Brightlingsea One Design

Thank you to Aldeburgh Yacht Club for putting on such a great Classic Boat Festival over the weekend of 3 and 4 September 2016.  Three BODs and two WODs made the trip from the River Colne to take part and were warmly welcomed by the Aldeburgh team who could not have been more helpful. Launching the boats was easy with options to self launch from their ramp or use their crane and launching cradle to save dipping your trailers. Once afloat the boats were kept on moorings and the club launch service ran you to and from the jetty. The local team also took the time to chat to the visitors to help familiarise us with the local geography and location of the marks, tide, etc.

The plan had been for two races on Saturday and one on Sunday but the tail end of a tropical storm made for some spectacular and very challenging conditions.  All of the Colne boats race in the opening race which was run in a blustery 18 to 25 knots. The entrants were divided up into four fleets this year, the local Loch Long fleet (a lovely old two man keelboat), the keel and dayboat handicap (including the BODs and WODs) and a fast and slow dinghy fleet.

The club is located on a right hand bend in the river so careful course planning allows for a combination of windward, leeward and reaching legs in almost any wind direction with the majority of the courses being fully visible from the club – perfect for spectating.

Race 1 called for a nice beat off the line heading south down river against the flooding tide. The first mark turned us back downwind, past the club and around the corner for a reach up and then back down the river with the first lap being completed by passing the club again where you came back onto a beat for the second lap. For those who haven’t been there its a bit like racing around Bateman’s, Pyefleet and Alresford Creeks but with the added excitement of lots of moored yachts to avoid and lots of fellow competitors to play cat and mouse with. The tide is strong too which makes judging lay lines on marks and moored obstacles even more crucial and with marshy mudbanks either side there’s lots of guess work and lifting and lowering of centre plates as you try to decide how close to push it when going against the tide.

Alan Hicks, Craig and Jayne Bond in Storm Petrel got race 1 off to a flying start and sailed an absolute blinder to finish more than four minutes ahead of Fiona Brown, Julie Cuthbert and Martin Rhodes-Schofield in Grethe with Mike Hempstead, Max Hickman and Peter Adkins in Gelasma third BOD.  The fleet also included two classic Dragons, two classic Flying Fifteens, the two WODs and a lovely one off classic keelboat.  Unfortunately back ashore we discovered that Storm Petrel had misunderstood the location of the start line (marked by black and white poles on the far bank and the start box on the club side) and was OCS. Mike reported that Gelasma was actually just over too but was aground at the time and drifted back behind the line as they freed themselves so ended up making a reasonable start.  On handicap one of the Dragons took first place, Grethe was second, a Flying Fifteen was third and Gelasma was fourth. Moral victory lay with Storm Petrel though as their corrected time would have put them more than two minutes ahead of the winner.

As race one concluded the breeze began to build even further with some really nasty gusts of around 30 knots under the dark scudding clouds.  The BODs picked up moorings and dropped their sails to see if it would blow through, but by the time the race committee called the fleet under starter’s order for race two it was clear the wind was not going to drop so we all decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Back in the bar each of us had stories to tell of near capsize with all three boats coming close to rolling it in on the scary dead run (at least half of which seemed to require sailing by the lee) and Grethe also scooping up more water than was strictly necessary in a particularly gusty emergency tack when she had to take last minute avoiding action for a Loch Long calling water.

After an evening sampling the many delights of Aldeburgh, some well deserved sleep and a hearty breakfast, it was back down to the club for what should have been the third and final race of the series.  Sadly the tropical storm was still making its presence felt and although three of the keelboats did race, all the centreboard boats wisely made the decision not to risk it as conditions were still fresh to frightening. We spent the morning drinking coffee and watching the few who did brave it careering around the river at max speed. Despite the weather it was an outstanding weekend and lovely to see so many classic dinghies and day boats in one place and to have the opportunity to chat to like minded sailors.

One of the nicest things was how many of the “BOD Fan Club” came up to cheer us on with Derick and Jenny Gentry, Barry and Jill Newman, Billy and Kate Button, Trevor & Ros Stone, Sue & Steve Merrill and Colin & Pam Willett all swinging by to say hello and Phil and Sarah Holding and Mark and Debbie Wilby bringing their RIB up to act as BOD support and official photo boat too. Thanks all of you – it made the event feel really special and we’re just sorry we couldn’t manage more racing to entertain you.

Our thanks to Derick Gentry and Mark Wilby for the photos in this report and to the Aldeburgh Yacht Club team for a lovely weekend.

In the face of tomorrow’s weather forecast which indicates we can expect a force five gusting six at the time we should be running the Ladies Race and with little chance of it moderating before mid to late evening the decision has been made in consultation with the CYC Race Committee that sadly this year’s Ladies Race will be cancelled. 

Our thanks to Nick, Graham and the race team for their support in attempting to run the race, but at least the early decision will allow everyone to replan their day.

This Sunday 21 August its the BOD Ladies Race starting from the CYC Bateman’s Tower line at 14.15. Please would everyone intending to take part let Fi know on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com so she can advise Race Officer Nick Readings how many boats to expect. After her impressive performance in the last race before Pyefleet Week we hope that Georgina White will be out to defend her title and we’ll see plenty of ladies challenging her.

