South Bank Sailing Club Blog

The warm temperatures and less crazy winds brought out some club members we hadn’t seen in a while and it was great to see them! With 13 boats out, it seems like we are on our way to SBSC’s more usual Summer attendance numbers. Sailors ranged from veterans John and Bob to “youth champion” Henry and Rex in the Topaz. In all, we had 6 lasers, 3 enterprises, a Xenon, a Supernova, a Solo and the Topaz out. A 4 lap triangular course with a sausage in the middle was set and all boats had a good start. Although sailing well, a moment of inattention (and possibly messing around…) caught Henry and Rex offguard and a small gust capsized their boat which quickly inverted meaning they were out the race – a shame as with their skill and the boat’s handicap they could have done well..! An interesting race was developing when Sam and I came back from towing the boys home. Renato had pulled ahead but Allan and Ollie in the Enterprise were close enough behind to...

The sun greeted us cheerfully on this bright and fresh Sunday morning and the wind promised a steady WNW 3-4. My first stint as RO, I was a bit concerned by the lack of RO Asst & SB Asst, but should not have worried. Ray Burnett stepped in to assist Gary Marshall on SB and Jim Forrester to assist me for the race start in the RO… thank you! We were a little late in starting the race, no real reason, and there was a good turn out for this early Sunday start with Sally, Steph, Renato and Johnny in full sail Lasers, Sara in the Solo and Henry & Ollie in the GP14. At just short of half ten, the race began. Sally, Steph and Renato pre-perched on the start line all began together, followed shortly after by Sara and then Henry & Ollie. Johnny opted for an early start, and later an early finish, as he had other commitments. The first lap took just over half an hour and on the downwind leg, back across the start line, towards buoy C, Renato and Steph had pulled ahead of the flee...

A normal Februarish forecast, overcast with an E. wind well into the teens and gusts well into the twenties, temperature 5-8deg. A welcome challenge for young laser sailors or so one of them said; I thought it was a good day to be well wrapped up in a stable safety boat with a flask of hot (fortified) coffee and a penguin for half time. Actually the river did not look threatening, no whitecaps and the gusts looked sparkling rather than black and threatening but it seemed that nearly all the club felt as I did because only six boats launched. The RO was Stefan, a compassionate man, and he agreed to a shorter race. However he spends much of his time patrolling the Thames with the RNLI so he was specially concerned about safety on the river and in his briefing required all boats to use the centre arches. Not everyone remembered. The fleet made a clean start with Sara well ahead but when they reached Putney Bridge Renato was in his usual place with Stephanie (4.7) close behind. And so they...

Race Officer:Sara Bennett and Lucy Edgar Safety Boat:Giles Harrison and Anne Hauger Gusts of 36mph had been forecast all week and all my hopes that it would reduce to something more manageable came to nought. So that was it for me, I didn’t fancy yet another swim after the previous 2 Sundays, and was pleased to swap with Henry as Race Officer so that he could go and sail! Contact was made with Ranelagh by phone at midday and they confirmed they were fielding six boats – two Solos and four Lasers – and would leave their slipway once the pre Boat Race trials had come through The course was explained on the phone, and I suspect it flummoxed them somewhat as was to be seen later……. Giles and Anne busied themselves getting the safety boat ready, and our sailors rigged and and before we knew it the Ranelagh sailors were appearing up the river – now that a lot of the trees along the bank have been cut down we can see right to Putney Bridge, so nobody can sne...

Cold. Very, very cold. I arrived early, determined not to repeat the errors of my previous RO effort. Ah, well, the best laid plans…. The view from the front of the fleet. A gusty force 4 northerly breeze did not deter a full-rigged Laser (Renato) and Enterprise (Allan and Steph), a small rig Solo (Sara), a reefed Albacore (Armand and Jane) and 2 4.7’s (Tara and Henry). Given the strong ebb flow, the plan was to start at 12.45 and finish near Battersea Power Station, by which time the tide would at least be on the turn, thus reducing the early finishers’ waiting time. Regrettably, it was close to one o’clock when I got on the water with Anita. Add a false start because most of the fleet didn’t hear the first set of signals, and the actual start time was 13.07 – giving the fleet about 8 minutes to get to the finish before the time I expected the tide to be turning! Working hard, Renato quickly pulled out a lead, followed by Allan and Steph, then Tara, ...

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The wind and weather reports for the Goodwin Race 4 promised a very feisty day for this downriver. When the club opened it was wet, but the wind actually wasn’t particularly threatening. Within the hour we had six lasers and one enterprise. The lasers were for Renato, Steph, Jamie, Henry, Sally and Tara. The enterprise was for Allan and his excellent crew Ollie. This was my first time as race officer, as the previous opportunity for my long sought after promotion was cancelled for visibility reasons. I was accompanied in the safety boat “Ginger Boat 1” by Justin – we have a similar level of experience in running races, but were confident we could triumph with an appropriate level of life-coaching. The rest of the racing committee took out the other safety boat “Ginger Boat 2”, which comprised of stand-in heros John Parke and Sara. As the rigging progressed, so did the wind and the laser sailors took every opportunity to confuse us by switching sails. Full r...