Brightlingsea One Design

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

It transpires that our first edition of this story had an error in the results for race three.  Results and story both now corrected.

Nick Readings made the popular decision  to run a Mini Series for the R Stone Challis with a course set from off Mersea shore to Gazelet for two races and followed by a final race to Big Buoy following a wind shift.  Everyone had a very good afternoon’s racing and as can be seen from the results nothing was set in stone as some helm/crew had mixed fortunes in the afternoon.

Malcolm Goodwin and his team in Jean were star performers with a set of straight wins, but behind them the battles for second and third place were epic with Bidi, Grethe, Gelasma and White Spirit all vying for a podium place.  It came down to the final race when Dan Willett in Bidi snatched a second place and second overall with ten points and Mark White’s White Spirit took third in the race and third overall on 11 points.  On the line Mike Hempstead’s Gelasma just pipped Grethe, being sailed in Fi’s absence by Geoff Gritton and his new C56 crew, for fourth place, but it wasn’t quite enough to put him ahead overall so Grethe was fourth on 12 points and Gelasma fifth on 13 points.  Mark Wilby and Phil Holding’s The Mike was just two points further back in sixth with the Trevor Stone’s Ruff seventh and Bob Richardson’s Panic eighth.

Thanks as always to Nick and Pam Readings and Marilyn Hempstead for their sterling work in the committee/safety boat.

There are just two more official BOD events to go this season.  The second of the Osbourne Cup events from BSC on Sunday 4 October starting at 14.00 (check BSC for your exact start time) and then the one and only Final Fling on Sunday 11 October from CYC starting at 11.00 (note slightly revised start time) and followed by the Final Fling Lunch (last few lunch tickets remaining can be booked at the CYC bar).

Final Results

We always love it when we come across little bits of BOD trivia and this week we heard from Rupert Brown in Burnham, whose father owned and raced BOD C3 Maida from the 1930s onwards.  For years Mr Brown would come all the way from Westcliffe to race Maida against the Brightlingsea fleet before eventually taking her over to race off Southend.

Rupert is a fan of this website and has kindly sent us a picture of his desk pen tidy, which on closer inspection turns out to be a prize presented to his father and Maida for a 3rd place in 1934.  Clearly you could expect a better quality of keeper prize in sailing in the 1930s!

The forecast for the weekend looks fabulous so make the most of this last hurrah of summer and get on the water for this weekend’s R Stone Challis.  Start is at 14.15 from Bateman’s Tower on Sunday 27 September.

Tickets for the BOD Halloween Party at CYC on 31 October 2015 are now on sale.  We’re expecting this event, which is also open to CYC members, to sell out fast so do please book your tickets asap from Mark Wilby or Dick Stephens as below:

The BOD fleet put in a great showing at Brightlingsea Sailing Club’s Bart’s Bash Race on Sunday 20 September with six BODs on the start line and four boats in the overall top ten.

Conditions could not have been more perfect for the race, which is run in memory of British Olympic and America’s Cup sailor Andrew “Bart” Simpson and raises fund for the Andrew Simpson Memorial Fund.  Glorious hot sunshine and a gradually decreasing sea breeze gave something for everyone both in the race and spectating from the prom.

Despite a flooding tide and reaching start the entire fleet was over eager and it took two general recalls before the race finally got away at the third time of asking.  The BODs had some super close racing amongst themselves, but in the overall race the ultimate battle came down to a fight between childhood Mirror fleet rivals Pete Kyne, sailing a Fireball, and Jeremy Newman in BOD C32 Avocet.  Despite Jeremy’s best efforts the conditions slightly favoured the planing Fireball so Pete claimed first place with Jeremy second and the National 18 of Jessica Berney third.

Dan Willett sailing C9 Bidi and Danny Fox in C8 Egret fought it out for fourth place with Dan getting the upper hand and Danny taking fifth.  There was also a fantastic fight to the finish between Mark White in C53 White Spirit and Mike Hempstead in C18 Gelesma.  Right on the line Mark claimed tenth place overall with Mike eleventh.

Geoff Gritton had also started the race in C51 Grethe, but gear failure forced him to pull out of the race at the end of lap 1.

Full Results