South Bank Sailing Club Blog

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...

Sunday 24th July 2022 Today we set sail to start the downriver John Cope race. This consists of two races, one down river to about Battersea Park and the other from Battersea Park to SBSC. We started the first race with Peter just on the line, but Andrew, James and Jakob quickly caught up. Four minutes in, James was leading the race in his Solo, with Andrew and Jakob closely battling it out in their Lasers. It was quite a windy day so the whole way down favoured some incredible but difficult downwind sailing. Andrew, James and Jakob were neck and neck the whole way down, but James managed to seal the deal and take first place at the end of the first race. The race took about half an hour considering the favourable wind, so we had to wait about half an hour at Battersea Park before the tide turned. James and Jakob had the best start in the second race which started at 18:45 with Jakob heading the whole upwind leg back to SBSC. James, Andrew, and Peter closely followed. The exhaustion an...

Sunday 19th June 2022 A unique race in the Enterprise 2022 calendar. Perhaps the spiritual home of the boat’s designer, Jack Holt, who was born in Hammersmith. A single class one-design pursuit race? How does that even work? Borrowing heavily from the format of SBSC’s Ruby Bell race, we planned to make the most of our tidal location and use the tide as the variable allowing competitors to decide on their own start time. A unique twist. We would then record each boat’s start and finish time and calculate a winner with the shortest elapsed time. The course was simple. Sail downriver to a single mark, leave the mark to port and return to the start/finish line. We allowed a starting window of one hour after the standard warning and preparatory signals. Never has so much bell ringing produced such little activity. We waited. Start too early and you risk arriving at the mark too early and effectively park up trying to push the tide on the return leg. Leave too late and the tide will have tur...

28th May, 2022. The Race on Saturday commenced in near perfect conditions, with a sunny blue sky studded with clouds and a northerly wind blowing at strength of 6 knots. The race itself followed a triangular course with it’s most northerly mark by the Crabtree pub and the finish line at the clubhouse, though the start line was located up river. After a smooth launch for all seven of our racers and the safety boat, the race commenced at 12.59 pm. It was initially hard for the race observers at the clubhouse to determine how the race would play out with all participants initially holding quite close together. However, by the end of the second lap Jakob Grunig had secured a clear lead with Allan Munro-Faure and Eleanor Hanning following close behind him. This was the leading order as the race entered its second lap, unfortunately at this point a large number of lasers from the Ranelagh sailing club entered the area. The result was that the centre of the river became a confused mass of sai...

Sunday 8th May 2022 Race Officer: Luis and Bruce R. Safety Boat: Fleur and Agnes It was a lovely early evening for the first Bevington race of the series with 14 sailors and 13 boats competing; 4 Solos, 1 420, 1 Laser Radial and 7 Lasers .  Guided by Alan, Renato and Jakob a daring 3-point course was set extending from the mile point upriver to the Putney moorings downstream, with a rather ambitious 5 lap target. The wind forecast was 6 knots gusting 9, E/SE and high water at 20:30. It took some time to get ready as the buoys had to be repositioned to make the course sufficiently large for the sailor’s aspirations. One yellow buoy seemed to drift so Agnes and Fleur removed it promptly and we resorted to the permanent red one. The race started at 18:17 with a downriver start, a novelty welcomed by the sailors. The first boat to complete the first lap was Renato’s laser in just under 20 minutes, with Jakob (Laser) at his heels. Allan, and James Channer were next in their solos, followed ...

May Day Race Report Sunday 1 st  May 2022 Race Officers: Jane S & Andrea S Safety Boat: Sina S & Manuel A The May Day Race 2022 was created today! Due to little wind, strong current and unequal starting conditions, the RO decided that this first race of the summer season would not be part of the Bevington trophy series. There was very little wind – SW 5 gusting 10 knots forecast – but just enough to race.  At the briefing the course was set as 5 x sausage laps and 1x triangle allowing the competitors to choose the order in which they completed the laps.   We also added the proviso that if the wind dropped we’d reduce the laps and ask the Sina and Manuel to the SB team to finish the race from the safety boat. The eager competitors: Lasers – Jane D, Elaine, Patrick, Mike, Marco, and Ellie. Solos – Allan MF and James C. The wind picked up just before the race began and our sailors were making good time to get on the water. But then some rowers blocked the ra...

