South Bank Sailing Club Blog

Sunday 5th December 2021. What do you do on a cold wet miserable Sunday, apart from snuggling under a warm blanket with a glass of wine, watching the telly ? Go sailing at Southbank of course !  That’s exactly what nine members and eight supporters did – and great fun was had by all. The Glamorous Grandmas in the safety boat looked after everyone on the water. Nine intrepid sailors took part in eight boats:-  GP, six lasers and Solo. There was a strong steady mainly northerly wind allowing for a triangular course with the first buoy on the Surrey Bank, the second across the river near Crabtree and the third in front of the white flats just up from Fulham football ground. They were asked to do 5 laps but all, apart from Renato, who had to retire because his downhaul snapped, decided that 6 was better. Hey ho, what do the Race Officers know? Three of the lasers (Renato, Sally and Michael) and Solo (James) led from the start. Nevertheless, on each lap there were lots of changing posi...

Sunday 21st November. The first emotion I felt when I looked at Windguru on Sunday morning was envy … 12 gusting to 20 Knots with a 0° wind direction. A “True Northerly.” Wind conditions such as these do not get much better for our little stretch of the river for sailing or racing for that matter. A square course with wind aplenty and lots of tacking upwind, and gybing downwind.  And a glorious reach leg.   9° Centigrade temperature  … not bad. Moments of melancholy and tiny feelings of rage ensued and passed quickly. Very emotional times.  I jot it all down in the note pad for the monthly Zoom call with the analyst.  You see, it was not 48 hours previously, after bumping into our very positive and comprehensive Club Secretary Jane S-H on the towpath in front of London Rowing Club, that I actually volunteered for the duty for this Sunday.  There was a last minute vacancy it seems.   I had been M.I.A. on the duty front as the wife and I had been marooned in sunny Southern California for...

Sunday 7th November, 2021. Seven sailors made it to the start line on a mild and sunny November morning (an unfortunate gear failure on launching forced John to retire immediately). The wind was light and fickle in the vicinity of the line; at the one minute gun about half the fleet had been swept the wrong side of the line. A helpful puff enabled everyone bar Peter in a solo to get to the proper side and make a clean start. Peter fought valiantly for two minutes to reach the line before the race officers gave him leave to continue. The first leg started as a run under the Putney bridges. Initially the fleet were tightly grouped apart from the severely trailing solo. By Wandsworth bridge Renato and Jakob had eeked out a small lead but a wind hole in the lee of a block of flats resulted in an effective re-start for Renato, Jakob, Alan and Henry in the lasers and Tom in the Supernova. Out of the wind shadow and the sailors were hanging on by their toes on a fast planning reach straight i...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sunday 17th October 2021. Despite a gentle neap tide, a becalmed start to the day had the sailors and race team standing around hoping for an hour, before springing into action when the telltales in the yard hinted that wind was coming. ARO Patrick was pressganged onto the safety boat to replace a sick SBA, nine dinghies launched and immediately started drifting astern in the lee of the south bank. With an hour until predicted high water and nobody reaching the start line, the race start was hastily delegated to Renato and Patrick, who led the fleet into rougher waters and started a 7-and-a-half-lap sausage up the far bank. Jakob, as is often the case, set the fastest pace, but the other sailors refused to be left too far behind, in particular Henry and James in Lasers, and Allan and Sara in Solos. To prevent disputes over lap counts, RO Mike defined the “lap end” line in advance, and enumerated the leader’s lap count with a distant c...

26th September 2021 Race Officers: Luis Quiroga & Isabelle Duff SB: Sina Stapelfeldt & Dan Bignold Surprisingly mild and bright conditions greeted our competitors. After a less than decisive start, when the race officers showed enormous benevolence in allowing some sailors to start despite not being quite over the line, things got underway. The hitherto chosen triangle shape was dropped in favour of a sausage, this shape and gusty conditions not without its challenges for all our sailors, even for Renato, who almost came a cropper with the Thames but managed to dry capsize. Renato set the pace and was round the buoys very quickly, this speed only dwindling at the very end, when a dearth of wind added precious seconds and minutes. Renato was first over the line at 0.36.27, followed shortly after by Jakob who had no such troubles with the wind and glided past the clubhouse. Alan came next hot on Jakob’s tail, but spare a thought for James who was extremely unlucky; the wind ...

Inspired by those who went before them, five intrepid sailors from South Bank booked a weekend on Hunter’s Yard’s beautiful gaff-rigged vintage mahogany sloops. Here’s what we saw and what we learned! Consider making it a Friday-Monday trip Unless you live in Norfolk, Hunter’s Yard is pretty remote, and you will want to arrive at 9 or 10am, for 2-3 hours of signing in, unpacking your gear, being briefed, uncovering your boat, finalising your plans and rigging for the first time. The price of each day of cabin boat hire includes the whole night, so if your professional and domestic arrangements permit it, spending Sunday night aboard and travelling home on a Monday is an option to avoid a tired, nocturnal drive through the worst rush hour the UK has to offer. Take the opportunity to learn! This is not a perfect learning environment; a shallow keel and a heavy wooden boom mean that tacks need to be assertive, and gybes need to be careful; but cruising on a reach is a great time for a nov...

Sunday 5 th September 2021 Bernard Driver Cup Race Officers – Jane SH & Ben Ridgwell SB1 – Eric Morgan & Karin Andreasson The Bernard Driver Cup is a local race with a longer and more challenging course, depending on wind strength and direction. Unfortunately on the day the wind was less than an already light forecast NW Wind of 6 – 9 knots and the Thames barrier was closed resulting in no tide. Nevertheless 6 lasers and 3 solos launched with a reduced course of 4 laps with 3 marks, 1 west of the club house and 2 just west of the Crabtree pub. The already light wind dropped as the race started followed shortly afterwards by a prolonged period of rain although this did not prevent Renato taking an early lead. Despite significantly reducing the course again to 1 lap and valiant efforts from everyone the conditions eventually led to 5 retirements and Renato first past the flagpole followed by Jakob, Allan and James. A challenging day for all brightened up by the constant encourag...