South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Wow – the word of the day !  Wow ! What a transformation of our lovely club’s tired old kitchen and dreary race-box office into stunning state of the art facilities. Gone are the dreary hand-me-downs replaced with modern bright welcoming fittings. Allan and his helpers have done a fantastic renovation job. Wow ! What a lovely warm friendly welcome from everyone, new members and old as it is a long time since I have made it to the Club for a Sunday race. Definitely the friendliest club on the river. Wow ! For the steady strong NE breeze, allowing me to set a 3 mark, 5 lap course, using the first red navigation buoy on the Surrey bank as the first mark, up to mark 2 just beyond Crabtree but still on the Surrey side and across to mark 3 just below Crabtree on the Fulham side. Wow ! To being beaten by Ranelagh who sailed past before we had managed to launch our boats. Wow !   And thank you to the Rowers for holding back so that we could launch our boats. Wow ! To Roland and Leo for re...

Bonfire night went surprisingly well considering we didn’t have a bonfire. (The tide times didn’t work out for us to have one on the beach.) So we settled for medieval style fire pits and served up some top notch fodder thanks to the burger master general AKA Ray. Soups and mulled wine were also provided by the sharp brigade of volunteers that go by the names of Emma, Sally, Sarah and others. Big thanks to anyone who helped. Disaster almost struck when we ran out of gas for the BBQ but that’s nothing a cheap electric camping hob couldn’t fix. Here are some photos to prove it wasn’t a conspiracy…                

When I arrived at the club at some ungodly hour for the Ikea delivery the rain was bucketing down and the wind was whistling around the club house.  I was seriously wondering who would turn up on a day like this….. At 9.15, hey presto, Leo arrived, looking keen to get out on the water, followed by Henry and by 10.00 we had the full complement of safety boat crew.  Two sailors doesn’t make a race – three is the critical number,  so we agreed somewhat reluctantly to wait till 10.15 to see if anyone else arrived.  We talked about doing a mini race around the buoys instead and we were just about to get going to do that when  Renato arrived. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and rather stupidly I said we would go ahead with the downriver race but we needed to leave by 10.45.  That was never going to happen and eventually we started the race at 11.10. Renato with a  full rig and both Henry and Leo with radials in anticipation of the strong wind forecast. Renato leapt into the lead wi...

I just watched Molly’s game last week, not by far the best movie I have seen, but it inspired the report… A northerly light wind caressed the Thames on this gorgeous day, the players sat on their boats ready to gamble on the rectangular table set by the dealer using a gate course.     Anyone could have won this race and probably everyone was winning it at some point. It all started with low bets: a very bad start from a very good bunch of sailors: Sara, John and Jane, Ben and Sally, Allan and Anna Woodward, Jamie, and Leo. Blame was put on the noise from Fulham FC and on the big trees for blocking sounds from the bell and the view of the flags. Since all seemed to hide their cards, Leo decided to bet and he took the lead at the first mark;  the others checked and followed him just to find the tide was still going strong on the south river bank. The pair of Jacks showed off their blue chips and wisdom on this tricky stretch of the river and they dominated the game a...

Sunday 14th October Ruby Bell 2018 RO and SB1 Jane SH and Elaine, SB2 Mike de S and Ian P The Ruby Bell was first raced in 1992 to celebrate our club’s 40 th  anniversary.  It’s a downriver race with a twist because sailors choose their own start times! Today, the day after a warm and windy taster sail, the competitors rigged for the race in a still, heavy downpour.   Allan and Anna W (Enterprise) were keen to start and launched moments after noon, almost exactly 45 minutes before predicted low water.   It was 10 more minutes before Leo & Erkka set out in the Xenon; 6 more for Sally (Laser Rad), Piers (Solo), Sara (Solo) and Henry (Laser); and another full 15 before Gary and Renato came running to launch their Lasers. The roving reporters (Safety Boat 2) sped off to lay the buoy, and discovered that (perhaps due to the rain) the tide was still ebbing well past the predicted low water.   Allan and Anna arrived at the mark after around an hour’s sail, raised their rud...

30 September 2018: The Campbell Downriver (aka The Campbell Upriver) Sunday was a perfect day for sailing, with the sun out at the start and a good wind of 6-10 mph. We had six boats, with Henry, Alexei and Allan all sailing fully rigged Lasers, Sara in her Solo, Ollie & Leo in the Xenon and John & Jane in an Enterprise. The Race Committee Boat had Richard & Erkka and the Safety Boat had Andrew and João. The river was having a busy day, and there was more rowers using the slipway than we needed. In true SBSC fashion we slowly made our way onto the water quite some time after we should have. The plan was to race down to the Battersea Pagoda and then race back. Not all plans come together though! Now to the first race. The wind dipped slightly and caught a few of the sailors by surprise when the 5 minute bell rang. This allowed a very strategic Sara to capitalise on the conditions and cross the line quite some way in advance. Allan and Henry followed her in pursuit. As all si...

Race Report for the Bernard Driver Trophy 2018 It was an overcast, blustery day as we gathered at South Bank Sailing Club for the illustrious Bernard Driver Trophy Race. Surprisingly, there was not a large field of competitors for this event, not withstanding the prize on offer. Ben and Elaine, in Ben’s glorious but strangely named Albacore, Jamie in his lightning fast Maclaren Laser, the redoubtable Henry Cook, Sara in her Solo, Henry Koe the young pretender and the ever-reliable Renato. Could anyone deny Renato one of his crowns? As is tradition at SBSC, the boats took to the water slightly late, and prepared for a 4 lap race over a ‘sausage’ course, with a beat up to the Crabtree and a run down to a buoy just passed the start line. The wind was good, gusty but not overly strong, and we were all set, although Henry Koe was a little handicapped by his tiller extension not being long enough for him to hike out, the poor little mite. All made a   good start, Henry Koe in particular tack...