Brightlingsea One Design

Party Time people!  Get out your sparkly frocks and your dancing shoes and join in the fun at the Brightlingsea Sailing Club Laying Up Supper on Saturday 25th October as we celebrate a fabulous season of BOD sailing.  It’s an evening of great food, great company, great music and great craic so book early to avoid disappointment as this event always sells out.

If you would like to join one of the BOD tables please just book your tickets with Donna Bees on bees.donna@gmail.com or 07966 820953 or in person at BSC and confirm to her that you are joining the BOD tables.  Alternatively if you would prefer to put your own table together please note that tables are available for groups of up to 12.  Full menu and details are in the poster below.

The two part Osborne Cup series brought a total of nine BODs to the start line.  Race 1 on the 14 September saw just four boats out to race, but it was to be an extremely close race with David Conlon, helming C55 Windsprite taking victory by a narrow margin from Alan Hicks in C54 Storm Petrel with Celia Charlton helming C30 Sarah Louise third and Mark White in C53 White Spirit fourth.

The second leg of the event was combined with the Bart’s Bash Race and eight BODs took on a handicap fleet of almost 50 boats as part of the world record breaking race which honoured British Olympian Andrew “Bart” Simpson, who was killed in an accident aboard the America’s Cup multihull Artemis Racing in San Francisco Bay last year, and raises funds for the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.  It was a blustery race with some heavy squalls

Danny Fox and C8 Egret were the first BOD in seventh overall, with Colin Willett sailing C9 Bidi second (10th overall), then Mark White third (13th overall) and Alan Hicks fourth (15th overall), despite the fact that they had broken their jib halyard on the first lap and had to use the spinnaker halyard for both sails for the rest of the race.

Geoff Gritton made his first ever appearance on the helm of a BOD in Bart’s Bash at the helm of C51 Grethe.  He acquitted himself well and held fifth place for much of the race until a mark rounding incident forced them to do a penalty turn which allowed Celia Charlton to slip past them.  Geoff had to be content with sixth, just ahead of Mike Hempstead in C18 Gelasma with Trevor Stone in C20 Ruff eighth.

In the overall results for the Osborne Cup Alan Hicks took victory from Mark White with Celia Charlton third.

This coming weekend its the R Stone Challis starting from Bateman’s Tower at 13.45 on Sunday 28 September.

Don’t forget we have the Final Fling the following weekend starting at 10.30 on Sunday 5 October from Bateman’s and that the race is followed by Sunday Lunch at CYC at 13.30 (tickets must be purchased before Wednesday 1 October either from the CYC Bar or by calling the club office on 01206 302594).

We have a bunch of great social activities coming up for the BOD Fleet over the next couple of months so please put the following in your diaries and join us for more BOD fun and games.

First up is the Final Fling Race and Sunday Lunch which is approaching fast on Sunday 5 October.  The Final Fling Race is always well attended so let’s get as many of us out on the water as possible for one last big race of the season.  The race start is 10.30 from Bateman’s Tower and it will be followed by lunch at 13.30 at the Colne Yacht Club for all BOD sailors, friends and family.  The lunch will be a traditional Sunday Lunch carvery with beef, turkey, gammon and a vegetarian option plus all the trimmings, followed by a choice of hot and cold puddings and tea or coffee – all for the excellent price of £14.50 a head.  Tickets must be reserved in advance by no later than Wednesday 1 October via the CYC Bar or by calling the CYC Office on 01206 302594.

Next up for your diaries are the Laying Up Suppers of Brightlingsea Sailing Club on Saturday 25 October, followed by the Colne Yacht Club on Saturday 1 November.  Further information on both of these will be published shortly or check with the clubs for more details.

And finally please mark your diaries with the BOD Mexican Night at CYC on Saturday 22 November.  Hot on the heels of our hugely successful German Night in the summer the BODs will be hosting a winter bash.  More info will follow shortly but put it in your diaries and start looking for your sombreros and ponchos and practising your salsa steps now!

This Sunday’s second leg of the Osbourne Cup will be a normal BOD race from the BSC line, but it will also be part of the Bart’s Bash world record breaking global fund raising race so please go to www.bartsbash.co.uk, create an account and register your entry (there is no charge).  For the venue you need to use Brightlingsea Sailing Club and for the Class it’s Brightlingsea One Design.

