South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Sunday 14 th July Bevington Series Race 11 On Sunday at 10am with NNW Winds 8-9 mph gusting 14, preparations were underway for the Bevington Race around the buoys. RO Jane S-H and Assistant RO new member Katherine (that would be me!) orientating to the role. Jane with leg brace in situ did a great job “hopping” along to show me all the duties. Put up transom pole opposite White line for the Starting point Welcome sign for passersby’s to come and visit “the friendliest sailing club on the Thames” Plan race course with help from Chris B and Elaine Help with Safety Boat, as time permits Sign On sheet Set up RO desk, Digital clocks, Binoculars and an essential cup of tea-We were all set! In the Safety Boat were Elaine and Anna R (also orientating to the role). Elaine gave an excellent overview of all the “bits and bobs” that needed to be checked on the Safety boat. We had a fleet of nine boats competing: Two Streakers: Chris and Leonardo Z (in his new boat) and Lasers, with Joe, Renato, H...

Bevington Downriver Series Race 6 After a fairly strong wind on Saturday, there wasn’t much left for any of the Sunday sailors. It varied between 4mph and 8mph, and at times it wasn’t fully clear to the Race Officer where it was actually coming from. In the Race Officer Boat we had Kevin Heydenrych and myself, and in the Safety Boat we had Mike de Selincourt and Justin Lloyd Williams. We had five boats, which was actually a good turnout given the wind. We had Jakob, Henry, Elaine and Seb in the full-rigged Lasers, and Allan & Steph in the Enterprise. Importantly, there was no Renato, which meant everyone was looking for a win. This was evidenced by the fact that a number of the sailors approached me separately with recommendations on start time, finish time and tides! How exciting. With the tide turning at 14:30, we started the race broadly on time at 13:37. We had hoped this would at least allow a Pagoda trip and back, but this didn’t happen. By the five minute bell, the majority ...

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to enjoy a downriver race from the safety boat at the same time as providing assistance in case of need. I had the opportunity to welcome our new club member Fatih Guler, who had only joined the day before during one of Sara’s tasting sessions, and volunteer ed to assist with safety boat the next day!! Race Officer Jane SH with Anna were in SB1 with myself and Fatih in SB2 . T here was no need of assistance on this occasion, even if a couple of capsizes were observed!! It was a good opportunity for Fatih to get familiar with the river and basic safety boat manoeuvring. During the day w e had all type s of different conditions, from sunny and calm breezes to some rain and strong wind gusts , taking our sailors by surprise –  especially under the bridges. We had Renato, Jakob and Elaine in the ir full-rigged Lasers, Allan & Steph in the Enterprise and Sara in her Solo. We planned the race as per the usual form...

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...