South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Henry Koe sails off with silver at the London Youth Games! Henry, member of the Koe family sailing dynasty, has come back with a silver medal in the London Youth Games. He took his Topper 4.2 out on the notoriously windy Queen Mary Reservoir for six races (sounds exhausting!). He put a poor start in the first race behind him  to come second and first in the next two races. From then on Henry was never out of the top three. The strong winds in the morning fell away in the afternoon – proving Henry can sail in all conditions. Henry sails at Southbank (sometimes allowing dad Digby to crew!) when he can. We’d like to say we taught him everything he knows. But I think before long he’ll be teaching us. From everyone at Southbank, well done Henry!

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The race down was a little bit changeable with light winds and the leading group soon stretched a decent lead before wandsworth bridge. Our renato was well up leading together the xenon helmed by elaine with tom as crew. Sam was pushing into the group with a good turnout from Amy Joe Joseph Sara and Henry all having good sail.  The way back was a more straightforward beat which at times felt quite strong while Steph and I led for half the way back this came to an abrupt end caused by a big submerged rock which stopped us dead(or maybe we should have been further away from the bank!).  Two lasers slipped by Renato with Phil Robin then Hugh then another laser. We got started again but couldn’t make up the ground. The fleet spread out quite a bit on the return leg with SBSC members  dotted throughout the rankings. Overall Renato took the winners honours so well done. Everyone pulled together with the catering with Emma taking command assisted by th...

Arriving at Southbank Sailing Club for the Enterprise 60th Anniversary Tideway Race, the first question was – which way does the race go? With a very light breeze, occasionally dropping to nothing, and then deciding to change direction, the only way is with the tide, and suddenly the race direction is obvious. The race briefing includes some excellent advice on starting technique – you can paddle to keep yourself behind the line, or launch from the bank at the start of the race, drop anchor or hitch a lift on a passing boat, but once the start bell is rung, its drifting with style – or so we thought. The race travels with the tide for as far as it can get before the tide changes, then turns around and a second start takes place. The combined time of the first and second legs is added together to get your aggregated time, and race position. When the five minute gun goes there were a number of techniques to ensure there was no one over the line. It quickly became evident...

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In the race box:      Joseph Cabon and Elena Balycheva In the safety boat: John Parke and George Gaynor The wind played one of its favourite jokes on us.  As the Solo, eight Lasers and two Enterprises took to the water on Sunday afternoon, the wind fell from an ever-present 11-20 mph to approx. 4-7 mph, broadly from the east.  This, coupled with a strong tide, resulted in a slow start to the race when a fast one had been anticipated.  The west bank was the one to be on, and those boats in the middle or the east bank took a long while to round the first buoy.  Renato rounded first and never lost his lead.  With the wind behind them, it was a fast run to the second buoy for all boats.  At which point the field compressed again, contending with strong tide and relatively light wind on the return legs. Renato completed the first lap in a little over 30 minutes.  The next boat was some ten minutes behind.  The decision was made to shorten the race to three laps, and it was again shortened t...

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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...