There is no official entry fee, but please do make a contribution to the Andrew Simpson Foundation to support the excellent work they are doing.  You can make your donations via the Brightlingsea One Design Bart’s Bash Just Giving account (note all money goes direct to Bart’s Bash) or if you want to do some more extensive personal fund raising for the foundation you can set up your own Just Giving Bart’s Bash page by following the links once you’ve made your entry.

Let’s get as many BODs out on the water for this very special race as we can!  If anyone needs help or crew just give Fi a shout on 07711 718470 or fiona.brown@fionabrown.com.

The Brightlingsea One Design Fleet has occasional ventured away from Brightlingsea by sea for events such as Burnham Week and individual boats been off and enjoyed road trips to pastures new, but Bosham Classic Boat Revival, over the weekend of 6 and 7 September 2014, saw the first ever BOD Fleet outing by road to an open event.  Five intrepid BODs took up the challenge and enjoyed a fantastic weekend on Chichester Harbour, where they took the opportunity to show off our fabulous BODs to a whole new audience.

The five boats that made the trip were – Class Chairman Bob Richardson’s Panic, with a combined Panic/Ruff crew and shore party; Alan Hicks, Jayne and Craig Bond in Storm Petrel; Chris Matthews sailing Rebel with local sailors Pete McCoy and Piers Strong; Mark White, Dick Stephens and Steve Archer in White Spirit; and Fi Brown sailing Grethe with south coast friends Pete Jones and Mike Stannard.

Logistically the adventure took a bit of planning.  Grethe was the only boat with a proper road trailer so she and Rebel doubled up with the trailer hurtling up and down the motorways of southern England to move both boats.  Nick Readings kindly lent Storm Petrel his road trailer which takes a wooden BOD dolly, Panic arrived on a dolly on a flat bed trailer padded out with straw bales (Jim’s farming influence showing there much to the amusement of the Bosham locals) and White Spirit travelled on a borrowed trailer which caused a slight panic when it blew a wheel bearing just after joining the M25, but got there none the less thanks to the AA and a local garage.  In fact moving the boats proved to be much easier than we’d first thought and now we’ve done it once we have some good ideas on how we could make it even easier next time.

Once arrived in Bosham the boats immediately started attracting attention.  It took about twice as long as usual to rig as people kept stopping to chat and find out more about the boats.  Bosham SC pulled out all the stops to make us feel welcome and provide all the help and support we needed to get the boats rigged, launched and onto their moorings so that by Friday evening the entire fleet was assembled and everyone had changed into their BOD Team shirts ready for the opening drinks party.

Saturday dawned misty and airless and initially the fleet was held ashore for a couple of hours, but once on the water the wind filled in to a near perfect 6-9 knots that allowed the BODs to truly shine.  The race officer set old style triangle, sausage courses with starboard mark roundings (necessary in order to fit the course into the limited space available) and the fleet came to the very crowded line with lots of nervous jostling and a determination to avoid being dragged OCS by the tide.  After an initial general recall race one got away at the second time of asking and the first of three intense battles commenced.

Sailing in Chichester Harbour is not dissimilar to sailing in the lower reaches of the Colne with marshy islands, mud banks and plenty of tricky tides to contend with, so the BODs felt  entirely at home. The first beat was incredibly close but it wasn’t long before the BODs had edged ahead of the other boats in the class, allowing us to go at it hammer and tongs with only minimal outside traffic to worry about. Rebel had great speed and took full advantage of Pete and Piers’ local knowledge to gradually eek out an edge over their rivals. Storm Petrel was able to match their speed upwind, but couldn’t quite hold them downwind.  Grethe sailed a good first beat to round just ahead of White Spirit, but Fi misjudged her approach to the mark and ended up hitting it and having to do turns allowing White Spirit to pass her and Panic to catch up.  Rebel claimed the first line honours of the day, closely followed by Storm Petrel with White Spirit third, Grethe fourth and Panic fifth on the line.  Once the handicaps had been calculated the first four BODs were also confirmed as first to fourth overall with Panic slipping to joint eighth place with a Yachting World Dayboat, just behind a very well sailed Firefly, International Moth and another YW Dayboat.

