South Bank Sailing Club Blog

By Race Officer – James Munro-Faure My mummy woke me up from a deep sleep at home in my cot to say that as nobody had volunteered to be Race Officer, I had to do it.  Well I’m only just a bit over 1 year old, but I suppose I could give it a try. I don’t know all the names of people who sailed but my Daddy told me it was Ben and Imogen in something called an Albacore, Henry in his Laser, my father in law Jamie (I do like Daisy) on his Laser, Renato (he always wins races apparently) and Leo with Jane (I asked for help from Tom and Freya but they were too busy playing with Jane SH upstairs). I was bundled up into the big orange boat with Mummy Daddy and Sara and told to steer it and make sure to do it properly.  It was quite easy actually (see the video Sara took of me)and I even had time to take photos of the boats as well. There was lots of chat and boats changing places and apparently at the end Renato won.  Again.  When I’m big Renato I’m going to try and beat you!! Sara told me ...

Campbell trophy, race no.13, 21 April 2019 In the Race Box: Joseph Cabon & Meredith Gunderson In the Safety Boat: Trish Gutteridge & Josh Mareschal It was the sunniest & warmest of Easter weekends, long to be savoured in memory. Four boats of four classes took to the water: one each of Enterprise, Laser, Solo & Streaker. With the wind mainly from the east at 2-6 mph, sailors had to complete their rigging on the riverside. The course was three circuits of a four-buoy lap, with a ‘sausage’ in the middle. After a clean start all boats were bunched closely for the race to the first buoy, & from the race box, through the compressed perspective of binoculars, it looked for a while that they had all stalled in the light wind.   But there was movement, & Sara rounded the first mark after a little over six minutes, closely followed by Allan & Steph, Chris, Elaine.   By the end of the first lap Allan & Steph had moved into the lead with Elaine, Chris ...

Goodwin Series Race 12   When you are given the opportunity to pick the date of your sailing duty, you are fairly certain that Sunday 14 April 2019 would be a warm and sunny spring day. We did indeed see the sun, but there was a very cold (and moderately strong) Easterly wind, which meant that Race Officer Boat and Safety Boat duties required full ski attire. In the Race Officer Boat we had Polly Haile and myself, and in the Safety Boat we had Daniel Barker and his Duke of Edinburgh Silver award-deserving son James. The turnout was great. We had Jakob, Henry, Peter Mack and Jaime in the full-rigged Lasers, Jane and Sally in Laser Radials, Sara in her Solo and Allan & Steph in the Enterprise. The club was also full of grandparents, helpers and powerboat specialists. We planned the race as per the usual format. A race downriver as far as we could get, taking into account the competing priorities between the time the tide turns and the amount of SBSC delay we could accumulate befo...

By Sara Bennett It’s quite extraordinary how the years rush by and one can suddenly reach yet another significant age virtually without realising it,  which I seem to have done at the beginning of April. One of the most important things in my life over the time I’ve been a member – for pretty well 20 years now  – is this crazy wonderful brilliant club we call South Bank.  It has brought me things I could never have dreamt of; great new friends over the years, sailing on a river where the wind changes on the throw of a dice, but probably most of all the continuity of being involved with something which I’ve seen grow and flourish with people coming and going but all of them having a love of this great club. Jane SH and Elaine very kindly organised that the club should buy me a cherry tree for my garden, which as you can see from the photo below is now flowering and will hopefully bring me a cherry or two this summer. Very many thanks from me to everyone for this lovely presen...

It was a busy day on the river because of the rowing 8’s Head of River Race.     This meant we had to get our boats off the water by noon so RO set a triangular course with only 4 laps. The wind was ENE 12 mph gusting 19.   Our three racers took Lasers; Renato and Henry C with full sails and Leo a  Radial sail. The RO’s Jane SH and Rob H had a clear view from the warm race-box and Elaine and Roland looking after safety on the water.     Race start 10.31.00 Lap 1 Renato was in lead from start and completed the first  lap in 10.43.39, followed closely by Henry and Leo. LAP 2 Renato had built a substantial lead clocking 10.5.48, with Leo and Henry following in 10.53.48. Lap 3 Renato increased his lead at 11.01 28,  Henry 11.04.28 and Leo at11.05.40 Lap 4 Renato was way ahead and .. yes … the race winner! Race results with corrected times: Renato 11.10.47 2 Henry   11.15.43 3 Leo       11.17.21. Rob Haddock

Storm Freya loomed and the Thames was battleship grey. We planned a brief “round the buoys” with thoughts of early retirements. Five boats began to rig, not foolhardy but certainly hardy, reduced rigs all round for the Lasers. Allan & Steph’s acknowledgement of the weather was to take the Wayfarer but with a full rig. We set the usual triangular course but making sure that the gybe mark was in the shelter of the Barnes bank. They got away smoothly but anti-climax (!) it was not easy to get above the start and Sally got stuck and had to join the race as it passed. The wind rose and squalls developed, Jamie who was under the weather, found himself under the water too and wisely decided that that was enough and retired. Rounding the Putney buoy was difficult because the need to spill wind made it difficult to sail close hauled, the tide was fast and several boats needed several attempts before they got round. Even A. & S. needed two attempts but soon built up a half lap lead whic...

Race report – Goodwin 7 – 17.2.19   Ten boats took to the river for this race, no doubt drawn by the mild temperature, sunshine and steady southerly wind. Ben & Elaine were in the Albacore, Allan & Steph in an Enterprise, Sara, Graham and Johny were in Solos, and everyone else was in a laser with full, radial or 4.7 sail. With the larger then usual number of boats for this time of year and the need to watch out for two of the rowing clubs holding a cup race it was not the smoothest of build-ups, but after a false start (sorry to all for that) the race eventually got under way. By then the wind had moved more to the south west, making it an easy decision to choose the Fulham side of the gate course that Gary and John in the safety boat had laid out. Renato was ahead after the first lap, followed by the Albacore and Enterprise. By lap 3 Ben and Elaine were ahead on the water, making good use of the occasional stronger gusts which had caught one or two other boats out o...