Anna to shoot ahead. Renato, of course, had also had a decent start and rounded the far buoy first, followed by the GP and Sara – and uninterrupted by Tom christening his new sail with an early capsize. Renato was the first to complete the little triangle . At this point, the tide seemed to have turned and the boats were soon shooting along the Fulham bank, along the ed...

It was an early start on a cold winters day and a phenomenal ten boats took to the water for the second race of the Goodwin Series. There were eight laser standard rigs, an albacore and a solo. With so many in the same class, it would make for some exciting racing. There wasn’t much wind forecast, so we had five laps of a sausage close to the Fulham wall. As the boats were launching, the wind started picking up, so the sailors patiently waited while the buoys were moved to make the course longer. There were a few big gusts coming through, which for the smaller sailors proved to be a challenge; El caught a gust on a dead run 30seconds before the start bell and nearly capsized. As the starting bell went, she managed to gybe towards the line, but with the rest of the fleet having a good start, it would be difficult to catch up. Sally had a fantastic start, with the rest of the fleet hot on her tail.   On the first reach down, Jamie’s out-haul came out of the clew and Jane ...

A really cold day greeted us yesterday for the 3rd race of the Goodwin Trophy series. It was to be a Downriver   Race and with a keen NNE wind blasting down the yard, and   making us all hide in our new club hoodies,   cups of tea and coffee were dispensed to warm us all!   The race team got to work with Leo and Erkka sorting out the safety boats with Sal making sure the sailors had signed on.  Luckily for me Steph and baby James arrived and sorted out a few IT things for me as Race Officer, (only just under 4 weeks and already grasped the Race Result sheet)…… and Allan made sure the Dory was going to start before the race start.   Always a useful precaution!   Jane D and Amy decided to take 4.7 rigs as the wind seemed to increase in strength and even Jamie and Jakob went for radials which must have   meant it was going to be a rocky ride to Battersea!   Allan rigged the club GP14 with Anna   as his crew who had come for a Taster Sail and Josh and Ben teamed up in Dotty...