Brightlingsea One Design

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.

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.