Brightlingsea One Design

Brightlingsea Sailing Club has published a brand new course card which now includes all the BOD Courses within the main card.  This will hopefully help to avoid confusion in future as we will be using the same Group letter and course number system as for the other classes.

Unfortunately there was a small typo on the card in the BOD section.  For the BOD Courses there are two course groups.  The first BOD group listed at the top of the page is labelled Group F – BOD CYC, but this should read Group F – BOD Offshore.  These are the BSC courses we will use for the vast majority of our class racing there.

The second group of BOD courses is labelled Group F – BOD, but this should read Group G – BOD Inshore.  These courses will only be used in very strong or very light winds when the race officer needs to keep the fleet inshore.

The stock of cards still held behind the BSC Bar have all been corrected so if you purchase one from today you will see the hand written changes.  However, if you purchased one when they first went on sale last week please make the above corrections on the card yourself.

These corrections have now been made on the master document to ensure future reprints are right.

The inimitable Mr Geoff Gritton requests the pleasure of your company to celebrate the unveiling of C56 Never Say Never – the very latest addition to the BOD family – at 11.00 on Easter Friday 25th March at Brightlingsea Boat Park and Ride.

Without doubt Never Say Never is truly innovative, incorporating a number of brand new concepts and also refining and improving on existing BOD thinking.  From her inset wooden transom, to her GNAV kicker, twin spinnaker poles and self bailer set up, to name but a few, none of us have ever seen anything like it before.  All credit to Geoff for taking such a blank sheet approach, and to Simon Hipkin, White Formula, John Saker and all the suppliers for helping to make Geoff’s ideas into reality – and of course to BOD Measurer David Chivers for ensuring he stayed on the straight an narrow rules wise too!

C56 Never Say Never will be available for viewing at Park and Ride from 11.00 on Easter Friday and, weather permitting, Geoff plans to take her down to the Brightlingsea Hard at 11.45 where a naming ceremony will take place. As well as a little something to toast the new arrival Geoff also promises Easter Eggs too so do come down and join in all the fun.

We are delighted to announce that the tickets for the 2016 BOD Dinner are now officially on sale! Click here for the booking form.

The dinner will take place at Brightlingsea Sailing Club on Saturday 30th April. Pre-dinner drinks will be served from 7pm and dinner will be served at 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £20 per head to include a three course meal plus coffee and some wonderful musical entertainment. Tickets are available for individuals or tables of 10 or 12 guests.

The menu for the evening is:

Starter
Red pepper & roasted tomato soup with home made bread (vegetarian option)
OR Scotch egg with red onion chutney

Main Course
Chargrilled chicken stuffed with spinach and cream cheese with mushroom sauce
OR Pasta alla Shaun (vegetarian option)

Pudding
Sangria Poached Pears
OR Toffee Apple Crumble Tart and ice cream

If you have special dietary requirements please email Fi on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com with details of your requirements and we will do our best to make sure you are accommodated.

Bookings will only be confirmed on receipt of payment. Cheques, made payable to Brightlingsea One Design Owner’s Association, and cash should be delivered to 77 Hurst Green, Brightlingsea, CO7 0EH (please include your name and number of tickets being paid for). Online bank payments should be made to

Sort Code: 070093
Account Number: 33333334
Reference: 1420/703682758

Pemail confirmation to Dick Stephens at richard.stephens@uk.dsv.com to let him know you have made your payment and how many tickets you have reserved.

This is always a very popular event and with only 80 places available we will almost certainly sell out quickly so please book online now to avoid disappointment.

By popular demand we will be running a BOD Racing Rules Seminar on Friday 6 May at Brightlingsea Sailing Club.  International Judge David Chivers will run this fun interactive evening free of charge with a view to allowing everyone to brush up their knowledge of the rules.

The seminar, which is open to all BODOA members, will start at 7pm in the upstairs lounge of the club (the bar will be open so round up a drink on your way in).  An optional simple one course supper will be served during the mid evening break for £5 per head (must be booked in advance).  Everyone needs to bring either a current copy of the Racing Rules of Sailing 2013-2016 or a copy of the RYA’s Handy Guide to the Racing Rules of Sailing.  If you don’t have a copy you can order one when you book your tickets.

Only thirty places are available on the seminar and we hope to see at least one representative from each boat taking part. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis so please Register Online Now.

Derek Gentry – soon to be joining the crew of Geoff Gritton’s new BOD C56 Never Say Never – has been delving into his archives and found some fascinating Yachts & Yachting articles.  The first is about the BOD from the Early May 1987 edition and the second is about the opening of the new CYC Club from the 15 October 1965 edition. Click on the images to expand them and see if you recognise any of the faces.  Also has anyone an explanation of why there is a boat displaying sail number 12A at the bottom of the first page?

Whilst we might not have been out on the water recently, that doesn’t mean the BOD Fleet is totally dormant.  In fact, quite the opposite!  This winter the fleet has been a veritable hive of activity.