Race two was even closer with several nerve wracking port starboard calls on the beats and plenty of place changes on the runs.  Again the BODs quickly escaped from the main pack despite not being the highest rated boats in the class.  Rebel once again got the upper hand with Storm Petrel second, but this time Grethe snuck into third with White Spirit fourth and Panic fifth.  On corrected time the top four BODs took first to fourth overall and this time Panic was sixth with only Will Henderson’s Firefly getting the better of them.

Race three was cutthroat and with the tide now very low and the race course narrowed the fleet was even more compressed.  The wind had increased a little so the starts were nail biting stuff and the first beat required huge concentration and great boat on boat judgement and some pretty smart avoiding action in a couple of cases to avoid contact with both other boats and the mud whilst maintain maximum speed .  Despite a few near misses everyone made it to the weather mark unscathed and once again Rebel led with Storm Petrel chasing.  Grethe was hard on their heels and on the first run managed to slip past Storm Petrel, but a smarter approach to the leeward mark put Storm Petrel back in front and on the second beat Grethe dropped back further as she had to defend her third place against White Spirit, allowing Storm Petrel and Rebel to gain distance. The increase in wind speed meant that the other classes got more of a look in and whilst the BODs once again led across the line this time the corrected time results put Rebel first, Storm Petrel second, Will Henderson’s Firefly third, Grethe fourth, White Spirit fifth and Panic eleventh.

Back ashore everyone was able to enjoy Bosham SC’s fantastic hospitality and meet some of our fellow competitors.  Bosham SC is situated in one of the most beautiful natural harbours in the world and Bosham itself is a stunningly preserved historic village whose residents are said to have included King Canute and from where King Harold sailed for Normandy in 1064.  The sailing club is located in an eighteenth century Mill House with its own mill stream and for big events it is granted use of Bosham Quay Meadow to store visiting boats.  The sight of more than sixty classic dinghies ranged around the meadow and the surrounding moorings was an absolute delight and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to inspect each others boats and talk to fellow classic dinghy enthusiasts.

Naturally the BOD fleet acquitted themselves well in the shoreside activities as well as on the water and we are proud to say that the combined Panic/Ruff team saw off all challengers on the dance floor (who knew Jim was such a nifty mover?!) and that White Spirit were the last crew standing at the bar.  We were also very impressed to learn that the event broke the club’s bar takings record thanks to the BODs sterling efforts.

Despite some sore heads the fleet was back out on the water again on Sunday morning.  This time there was a light northerly breeze to take the boats down to the race area and hopes were high of more good racing.  Chris and the Rebel boys were the last to arrive in the race area and it was clear that they had been making the most of the south coast’s many hospitality opportunities.  The sail down was also eventful for Storm Petrel, when Alan and Craig decided to test Jayne’s skills by requiring her to hoist the spinnaker single handed as the two of them reclined on the aft seat.  Despite a warning from one of the local boats they managed to run hard aground on the edge of the channel and could only free themselves with the use of their paddles.  Sadly the paddles were a particularly cheap and nasty pair and the blades are still stuck somewhere in the Bosham mud!

Having only just recovered from laughing at Storm Petrel’s dilemma, Grethe had her own moment of panic when Pete heard a clonk on the deck and found a stray T-terminal on the cockpit floor which has obviously shaken loose and not been checked after the road journey.  A quick inspection revealed that it was the lower terminal from the starboard jumper and a discussion ensued about how essential the jumpers were on a light airs day.  Since Grethe has a cut down Dragon section rig, which is so stiff that the jumpers never knowingly load up, this wasn’t really that much of an issue, however, Pete and Fi decided that it was essential Mike (the lightest person on the crew) go aloft to mend it.  Since Mike also has famously shaky hands this provided a good 20 minutes of entertainment as he attempted and eventually succeeded in reattaching the rigging whilst standing in a loop in the pole up haul. He was very happy with his achievement and it only took about 90 minutes for the feeling to return to his foot.

The fast handicap got away on time, but within a few minutes the wind had begun to die and the AP was hoisted for our medium handicap class.  And so the wait began.  As the fast handicap struggled to make headway our fleet began to raft up and enjoy a wonderful sunny day on the harbour.  Rebel’s synchronised swimming and diving team caught the eye of the photographers whilst others got out the papers or snoozed on deck.

