South Bank Sailing Club Blog

We’re very pleased to report that Henry Koe, who’s 13 years old and one of our youngest members, has made the National Youth Squad for Topper Dinghys. Henry’s been racing Toppers competitively for two years now, competing in regional and national sailing events (sometimes involving more than 150 boats). Over the past two years he’s been selected for the London & South East Zone Squad and the National Topper 4.2 Squad (this is for younger sailors, in Toppers with a smaller sail). It’s been tough going, but Henry has got better and better and now he’s grown a bit, he can compete in most weather. Those who have seen him sail at the club would attest that he is a fiercely competitive young man, who loves his sport. Sailing with the National Junior Squad is a very big step up for Henry. He’ll be sailing with the very best sailors of his age and will do his best to keep up. He will have brilliant coaching (his coach is Ellie Cumpstie, who is aiming to w...

Race Officers & SB1: Jane S-H and Jerome Safety Boat 2: Ray and Alexei Sunday was the John Cope Cup race aka John Cope Downriver which is much easier to pronounce .  This is especially true for me and our other international members ; in the various boats we had a Spani ard , two Portuguese, a n Argentinian , a German, a Maltese, a French man , a Nurse and Sara!  Had Tom G been there the American ICE would have launched an attack boat!   With Jane as Race Officer things went to a timely start, super well organized. However her constant talk of “gusts up to 20 knots (no doubts she was mistaking our warm breeze for the Florence hurricane) led Elaine to cho o se a sail so small had she worn it she would have been kicked out of any religious establishment. Off we go with some strong wind and impressive sailing confirming that today we have a field of highly competitive professionals. It was a pleasure to see, a very fast run down the river. That is until the sabotage of the fu...

Race Officers: Jane SH and Chris B Safety Boat: Josh M and Trish G Sunshine and the last remains of summer, along with four keen sailors, turned up for the very first race of the Campbell series. With no wind in the afternoon it looked doubtful we’d be sailing, but then some light breeze started to build. In a bid to set a course with some actual wind it was decided to race in the opposite direction, towards Ranelagh. A sausage course was set with one mark towards Ranelagh and the other just the other side of the starting line to make it easy to reduce the number of laps if needed and to have a final mark rounding just before the finish (and excellent judgement of mark positioning as well by Josh and Trish in the safety boat). As if this wasn’t unusual enough, everyone was prompt to get on the water so Jane was able to start the race exactly at the intended starting time of 18:10. Much panic in the race office ensued as all four sailors stayed well up tide of the start line,...