Brightlingsea One Design

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.

Don’t forget that the AGM is fast approaching on Saturday 28 November starting at 10am at the Colne Yacht Club.

The Rule Change Proposals have now been appended to the Agenda which can be found Here

We hope to see as many of you as possible at the meeting, but if you are unable to attend please register your apologies with Jeremy.

Our roving reporter took a quick peak into Gary Constable’s boatyard at Fieldgate Dock today and found that the place was a hive of BOD activity with both Aina and Panic undergoing work.

Both boats suffered damage during Pyefleet Week and are taking the opportunity to not only repair the damage but also undertake other essential maintenance while they are in the yard.

Our photos of Panic show the repairs to the sheer plank, gunwale and deck area (John is under the foredeck out of sight) and then of John in the cockpit with one of the new floor bearers he is making as part of some remedial work around the mast step area.

By comparison Aina is undergoing a more significant refit and as you can see all her deck fittings are off and she is clearly in the middle of a big spruce up.  We understand that priorities so far have included curing several leaks and putting right a number of other small issues.  The next step will be replacing the deck gear, so she really will be in sparkling form for next season!

Our very own BOD sailing Rev’d Anne Howson invites everyone to join her for the annual Laying Up Service to be held at St James’s Church in Victoria Place at 18.30 on Sunday 13 November 2015.  This lovely thanks giving service will include songs and readings plus performances by both the Motley Crew and St James’ Singers and refreshments afterwards.  Put the date in your diary and we look forward to seeing many of you there.

There’s been big excitement in BOD world over the past few days as the hull of Geoff Gritton’s new C56 Never Say Never emerged from the mould at White Formula and was transported to Simon Hipkin’s yard to start her fit out.

As some of you already know, Geoff was for many years insistent that he would never sail a BOD and he was often somewhat scathing about our beloved boats.  Of course that was all before he had actually raced one properly, so our marketing team went into action determined to change his mind.  Initially it was the odd request for him to crew in a boat, then the call came for him to helm C51 Grethe when Fi was away working, and finally Fi dragged him out to crew for her in Pyefleet Week 2015 (the most exciting BOD racing ever).  Naturally, before the poor boy knew it, Geoff had been infected with BODitis, new build contracts had been signed, deposits paid and colours chosen.

And what great colours they are.  As you can see from our pics of the boat coming out of the mould she is a wonderful light smoky grey with red waterline and white bottom. Geoff is determined that C56 will be innovative and one of the first new ideas you can immediately see is the inclusion of a 4mm plywood transom panel incorporated within the moulding.  This is a fantastic addition and further enhances the traditional look of the new GRP boats.

Geoff has a number of other innovations he is working on with the builders and class measurer David Chivers, and we’ll bring you news of these as soon as we are able.

Geoff is aiming to be afloat by Easter 2016 and we can’t wait to welcome Never Say Never and Geoff and his crew to the BOD fleet.

Geoff has created a great gallery of photos of the build which he will update regularly.  Click here to follow the photo story of C56’s build.

The Brightlingsea One Design Owner’s Association Annual General Meeting will take place  at 10am on Saturday 28 November 2015 at the Colne Yacht Club.  All BOD owners and sailors are invited to attend.

BRIGHTLINGSEA ONE DESIGN ASSOCIATION

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

10.00 am on Saturday 28^th November 2015 at the Colne Yacht Club

AGENDA

1.      Minutes of AGM 25^th January 2015
2.      Matters arising from Minutes
3.      Chairman’s Report
4.      Treasurer’s Report
5.      Election of Officers and Technical Committee
6.      Sailing Programme – Courses / Starts / Start Times
7.      Class rules – Update / Discussion – Click here to view proposed rule changes
8.      BOD mould / patterns – storage of / insurance, royalties, etc
9.      Social Programme
10.      Website – updates / review
11.      Crew list
12.      Any other business

OFFICERS

PRESIDENT – Jean Thomas (ex officio)

CHAIRMAN – Bob Richardson

VICE CHAIRMAN – Alan Hicks

TREASURE – Richard Stephens

SECRETARY – Jeremy Newman

SOCIAL SECRETARY – Mark Wilby

TECHNICAL – Malcolm Goodwin

MEASURER – David Chivers

WEBSITE – Fiona Brown

TECHNICAL COMMITTEE  – John Saker, Brian Walker, Alan Hicks, Simon Hipkin, Malcolm Goodwin, Robert White, Mark White

It is with great regret that we have to announce that the BOD Halloween Party, which was to have been hosted by the Colne Yacht Club on Sat 31 October, has had to be cancelled.  With just over a week to go to the event only 15 tickets have been booked and sadly this is far fewer than are needed to make the event financially viable.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark Wilby for all his efforts in planning and promoting the event and the Colne Yacht Club for their support.  Any social event takes an enormous amount of time and energy to run and we are all very grateful to Mark and the club for giving up their time to try and make this event work.

After the success of last year’s Mexican Night we have been a little surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for this year’s event.  Obviously the clubs and BODOA want to be able to provide events that you, the BOD sailors, wish to attend, so we would be most grateful if you could give us some feedback, via the comments box below, to let us know why this particular event did not appeal to you and what events you would like to see in the BOD programme for 2016.

Will try to bring you a proper report shortly but in the meantime here are the results for the Final Fling 2015.

Following the huge success of the recent three race mini series events that Nick, Pam and Marilyn have been running for us, it has been agreed that the Final Fling on 11 October will also use this three race format, to give the fleet one brilliant final show down for the season.

The start time for racing in the Final Fling has been amended to 11.00 (originally posted as 10.30) and Nick and the team plan to run three rapid fire windward leeward races, getting all the boats back ashore by no later than 13.00 so you can get packed up and changed in good time for drinks at the CYC bar and then lunch, which will be served at 14.00. Nick anticipates locating the committee boat as close to Creekmouth as possible – weather permitting.

At the time of writing we already have 60 confirmed bookings for the Final Fling lunch which will be served at 14.00, preceded by drinks in the bar as soon as you get shore.  There are just a few tickets left which can be purchased via the CYC bar on by calling 01206 302594