Brightlingsea One Design

Tickets for the BOD Dinner on Saturday 30 April at BSC are selling fast and as we have a maximum capacity of 80 please do book in right away if you wish to attend. 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

Please email 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.

Check out our video of the naming and maiden sail of Geoff Gritton’s stunning new BOD C56 Never Say Never:

Throughout the build of C56 Never Say Never, owner Geoff Gritton has been teasing us with hints of multiple innovations.  Following the boat’s launch on Easter Friday, we caught up with Geoff to find out more.

“Coming from a sports and big boat sailing background I was keen to introduce some of the developments in fit out that I’ve seen in other classes. My first call was to BOD Measurer David Chivers, as whilst I wanted to take advantage of what I’ve learnt from other classes, I equally wanted maintain the ethos of the class and the traditional style of the boat.

“Many of the innovations are really just a natural progression in boat equipment and materials.  For example the boat has only three hard shackles – the main halyard as it’s locking, jib tack and centre plate – everything else is soft attach, including all blocks.

“It’s been an exciting five months and 23 days, working so closely with boat builder Simon Hipkin who has brought my ideas to fruition and fine tuned them to work superbly without detracting from the traditional look of the boat.

“It’s also been fascinating working with David and analysing the class rules in more detail. Traditional classes tend to follow a pattern purely on the basis that ‘we’ve always done it like this’, but this time with David’s help, each item was assessed against the Class Rules in detail.  Some of my ideas had to be modified, but interestingly it also revealed a few areas where the current rules are not as clear as they might be. But with Simon and David’s help we’ve navigated the mine field and I’m thrilled with the finished product.”

Starting from the transom Geoff takes us through each of the significant developments:

Wooden Transom – for the first time a 4mm plywood inset panel was placed into the mould after the gel was applied but prior to lamination to give the appearance of a traditional wooden transom. The finished result is even better than Geoff had hoped and certainly makes Never Say Never much harder to pick out from the wooden boats.

Stainless Steel Winch Assembly – With John Saker’s help Geoff took the opportunity to develop a new stainless steel centreboard control winch, replacing the traditional bronze.  John had made a new stainless steel wheel for C51 Grethe in 2015 to resolve the issue of the bronze castings binding, but this was the first all stainless winch.

Rudder Assembly – To prevent the long term stress issues which have caused a number of rudder stocks (which are made in two parts) to separate, a carbon fibre band has been wrapped around the head of rudder stock.  The rudder lift control line dead end is moulded into tiller, the line ten goes through a channel built into the rudder stock immediately
below the tiller, rather than through the traditional cheek block on the side of the rudder. This makes no practical difference to it’s operation but is much neater and makes one less thing for the mainsheet to snag on.

Mainsheet Horse – the mainsheet horse is constructed of stainless steel in the traditional style with the normal fixed end stops.  To createstops at the current 300mm spacing, the underside of the horse has dimples and there is a pair of adjustable stainless stops which are held in place by knurled screw nuts which locate into the dimples.  In recognition of a possible future rule change to allow the stops to be closer to the centreline Geoff has also added dimples closer to the centreline which are currently plugged to prevent use.

Mainsheet System – the mainsheet system is effectively as standard with the exception th
at instead of having strops or or a sail cloth sleve of some type to prevent the dangling mainsheet from strangling the helm in manoeuvres, the mainsheet leads from the final aft block, into the boom and then  back out again just prior to the lead block to the mainsheet jammer. In addition Geoff has chosen a tapered mainsheet.

Thwarts – over time, the position and number of thwarts in the BODs has varied. Early boats were built with a single aft helm’s thwart and then a pair of thwarts port and starboard approximately half way down the centreboard case were added.  There was a period post second world war when the class experimented with removing the thwarts by centreboard case completely.  Perhaps unsurprisingly this resulted in a certain amount of torsional twist on the now unsupported centreboard case and in order to rectify this the thwarts were reintroduced. When Avocet was built in the 1980s Malcom Goodwin introduced an additional pair of thwarts at the forward end of the centreboard case and moved the original central pair to the back of the case.  In recent years this has become the norm and is of help in the wooden boats in securing the integrity of the case.  The initial GRP BODs continued this practise, however the GRP construction means the centreboard case does not require this level of support so Geoff has returned to the original design with a helm’s thwart and a pair of thwarts in the middle of the centreboard case. To ensure the forward end of the case remains secure Simon has laminated in two supporting knees.

Clearing The Decks – at first glance the one big difference between Never Say Never and her predecessors is just how clear her decks are.  Key to achieving this were:

G-Nav – the starting point for clearing the decks was the introduction of the G-Nav kicker system. This above boom system is already tried and tested in many classes and in the BOD it helps considerable to minimise the issue of limited crew space in the front of the boat – much to the approval of C56’s crew Derick Gentry and Chris Walker. To strengthen the mast to take the added pressure where the upper end of the G-Nav attaches to the mast, the mast is internally sleeved with a strengthening tube.  There is a three to one purchase inside the boom, from there the control goes through the mast end of the boom, down through the deck, to a turning block at the bottom of the mast and into a four to one cascade system along the starboard side of the centre plate. The adjustment is led both sides of the centre plate to a pair of cleats on the thwart on the centre plate.

Having created this extra space it allowed Geoff to take a new approach to the deck layout.

