Brightlingsea One Design

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.

Please note that Wivenhoe Regatta upriver race start time is 13.30 as per the sailing instructions, NOT 13.00 as per our earlier story (now corrected).  Apologies for any confusion.

Yippee, its almost BOD Summer Party Time!  This year’s BOD Summer Party will be hosted by the fabulous Mark and Marianne White on Saturday 16th July from 7.30pm at their home 30 Nelson Street, Brightlingsea (but please use the rear entrance in Duke Street – next to Geoff and Mandy Gritton’s house – look out for the balloons).

Mark and Marianne will be firing up the BBQ for a bangers and burgers feast and everyone is asked to bring a contribution to the bar.

To help them plan for the right numbers please would you RSVP to Marianne or Mark in person or at mariannewhite6@icloud.com

The party is the night before the BSC Three Creeks Crawl which should provide the perfect antidote to any hangovers!

The forecast is looking great for this Saturday’s Wivenhoe Regatta (9 July) with sunshine, 20 degrees and a great breeze.  The race upriver starts from Bateman’s at 13.30 and as always we can expect a fantastic welcome and thee usual beers and burgers when we get to Wivenhoe after the race upriver.  Click here to download the Sailing Instructions for the regatta here and please help the organisers by entering in advance if you possibly can.