I arrived at the club a few minutes late on Sunday 14th to find a pleasantly surprising number of boats already out of the yard; some credited this to my dire warnings by email the day before, but personally I think that would be overestimating my influence over the sailors. 3.45pm is quite a late start for a downriver so I experimented with launching the two safety boats by winch (with mixed success; it does require fewer people, but takes just as long) and tried to fix my mistakes as fast as I could, eventually starting the race ten minutes late at 15:56. The brisk southerly wind made for a good upwind start, if a challenging launch for the less experienced crews; I’m led to believe James Channer got off to a great start in a Solo, and I know for sure he was first over the line at Battersea. The brisk wind plus a gentle ebb helped the fleet make it to Battersea in an average of just under an hour (a little over 3kts VMG, James leading with a strong 3.9) We got our phones out dur...

Sunday 6th March. Despite the forecast and the sunshine, the weather was Baltic – much colder than it seemed and a wind with attitude! Blowing pretty stiff and sort of from the North, but changeable and blustery – easily enough to catch the unwary. There were murmurs that the safety boat might have a busy day! Allan the sage advised on a triangle course and (to some minds optimistically) suggested 7 laps as everyone would race quickly  – if the fleet spent most of the time climbing back out of the water, we could always shorten it. (Allan also suggested that being 7, it would be an extra challenge for the sailors to remember how many laps they’d done!) The briefing included clear instructions on how any shortening of the race would be communicated through sirens and horn blasts. We were prepared for the worst! Nine hardy and intrepid sailors prepared for racing, while new member Nigel, (with Jane S-H as experienced crew) decided to re-acquaint himself with the joys of Enterprise sailin...

Sunday 13th February – Short fun races. RO Lucy and Jane SH SB 1 James F and Manuel, SB 2 Sara and Karin A Six boats rigged for a set of three short races locally, in a grey 16-30 kts and 7 celsius. The wind was consistently moderate throughout the morning, even though it was expected to increase towards lunchtime. The group took a bit longer getting on the water, presumably having second thoughts about the wind and how to go in (in pairs, or individually). Club double-hander boats were used, with Jakob and Renato sailing their own Lasers. James F and I got in the water early with the safety boat #1, dropping the buoys for the race. We ended up having to reset the buoys a couple of times to get the start line well aligned to a straight upwind start. We counted two Xenons, one Laser 13, one Enterprise and two Lasers. The wind was strong enough to provide some great sailing, emotional tacks and jibes, and some capsizes. The race started with a takeover of Renato over Jakob which det...

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...

Sunday 5th December 2021. What do you do on a cold wet miserable Sunday, apart from snuggling under a warm blanket with a glass of wine, watching the telly ? Go sailing at Southbank of course !  That’s exactly what nine members and eight supporters did – and great fun was had by all. The Glamorous Grandmas in the safety boat looked after everyone on the water. Nine intrepid sailors took part in eight boats:-  GP, six lasers and Solo. There was a strong steady mainly northerly wind allowing for a triangular course with the first buoy on the Surrey Bank, the second across the river near Crabtree and the third in front of the white flats just up from Fulham football ground. They were asked to do 5 laps but all, apart from Renato, who had to retire because his downhaul snapped, decided that 6 was better. Hey ho, what do the Race Officers know? Three of the lasers (Renato, Sally and Michael) and Solo (James) led from the start. Nevertheless, on each lap there were lots of changing posi...

Sunday 21st November. The first emotion I felt when I looked at Windguru on Sunday morning was envy … 12 gusting to 20 Knots with a 0° wind direction. A “True Northerly.” Wind conditions such as these do not get much better for our little stretch of the river for sailing or racing for that matter. A square course with wind aplenty and lots of tacking upwind, and gybing downwind.  And a glorious reach leg.   9° Centigrade temperature  … not bad. Moments of melancholy and tiny feelings of rage ensued and passed quickly. Very emotional times.  I jot it all down in the note pad for the monthly Zoom call with the analyst.  You see, it was not 48 hours previously, after bumping into our very positive and comprehensive Club Secretary Jane S-H on the towpath in front of London Rowing Club, that I actually volunteered for the duty for this Sunday.  There was a last minute vacancy it seems.   I had been M.I.A. on the duty front as the wife and I had been marooned in sunny Southern California for...

