South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Sunday 16th January. Eleven boats rigged for a local race in a cool and calm 4-11 kts and 6 celsius. The wind was light, but the club flag was generally in motion, so the race was on. I kept a strict schedule for briefings and hurried the boats onto the rising tide. Jakob spotted a loose race mark, allowing Esteban and Josh time to wrestle it back into position as the countdown ran. My fears that nobody would be able to reach the start-line in such light wind were generally unfounded, with the unfortunate Joker an exception, accounting for its long first lap time. In retrospect, the tide was being kind, with several “rungs” left on the ramp by the end of the race. Able assistant Andrea and I attempted to take lap timings for each boat, mostly successfully; I made a mistake with Sara’s and Peter’s timings that I was unable to go back and correct. The lap timings show a familiar story – with the eventual top two sailors Allan and Jakob showing extremely consi...

Sunday 9th January The first sail of the year started well with the sun shining and a gentle westerly wind of 7-13kts promising a leisurely sail for the Southbank Sailing Club. Thirteen dinghies and two safety boats embarked upon the downriver race, starting from the club house and heading towards the Battersea Pagoda – a roundtrip measuring approximately 6.06 nautical miles. The plan for race one was to follow the pull of the outgoing tide towards Battersea and to then begin race two as the tide turned back up towards Putney. The initial stretch of the race, between the club house and Putney bridge started almost immediately as the tide pulled sailors away from the start line and a call had to be made to start the race from launch. From here the sailors made their way onwards, weaving under bridges and picking up speed as they sailed under Fulham railway bridge and towards Wandsworth bridge. Jakob and Henry were leading, with Sara and James hot on their heels. Under Wandsworth br...