Jib Sheet Controls – initially the jib sheets look to be a conventional two to one setup, with the exception that the block is attached with a soft shackle.  From there however, instead of the typical deck mounted turning block and cleat, the sheet passes through the deck, around a pair of blocks including a ratchet and then through the cockpit combing via a carbon fibre tube onto a custom made cleat fitting.
Runner Controls – again the runners initially look quite conventional, however, the control line now runs through the deck, around a pair of turning blocks and exits the cockpit combing to another custom cleat fitting approximately two feet forward of the aft end of the track, enabling both crew to more easily operate the runners.

Spinnaker Halyard – having had the opportunity to sail C52 a number of times last year, Geoff realised that one of the most unnerving moments in a BOD can be steering through a crowded weather mark rounding with just the very end of the tiller (which does not protrude far) clamped between your thighs and hoisting the spinnaker at the same time.  Having used pump action spinnaker halyards in the past, he installed one on Never Say Never. Initial trials prove this to be very effective.  Alongside the pump action spinnaker halyard, Geoff has opted for twin poles using the same system as fitted to Eider last year.

Control Lines – the cunningham, outhaul and kicker all lead back to the helmsman and can be adjusted from port and starboard with cleats located on the aft face of the centreboard thwart. Because this thwart is two feet further forward than previous GRP boats it is easier for both helm and crew to operate.  The centreboard, spinnaker pole up/down and in/out and jib halyard controls are all located on a bank of Spinnlock cleats under the aft edge of the foredeck.Jib Cunningham – Geoff has refined the jib cunningham system used by Steve Heppel on Aina by leading the control line down through a custom bow fitting, through a watertight tube in the forward buoyancy tank and out to another cleat on the cockpit floor.

Toe Straps – rather than the conventional two part toe straps, with one section for the helm and a longer section for the crew, Geoff’s toe straps are in three separate sections, one for each crew, to prevent the problem of the heaviest crew dominating the position of the strap.

Self Bailers – there have been a number of experiments with self bailers over the years, but for the first time Geoff and Simon have taken a new approach. The first step was to solve the problem of how to contain the water in the area of the bailers to enable them to work efficiently. To achieve this the floor boards were used to create a pair of sealed floor compartments port and starboard with drainage channels along the centre line and outboard. The bailers are located at the forward end of the side tanks on the turn of the bilge, and there is drainage reservoir between the sealed floor sections enabling the water to naturally settle by the bailers.

Having launched and now sailed the boat for the first time, Geoff’s closing comment was “The boat felt very well balanced and powerful and I’m really pleased that everything worked straight out of the box. Of course there are a few bits and pieces still to sort and I’ve already spent a couple of hours trimming ropes to length and fiddling with little bits and pieces – but that is the part of the joy of owning a boat surely!”

Following her complete restoration by Rob Maloney, which was completed in spring 2015, C44 Janice has been in undercover storage as sadly her owner Richard Austin has been unable to sail her for personal reasons.

Richard has now made the decision to put her on the market and look for a new owner who will be able to sail and race her to her full potential, hopefully with the main Brightlingsea fleet.

For more information about the boat click here.

We have a number of BODs looking for good crew for the 2016 season.  If you are interesting in racing with the fleet this year please email Fiona Brown on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com with your details.

The following update from BSC Sailing Secretary Piers Lambert contains some very important information for the BOD fleet about radios and signing on so please read it carefully.

From Piers Lambert – BSC Sailing Secretary

With the new season now upon us I would like to let you know of some changes to this year’s sailing.

For fleet racing this year we are going to try some different groupings. Lasers, BODs and Fireballs will keep their own starts as long as there are at least 4 per race start, and an average of over 5 per series is maintained.

For handicap fleets we are proposing an Asymmetric fleet, Fast Handicap and Slow Handicap. Cats and Fast Asymmetric boats are being put together. Slower asymmetric can choose to go in fast, slow handicap or asymmetric as we appreciate Topaz may not want to do the larger asymmetric courses, but for a series they have to stay in their chosen fleet!

With a lot of help from Alan Hicks, Malcolm Goodwin and Jeremy Newman we have redone the course card. The courses all have been made to fit lengths and to ensure that no courses clash to have fleets going around the same mark in different directions.  If you find problems let me know so we can refine them.  Within the restrictions of the river we have attempted to make the courses to the following:-

A – Short                  Slow Handicap/ very light winds
B – Medium             Laser/lighter days
C – Longer               Fast Handicap/Fireball/ Average wind strengths
D – Asymmetric      Long for Fast Asymmetrics
E – Upriver              For Transition and very windy days
F – BOD Offshore   BODs normal racing
G – BOD Inshore    BODs for very windy or very light days

Remember to get a new course card!!

To solve the problems of BODs not having time to sign on and get on the water in time with Park and Ride, they now have the option of telling a safety boat crew to sign them on – this must be done before the start.  Therefore, one safety boat will have to remain in the creek near the turning mark for them to be able to do this – after the start the safety boat will radio the race box to inform them of the BODs signing on.  The Race box will then add them to the signing on sheet. The BODs MUST however sign off at the signing off sheet on the board at the Starting Hut.  In the event the safety boat is called away and cannot take entries, then the Race officer is asked to use their discretion and add starting BODs to the race.

Also with the help of Dave Gibbons all the races have been uploaded to the RYA Portsmouth Yardstick scheme. The new PYs have ben published and these have been compared to the recommended Brightlingsea PYs from the RYA and the new Brightlingsea 2016 PYs constructed.  I am sure these changes will cause a lot of discussion, especially at the bar!

I look forward to seeing you on the water.

Piers Lambert
Sailing Secretary

Final preparations are underway at Park and Ride on Geoff Gritton’s stunning new BOD C56 Never Say Never. Do join Geoff tomorrow at 11am at Park and Ride  for the official unveiling.

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.