Simon Hipkin is now well advanced with the fit out of the brand new C56 Never Say Never for Geoff Gritton.  This boat will feature a number of interesting innovations including a GNAV upside down kicker, self-bailers in conjunction with a sealed floor compartment and a beautiful wooden transom inset into the GRP moulding.  There are plenty more clever ideas on the boat which Geoff will be delighted to share with you when he launches her over the Easter Weekend (more details to follow soon).

Down in Wivenhoe Rob Maloney’s major refit of Graham and Claire Bridle’s C31 Blue Peter is nearing completion and the boat is looking
fantastic in her new, slightly darker, blue livery.  As I write Rob is in the process of putting the new deck fittings onto the boat and we can’t wait to see her back out on the water.

Rob also had more exciting news for us this week when he
confirmed that he has purchased C23 Black Shadow from Malcolm Goodwin. The boat is in need of a complete restoration and he plans
to start work on her this summer.  Black Shadow was originall
built for the late John Glanfield, whose
daughter Kate and son in law Billy Button are well known in the fleet and who I am sure will be keeping a close eye on the project.  Kate kindly shared this lovely black and white photo of the boat when she was first launched with her original rig and bowsprit.

In Brightlingsea John Brett has been working on both C29 Panic for Bob Richardson and Alistair Burt, and C14 Aina for Steve Heppell.  Panic has had repairs to come damage and genera refit work and Aina is completing a major refit. We understand Bob and Alistair have already purchased some top quality slightly used sails and that Steve also has an order in with the sailmaker too so the boys are really going for it.

The fleet is clearly trying to ensure the east coast sail making industry stays in good shape as we hear rumours that a number of other boats also have new sails on order including C54 Storm Petrel, C51 Grethe and C75 The Mike, whose new spinnaker design is shown here.

With Geoff’s new boat launching at Easter and the official BOD programme getting underway in May it won’t be long before the boats start to come out of winter storage and we can’t wait to see the fleet back on the water!

Finally, please don’t forget to put the BOD Dinner on April 30th in your diaries and if you have more BOD stories to share please email them to Fi on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com.

At the BOD AGM Bob Richardson stood down as our Chairman having competed his two year stint and Jeremy Newman also stood down as Class Secretary, although he has generously agreed to continue coordinating the sailing programme.

The new officers elected for 2016 are Alan Hicks, who becomes our new Chairman, Phil Rust, who takes over from Alan as Vice Chairman, and Fiona Brown, who becomes Secretary.

To view a full list of officers and their contact information please click here.

With the 2016 now in our sights we’ve published the 2016 Racing Programme and 2016 Social Programme and we’ve also updated the Class Rules to the 2016 edition reflecting the one small rule change approved at the AGM in November, to allow a small sprodder to prevent the spinnaker sheets falling over the bow.

Back in late July 1986 the Brightlingsea One Design fleet suddenly found itself staring in a major Hollywood movie as this fascinating extract from the log of Tom Sargent of C6 Jumbo Too relates:

Thursday 31st July and Friday 1st August 1986 – High water 21.00 and 21.30 hours.  Thursday overcast and cool, moderate to fresh.  Friday bright and sunny, light to moderate south east.

Ten BODs – C6, C17, C21, C23, C24, C25, C29, C42 and C75 were hired with crews by a film company at eighty pounds a day to make a sequence in a film about Teddy Kennedy Junior.  The Club Jetty and the River Colne are supposed to be the Hieannis Port, Cape Cod and the Kennedy’s summer home, with the BODs playing the role of the local craft used by the Kennedys and their friends.

The first morning was taken up with filming scenes on the jetty, but there seemed to much wind in the afternoon to do anything useful afloat.  The food laid on was an eye opened to us all!

On Friday conditions for filming were near perfect.  We all set off early.  As I was technical advisor at double pay I was on Bill Merdon’s motor cruiser which was acting as camera boat.  The whole process I found quite intriguing.

Tony Leech was put in charge of C21, Geoff Payne’s boat, as he was doubling for both Kennedy and a character called Tully and C21 was supposed to be Kennedy’s boat.  This involved him in several quick changes and a lot of quite dangerous swapping of boats, all of which rather impressed the director!  He had not got the first idea about sailing or boats and neither had his film crew.  Therefore my job should have been critical, but as it turned out I had little to do as everything seemed to fall into place naturally and they should have got a lot of good material.

Jenness was in charge of Jumbo II with Geoff and June and the only actor who could sail.  He seemed to really enjoy himself.  The fleet in general excelled themselves, going through mass spinnaker scenes with dangerous looking gybes and much rolling and swerving about.  Things went so well it was all sorted out in the morning, which please the Director and camera crew no end.

Once ashore and in the Club we were all promptly paid in cash.  All the owners had agreed beforehand to put their money together to provide a fund for the Owner’s Association to buy up derelict boats which should be a very good thing for the class.

So it turns out that it’s not just Panic and Aina undergoing significant refit/restoration work this winter.  Word reaches us from Rob Maloney in Wivenhoe that C31 Blue Peter is in his workshop and he is in the middle of completely redecking her for Graham and Claire Bridle.

As you can see from Rob’s photos below the old decks are off and a number of deck beams have already been replaced.  It’s wonderful to see her receiving such TLC and we can’t wait to have her back on the water and looking her best next season.