South Bank Sailing Club Blog

  Sunday 21st August 2022. The last downriver race of the 2022 Bevington Trophy series promised to be a tactical affair with the forecast of 6 gusting 10 looking optimistic.  At least it was South Westerly wind giving the best chance of making use of what wind we did have.  With a small field of very capable sailors Race Officer Jane S-H decided we only needed one safety boat and planned to allow plenty of time by starting the race an hour before low tide at Battersea.  Setting off a little late Henry C led the field out in a Laser, closely followed by Allan in his Solo.  Initially Ellie and James C in the 420, Karin A and Ben R in the Enterprise, and Mike and Ang in the GP stayed in touch by edging down the Southern bank and negotiating paddle boarders, and moored boats to take advantage of any  width of the river they could find.  At Putney Bridge a seal snacking on an eel, looked on approvingly at the skill on display. As the wind became patch...

Sunday 7 th August 2022 RO and SB1- Jane SH and Sina, SB2- Alex D and Lucy A hot sunny Sunday late afternoon race with a forecast of NE wind 6 knots gusting 16. As usual quite changeable when on the water!. The competing sailors Elaine and Ellie (Lasers),  James, Jakob and Allan (Solos)… plus at RO’s discretion (a one-off) and with SB team support  Michael and his non sailor guest Karan in a trusty ENT. Sina provided delicious cupcakes for the race briefing enjoyed by us all. Perhaps a contributing factor to our keen sailors being rigged and ready to go when the start bell rang at 15:30. And off they sailed with some wind behind them.  A slow and steady race with James, Ellie, Allan and Jakob in contention.. then Allan found some wind and surged ahead. Then a call from SB 2 to say “no bung in the ENT”.. they couldn’t find the bung (pointed out afterwards) But luckily SB Lucy carries a supply of bungs  (!)  Hey presto the ENT set sail once more.. however as they...

Sunday 31st July 2022. As we arrived at the club, the wind was blowing a strong 20-knot northwesterly. A tricky course was proposed in view of the wind direction, favouring the controversial red rowing buoy as the windward mark in an arrangement of three buoys. Mutiny in the ranks prevailed, but the race officer and John Parke as assistant race officer were adamant and stuck to their guns in retaining the course proposed. ‘Sausage sailing’ – not on our watch! All raced in Lasers today, save James who was in his trusty red Solo. While Sara and Alex were in the safety boat, John and Andrew manned the race box. No sooner had the boats hit the water, than the wind completely dropped off. But we had a clean start, and Renato took a different tack to the rest of the sailors. It was very slow race at the beginning up to mark 2 (the controversial red rowing mark) as the wind completely dropped off. Had we chosen the right course? Had we set the correct number of laps? We would just have to let...