South Bank Sailing Club Blog

29 th April. Goodwin Number 12.   8 degrees. 12 knots gusting 24. 9 boats. 11 plucky sailors. A triangle. 5 laps. 5, 4, 1. Quick off the mark. 1 didn’t make it to the start. Gary joined late.   Then there were 8. Capsizes. Turtling. Cold hands. Wet hair. Whizzing by on gusts. 1 tree was embraced. 1 wall was hugged. Centreboards popped up. Baby James was walked. Sina on the slipway got soaked. Race officers squinted. Safety boat Barkers shivered. Henry retired. Elaine retired. Then there were 6. Sally took a dunking. Matthias got lapped. Received help from the safety boat. Disqualified. Then there were 5. “Amazing race” said Steph. Josh, Anna, 420, third. Allan and Steph swift second. Renato won. Job done.

Sunday 22 April 2018 Downriver race Race officers:   Joseph Cabon & James Barker Safety Boat:   David Joo & Justin Lloyd Williams Six boats made it onto the water.   It was a good spread of classes: Jamie Maule-Ffinch & Jakob Grunig in Lasers (full rig), Sara in her Solo, Graham Douglas & Jennifer Black in a 420, Ben Thomas & Sina Stapelfeldt in a GP14 & Tom Glockner & Robbie Nelson in a Xenon.   The wind forecast was due to be 12mph gusting 22-24mph broadly from the SW, & that is what we got. Everyone got a good start, all crossing the line within a second of each other.   From the first Jamie & Jakob were in a tussle for the lead that would last all the way to the finish.   Those two quickly forged ahead of the remaining boats.   All boats kept good speed throughout, with both tide & wind making for a quick first race.   The on-water lead had changed a couple of times between the two Lasers, in a separate race that continued to be involved ...

One of our youngest and brightest sailors Henry Koe was on the water a few months ago competing in the South East Winter Open. Proud father/household bosun Digby wrote this report: “He was competing in the south east zone winter open at island barn sailing club. There were about 28 boats mostly zone squad sailors with 8 national squad sailors. There was very little wind to begin with but it filled in during the afternoon, allowing 3 races. In the first race, Hennry got a good start and managed to get away from the fleet with 2 other boys. He held his position and got a brilliant 3rd. The second race didn’t go so well. Henry got a little stuck in the melee at the start and lost places to midfleet. He was also penalised and ended up 13th. I think it may have been because I watched that one. In the last race he didn’t have a good start, but made up places through the fleet by using the gusts well and keeping his head. With a lap to go he was 9th at the back of a group of boats but br...

A light, mild day that seemed fit only for up and down the Fulham bank maybe 5 laps to shorten if necessary. Then the wind freshened a little so smart call to the SB to lay a third buoy on the Barnes bank as usual. No Renato, so no real competition for the MF/ST team so going to be difficult to write an interesting report. Then as the one minute bell was late most of the fleet made for the line even though the zed board was still up and seeing that Allan was some 20-30 metres from the line, the RO said it was the start. The zed flag/board promptly jammed at the top of the hoist and added to the confusion but gave the rest of the fleet a good one minute start. Not that did much good, at the end of the first lap the order round the Putney mark was Allan+Steph, Sally two minutes later, then Sara. It was going to be another walkover. This was getting monotonous something ought to be done. Then we noticed that baby James and the two people looking after him were missing from the club room! ...

We awoke to a bitterly cold and snowy Putney this morning. Would anyone be hardy/crazy enough to face the water? That was the question we were all asking ourselves. But the emails started trickling in and, sure enough, we had four boats up for the challenge. Ben and Sara in Dotty the Albacore, Gary and Allan in the GP14, and Henry and Renato in Lasers (Renato choosing a full sail). With north easterly winds at 14 gusting 22, we decided on a relatively short triangular course and took advantage of being able to use the rowing marks (clearly it was only the Oxbridge rowers who needed to get out on the water today!) We decided on a start time of  14:10  and six laps (with the option of shortening the race if we saw too many grumpy and cold faces…) However, we needn’t have worried. The four boats quickly crossed the start line (a bit later than planned  at  14:36 ) and left us for dust.  Renato lead the pack from the off but, with the strong gusts, only the GP decided to try a gybe around ...

                 Report on the 5th Goodwin Feb 18   (Club opened at 13.30) My day started badly. A collision on a level crossing had closed the line from E. Croydon to Clapham Junction, rail substitute buses are notoriously slow so I caught the next train to London Bridge, although it was a stopper, intending to take the Northern Line to Charing Cross and the District Line to Putney, Well the train ahead of us broke down so we stopped and kept on stopping at every tree it seemed. As every (other) Londoner knows the Northern line from London Bridge does not go through Charing Cross and by the time I had found the Jubilee line in the cavernous underground London Bridge station it was 13.45. I eventually got to the club at 14.30 thinking that with so little wind the start would be postponed until the tide slackened but no, Jane had everything organised, including the course. Eight boats were rigged and all I had to do was pretend to be in charge and start the race at 15.10. Unfortunately ...

The sunshine, strong breeze and (almost) freezing cold attracted ten sailors for the fourth race of the Goodwin series. The wind and later start/high tide allowed the use of the full river width and so a course consisting of a triangle in a triangle was set out by safety boat crew Giles and Polly. Unfortunately nine boats took a while to rig and so the race did not start until 10:46, shortly before the turn of the tide. Estrid had a great (almost controversial) start and was followed closely by Allan and Steph in the GP and Tom. Shortly after the start Rex was held up by a string of rowers, which allowed his father and Anna to shoot ahead. Renato, of course, had also had a decent start and rounded the far buoy first, followed by the GP and Sara – and uninterrupted by Tom christening his new sail with an early capsize. Renato was the first to complete the little triangle . At this point, the tide seemed to have turned and the boats were soon shooting along the Fulham bank, along the ed...