A belated congratulations to our 2016 Pyefleet Week BOD Champions Jeremy Newman, Piers Lambert and Ian Newman/Pete Kyne for a superb performance in what was a fantastic week for the class.

It was a week that brought just about every sailing condition and some amazing racing for the 21 strong fleet. We even had a bit of drama when, for the first time in three decades of BOD sailing, Steve Heppell put in his first BOD capsize and did so in the creek giving the spectators a grandstand view. Huge thanks must go to Nick Readings and in his team who came to Aina’s rescue in the BOD rescue boat with the high speed pump and to Gary Constable for coming out in Malice to help tow her home. Fortunately Aina was back out and racing the next day with the only damage being to the crew’s pride.

As always the week provided incredible racing for the entire fleet with battles going on at every level. Whilst Jeremy and the Avocet crew won with a day to spare, the dog fight for the remaining podium places was a humdinger and went right down to the wire with Danny Fox’s Egret, Phil Rust’s Dulcet and Chris Matthew’s Reble all in the frame going into the final day.  With a win in the final race Phil Rust, crewed by son and daughter Chris and Jessica, jumped up the leader board to claim second, while Chris Matthews and Egret both had their worst results of the regatta and had to be content with third and fourth respectively.

Huge thanks must go to the entire team at BSC for putting on a great regatta and to all the volunteer race officers and patrol boat teams who gave up their time to run the racing for us.  Thanks too to all the BOD sailors who volunteered to run the racing or man the rescue boats for the other side of the week, the event is run entirely voluntarily and its great that we have such a strong group of race officers, mark layers and patrol boat teams in our fleet to support this.

Click here for full results

Just received this brilliant pic from Pete Purkis showing the moment of no return aboard Aina on CB Rigging Tuesday at Learning & Skills Solutions Pyefleet Week 2016.

Pyefleet Week is only a few days away and with at least 21 BODs racing its going to be a brilliant week.  Our most important social date of the week is of course BOD Irish Night on Monday so get your Irish fancy dress ready (rumour has it that our illustrious Chairman Mr Hicks may be reprising his appearance as Father Ted), your dancing shoes on and be prepared for a night of mighty craic! Tickets £15 from the Pyefleet Week Race Office from Saturday.

The following is an important update about the new wreck near No 13 which has been published by the Sailing Club.  Please read carefully!

Members are reminded that for safety the exclusion zone around the new wreck off No 13 buoy (marked by blue and yellow wreck markers) is also formally an exclusion zone for all BSC races.  Any boat that sails inside the exclusion zone/wreck buoys will be disqualified from racing.

We have also been advised by the Harbour that the wreck is breaking up and large items of floating and semi submerged debris (big planks of wood, etc) may be in the water both near the wreck and across the whole of our race area.  The Harbour is working to collect debris regularly but please be extremely vigilant when sailing to ensure you do not collide with anything.

Also if you do see large debris in the water please inform the Harbour Office (Channel 68 if you have a VHF available, Tel 01206 302200 or pop into the office) so that they can recover it as soon as possible.

We understand that plans are being made to lift the wreck in the near future and will keep you informed when a date for this operation is given.

There has been a slight change of plan for this weekend’s racing for the BODs .  In our programme we were scheduled to race for the Hickley Tiller on Sunday afternoon starting from the CYC line. However, discussions revealed that BSC were also hoping to have us race with them on Sunday for their Jodi Jug all in handicap.

To solve the problem we are combining the two. So the BODs will race from the BSC start line starting with the BSC Jodi Jug all in handicap race at 14.o0 on Sunday 24 July.  The course will be from the BSC course card and all fleets will race the same course.  The first BOD to finish will be awarded the Hickley Tiller (to be presented at the end of season prize giving).

If you have any queries about this please contact Fi on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com

Amazing party. Thanks Mr and Mrs White!

We have the perfect antidote to those post BOD Summer Party hangovers! Having indulged ourselves at Mark & Marianne White’s on Saturday night we’ll look forward to seeing everyone looking bright eyed and bushy tailed on the start line for the Three Creeks Crawl at BSC at 11am this Sunday 17 July.  Confirmation of the course info will be available from the club so please call in there to check in before you go afloat. And don’t forget to watch out for our new wreck which is between No 13 and the St Osyth shore (it’s close to No 13 and marked with blue and yellow wreck buoys).

The weekend of 23 and 24 July is Brightlingsea Regatta Weekend with fun and games throughout the weekend at both clubs. Shoreside activity is focused on CYC and the hard on Saturday and BSC on Sunday and there is going to be a spectacular firework display on Saturday evening visible from BSC and the prom (fireworks will be located on Point Clear spit). Details of the events will be at www.brightlingseaboatshow.com. For our BOD racing that weekend we have the Hickley Tiller on Sunday 24 July starting from the CYC Bateman’s Tower Line at 14.15 (a little later than usual please note).

With Pyefleet Week almost upon us these are perfect opportunities for a bit of final tune up and boat handling practise so we’ll see you out there on the water.