The fast handicap fleet eventually ghosted across the finish line after a single lap, but it was clear that the wind was not going to put in a proper appearance for the rest of the day and so everyone was towed home for a delightful afternoon tea and prize giving back at the club.

At the prize giving first place went to Rebel, Storm Petrel was second, Grethe third and White Spirit fourth.  Only the Firefly and International Moth came close to challenging us and they took fifth and sixth with Panic in seventh overall.

Everyone who took part was in agreement that it was a fantastic weekend.  The racing and shoreside activities for the sailors were fantastic and Bosham is a wonderful location for a holiday break for those travelling with the teams so we all hope to be back again next year.

FULL RESULTS

PHOTO GALLERIES

The second Mini Series of the season was a closely fought affair with seven boats enjoying three great races run by Race Officers Nick and Pam Readings.  Numbers were down a little for this second event as five of the fleet were away representing the BOD Class at the Bosham Classic Boat Revival, but the fact that the BODs can still muster 7 boats for an event like this even when a large group has gone away speaks to the huge progress and growth the fleet has made over the last couple of seasons.

Winds were light at between 5-7 mph with very shifty conditions for the three windward leeward races.  This made for some very close crossing tacks upwind, Dave Conlon, Finn Anderson and Sarah Bines in Wind Sprite took an early lead in race one and held on well, but Dan Willett, Pete Nicholson and Stuart Phillips in Bidi gybed early at the top mark on the last downwind leg and found a breeze that took them just past Avocet and Wind Sprite on the line.

Race 2 was again very close up wind with John Payne amongst others showing good speed, Malcolm Goodwin in Jean and Danny Fox in Egret chose the Mersea side while the others went up the Brightlingsea shore to close at the top mark. Jeremy Newman, Dave Bridle and Phil Rust in Avocet just made windward mark first and held on down the run followed by Windsprite and Jean.

In race 3 Avocet port tacked the fleet just! The entire fleet tacked up Brightlingsea shore against the tide with many position changes. Malcolm Goodwin and Jean found a shift and rounded first then successfully defended all the way to the finish, with Avocet second and Egret third.

In the overall standings Jeremy Newman sailing Avocet claimed victory by a narrow margin of three points, whilst second place could only be decided on count back with Malcolm Goodwin in Jean just pipping Dan Willett in Bidi for the second step of the podium. With such close racing good fun had by all and we’re looking forward to the next two weekends of the Osbourne Cup Series (race 1 on Sunday 14 September starting at 14.10 and race 2 on Sunday 21 September starting at 11.00 – both from the BSC line) when the entire fleet will be back together again and we can expect a fleet well into double figures.

Our thanks to Nick and Pam for stepping in as our Race Officers and for giving us great racing.

FINAL RESULTS

Whilst some of the BODs are off to Bosham to represent the class at the Classic Boat Revival this weekend, the rest of the BOD fleet will be enjoying the Autumn Mini Series which takes place this Sunday 7th September with the first start planned for 11am.  Nick and Pam Readings have generously offered to act as our committee/rescue boat in their big black RIB and will initially be located in the vicinity of No 13 so you can easily find them.

As usual the plan is for three fast and furious back-to-back races on windward leeward courses set using the RIB and one buoy as the start line and another suitable nav/racing mark as the weather mark.  Its all great fun and very informal and Jeremy, who will be sailing Avocet, will be liaising with Nick to assist with course setting.

Malcolm has also confirmed that he will be out and now everyone is starting to recover from the post Pyefleet Week malaise we hope to see a really good turnout.

Looking ahead the following two weekends we have the Osbourne Cup Parts 1 and 2.  Both races will be run from the BSC line with Part 1 on the 14th September starting at 14.10 and Part 2 on the 21st September starting at 11.00.  The race on the 14th will also incorporate the BSC’s Bart’s Bash event so more information will be published on this shortly, but let’s make a special effort to get as many BODs out on the water for that race as possible.

Don’t forget that this Sunday 31 August we have the BSC Round The Islands Race for the Henley Trophy starting at 15.00.  This is always a fun race and the forecast for the weekend is looking pretty reasonable too so we hope to see as many of you on the water as possible.

The following Sunday, 7 September, we have the second BOD Mini Series of the year, starting from a committee boat at 11.00.  Further information about this will be published next week, but again we hope to see lots of you out there for this always popular three race mini series.