South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Watch this video edited by Mike de Selincourt and remember the moments sailing helped take your mind off 2020 for a while…        

Sunday 1st November 2020. In the race box:  Joseph Cabon & Anthony Wort On the safety boat:  Sara Bennett & Toby Hunston The river was showing its favourite grey, choppy surface as the six single-handers launched their boats. The wind was WSW as expected but somewhat weaker than forecast.  Everyone had chosen Radial or 4.7 sails in anticipation of a freshening breeze. The race was five laps of a three-buoy, double-sausage course. The field stayed bunched up for most of the first lap.  Rounding the third buoy proved tricky in the rising tide & wind shadow, and that stretched out the field for the remainder of the first & subsequent laps.  The order was consistent for laps one to four: Henry, Renato, Peter & James, with Ellie & Jane a little way behind.  On the fourth lap Renato slipped past Henry at the second buoy & built up a 15-20 seconds lead. And then a most baffling thing occurred, which can only be described as a failure of basic arithmetic in the race...

Sunday 27th September. They got knocked down, but they got up again … Before setting off, RO Sally set a long triangular course almost down to the Crabtree and back towards the club, 6 laps in total. She also gave a useful reminder on some racing rules on rounding the buoys that was appreciated, though no doubt soon forgotten once the race started. Sally and I settled into the safety boat, nicely wrapped up from the cold and wind, expecting a nice cruisy morning, a good chat, maybe a snack, then clipboard out for the results. A good way to start a birthday. This is not what we got. 7 sailors braved the elements: Renato, Jakob, Henry, Peter, John, Eric and Seb, with laser radials and 4.7s and a club solo, although knotted hankies might have served well enough. With a blustery and changeable wind the sailors didn’t stand a chance – of staying upright. First one in was Seb who discovered the benefits of knots in the right places. He was first to DNF but enjoyed a nice sail around. The rac...

Sunday 20th September 2020 The date had a nice equilibrium, the weather was set fair and as if to add some extra interest to a downriver race the wind was the opposite of prevailing. All this was holding out the promise of a good day on the water for the eight challengers for the John Cope Trophy. This trophy race needed to differ from a standard downriver race that is often a composite of two races combined into a single score. This normally works well as the race fleet gets a chance to regroup and pause for a breather as well as the chance to scoop up any stragglers before restarting for the upwind home leg. But trophies need to be earned and the race officer was in the mood to set a challenge. As much for himself as for the sailors. The plan was to set a single course downriver and back. One that attempted to be fair to a mixed fleet and one that was worthy of the trophy. The dilemma is to try and avoid the rich getting richer. Put the turning mark down too late and you give the fro...

Sunday 13th September. A great turnout with 12 boats under sunny skies and a steady gentle breeze. Jakob had an excellent start, Allan and Sally a terrible one, but they both managed to make their way through the fleet.  Jakob and Renato vied with each other throughout, but Jakob was in dominant lead position until a mistake on the number of laps let Renato sneak ahead and win.   Allan had made his way to a strong 3rd position on the water and was very likely heading for a win on handicap, but got stuck in the doldrums just by FFC within sight of the finish line.  Despite the light wind, Anthony capsized in the lead up to the finish, unexplainable even by him, losing a few places in the meantime. A day of luck and bad luck all round!

Sunday 6th September 2020. On a historic day, SBSC returned to the normality of trophy races after a summer filled with an infinite number of joyful and eventful little races. Welcome to the Cambell 2020 series. After a plethora of BBQs this Summer the Race officers had no other option but to feed the hungry members with five rounds of a double sausage main course on the Fulham side. Sara in her solo and Jakob in a laser had a good fight for most of the race leading a second group of boats with Andres, Seb, James C., Mike, and Allan with Leo closing the fleet. Jakob crossed the line in first place with Sara only a few meters behind following him. However, Sara was on the South Bank when the tide hadn’t turned yet and she seemed to stop allowing Allan to sneak in from the far end at the Fulham bank where the tide is weaker. What a shame for Sara who sailed brilliantly for an hour and only lost the race in the last minute of the race and well done to Allan who has shown his knowledge of ...

Last Updated 12/8/21   The committee meet regularly to review the RYA and Government Covid-19 guidance as the situation develops. Updates will be communicated to the club before any sailing activities. We currently require any visitors to check-in by scanning our QR Code with your NHS Covid-19 App, or manually signing in with your contact details outside the clubhouse. Members are asked to observe social distancing and wash their hands / use the hand sanitizer gel provided.