South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Bevington Downriver Series Race 6 After a fairly strong wind on Saturday, there wasn’t much left for any of the Sunday sailors. It varied between 4mph and 8mph, and at times it wasn’t fully clear to the Race Officer where it was actually coming from. In the Race Officer Boat we had Kevin Heydenrych and myself, and in the Safety Boat we had Mike de Selincourt and Justin Lloyd Williams. We had five boats, which was actually a good turnout given the wind. We had Jakob, Henry, Elaine and Seb in the full-rigged Lasers, and Allan & Steph in the Enterprise. Importantly, there was no Renato, which meant everyone was looking for a win. This was evidenced by the fact that a number of the sailors approached me separately with recommendations on start time, finish time and tides! How exciting. With the tide turning at 14:30, we started the race broadly on time at 13:37. We had hoped this would at least allow a Pagoda trip and back, but this didn’t happen. By the five minute bell, the majority ...

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to enjoy a downriver race from the safety boat at the same time as providing assistance in case of need. I had the opportunity to welcome our new club member Fatih Guler, who had only joined the day before during one of Sara’s tasting sessions, and volunteer ed to assist with safety boat the next day!! Race Officer Jane SH with Anna were in SB1 with myself and Fatih in SB2 . T here was no need of assistance on this occasion, even if a couple of capsizes were observed!! It was a good opportunity for Fatih to get familiar with the river and basic safety boat manoeuvring. During the day w e had all type s of different conditions, from sunny and calm breezes to some rain and strong wind gusts , taking our sailors by surprise –  especially under the bridges. We had Renato, Jakob and Elaine in the ir full-rigged Lasers, Allan & Steph in the Enterprise and Sara in her Solo. We planned the race as per the usual form...