Sunday 7th November, 2021. Seven sailors made it to the start line on a mild and sunny November morning (an unfortunate gear failure on launching forced John to retire immediately). The wind was light and fickle in the vicinity of the line; at the one minute gun about half the fleet had been swept the wrong side of the line. A helpful puff enabled everyone bar Peter in a solo to get to the proper side and make a clean start. Peter fought valiantly for two minutes to reach the line before the race officers gave him leave to continue. The first leg started as a run under the Putney bridges. Initially the fleet were tightly grouped apart from the severely trailing solo. By Wandsworth bridge Renato and Jakob had eeked out a small lead but a wind hole in the lee of a block of flats resulted in an effective re-start for Renato, Jakob, Alan and Henry in the lasers and Tom in the Supernova. Out of the wind shadow and the sailors were hanging on by their toes on a fast planning reach straight i...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sunday 17th October 2021. Despite a gentle neap tide, a becalmed start to the day had the sailors and race team standing around hoping for an hour, before springing into action when the telltales in the yard hinted that wind was coming. ARO Patrick was pressganged onto the safety boat to replace a sick SBA, nine dinghies launched and immediately started drifting astern in the lee of the south bank. With an hour until predicted high water and nobody reaching the start line, the race start was hastily delegated to Renato and Patrick, who led the fleet into rougher waters and started a 7-and-a-half-lap sausage up the far bank. Jakob, as is often the case, set the fastest pace, but the other sailors refused to be left too far behind, in particular Henry and James in Lasers, and Allan and Sara in Solos. To prevent disputes over lap counts, RO Mike defined the “lap end” line in advance, and enumerated the leader’s lap count with a distant c...

26th September 2021 Race Officers: Luis Quiroga & Isabelle Duff SB: Sina Stapelfeldt & Dan Bignold Surprisingly mild and bright conditions greeted our competitors. After a less than decisive start, when the race officers showed enormous benevolence in allowing some sailors to start despite not being quite over the line, things got underway. The hitherto chosen triangle shape was dropped in favour of a sausage, this shape and gusty conditions not without its challenges for all our sailors, even for Renato, who almost came a cropper with the Thames but managed to dry capsize. Renato set the pace and was round the buoys very quickly, this speed only dwindling at the very end, when a dearth of wind added precious seconds and minutes. Renato was first over the line at 0.36.27, followed shortly after by Jakob who had no such troubles with the wind and glided past the clubhouse. Alan came next hot on Jakob’s tail, but spare a thought for James who was extremely unlucky; the wind ...

Sunday 5 th September 2021 Bernard Driver Cup Race Officers – Jane SH & Ben Ridgwell SB1 – Eric Morgan & Karin Andreasson The Bernard Driver Cup is a local race with a longer and more challenging course, depending on wind strength and direction. Unfortunately on the day the wind was less than an already light forecast NW Wind of 6 – 9 knots and the Thames barrier was closed resulting in no tide. Nevertheless 6 lasers and 3 solos launched with a reduced course of 4 laps with 3 marks, 1 west of the club house and 2 just west of the Crabtree pub. The already light wind dropped as the race started followed shortly afterwards by a prolonged period of rain although this did not prevent Renato taking an early lead. Despite significantly reducing the course again to 1 lap and valiant efforts from everyone the conditions eventually led to 5 retirements and Renato first past the flagpole followed by Jakob, Allan and James. A challenging day for all brightened up by the constant encourag...

Sunday 29th August 2021. Bevington trophy Downriver race. Race Officer & SB 1  – Jane SH and Henry Koe. SB 2 – Eric and Anoushka. Two legs were raced for the last of the Bevington Downriver Series, and Summer races, to Battersea pagoda and back. The wind initially gusting stronger than forecast the NE wind made for challenging launch conditions for three Lasers, Solo, and Seb in the Xenon, plus guests not racing. The wind reduced significantly after launch before picking up again fairly consistently to the forecast 8-10 gusting 16 knots, allowing a fairly close formation, with no capsizes, and Renato over the line first on Leg one around the buoy placed a bit short of the pagoda. Leg two was also started closer to home at Battersea Rail bridge to compensate for change of tidal flow. Renato then came from some way back to be first past the flag-pole, followed in close formation by Sara, Amaury, and Karin. Safety and R.O. boats were expertly driven by Anoushka and Henry re...

22nd August 2021 In the race box: Joseph Cabon On the safety boat: Sara Bennett & Allan Munro-Faure A three-buoy, double-sausage five-lap course was laid, taking   advantage of a good NW wind, 6-13 mph, hoping to both challenge & interest the sailors. From the start Renato took the lead and, apart from one instance, stayed ahead of the field.    That one occasion was on the first lap at the second buoy, when all boats congregated and appeared to struggle to round it.    How the stretch of time seems to expand when looking at stationary boats through binoculars!    From the race box it seemed they were stuck for ten or twelve minutes, when in fact it was probably less than five.    A change of course was considered, but just then, one by one, the boats managed to round the buoy and the race continued as planned. The closest racing was between three Lasers in second to fourth place on the water.    There were times when a small rug could have covered all three, so close were they...