Brightlingsea One Design

The boys and girls of the Wivenhoe One Design Fleet have invited the Brightlingsea One Design sailors to join them for an evening of traditional tapas and live guitar music on Saturday 14 March from 7pm at Wivenhoe Sailing Club.

Tapas dishes to be served will include a cured meat and cheese selection, pardon peppers, gordal olives, gorilla, paella and “choripan” (traditional chorizo bread).  Vegetarian options will be available.

Tickets cost £15 per adult and £7.50 for children (wine not included).  To reserve your tickets please contact janine.ford@gmail.com by Sunday 9 March.

The BOD Fleet is invited to join legendary sailmaker and multi-class dinghy champion Mike McNamara for a presentation on sail trim and racing tactics at the Walton and Frinton Yacht Club on Friday 27 March. The talk is scheduled to start at 8pm and tickets will cost £5 per head.  The club restaurant will be open and Simon Hipkin would be delighted to welcome any BOD sailors who wish to go over early and eat first to make a night of it. If you haven’t had the pleasure of listening to Mike speak before we can assure you that he is both an excellent speaker and very funny, so it will definitely be an informative and most entertaining evening. With the start of the sailing season just around the corner and competition in the BOD Fleet hotter than ever this could be the perfect opportunity to learn a few new tricks! To reserve your tickets and book for supper please contact Simon Hipkin on Email simonhipkinboats@gmail.com  or Tel 07415 280213.

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who turned up to help turn C44 Janice over on Saturday morning.  It was great to see so many BOD friends for a good mid-winter catch up and to see all the work that Rob Maloney is doing on this restoration.  Owner Richard Austin anticipates that she will be back on the water during May.

Sue and Adrian Bouckely, who came to help with turning Janice, were able to confirm that work is also full steam ahead at Simon Hipkin‘s shed on the completion of C50 Eider.  Our photos below show some of the lovely work Simon is doing to complete this boat, originally started by John Mullins who also build Sarah Louise, Blue Peter and Grethe.

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We hear from Mark Wilby and Phil Holding that they are continuing to make great progress with C75 The Mike’s refit with deck fittings being figured out and fitted and the rig prepared.

Finally our spies tell us that Graham and Claire Bridle are have their newly purchased C31 Blue Peter upside down in the shed with work being done to sort out a leaky centre plate box and improve the bottom finish ready for the season.  We also understand they are looking at systems to help Claire, whose mobility is limited, maximise her sailing potential in the boat and we hope to bring you details of these soon.

Calling all BOD friends and family!  On Saturday 21st February at 11am please can as many volunteers as possible congregate at Rob Maloney and Malcolm Goodwin’s workshop in St John’s Road, Wivenhoe, to help turn C44 Janice over.  Rob is making fantastic progress with the restoration of Janice and now needs to turn her upside down to work on the bottom and extra manpower is needed. There will be tea and coffee and Fi has promised to bring cakes to fortify and reward the volunteers, so it will also be a good opportunity for a BOD catch up and to start thinking about the season ahead now the days are finally getting longer! Please email Rob Maloney on robmaloney9@aol.com to let him know if you can make it so he can be sure he has enough people available.

The minutes of the BODOA AGM held on 25 January 2015 are now available to read online.  Click here to view.

The days are finally getting longer and our thoughts are starting to turn to the coming sailing and social seasons.  We’ve already published the sailing programme so now it’s time to mark your diaries for this year’s key BOD social events.

First up is the BOD Dinner, which will take place at the Colne Yacht Club on Saturday 25th April.  This event truly kicks off the BOD sailing season and last year’s dinner at BSC was a resounding success with a great turnout. Mark Wilby and the CYC team are determined to present an equally fantastic evening this year and are busy agreeing menus and entertainment as I type (rumours abound that one Eddie Howson, BOD crew of this parish, may reveal a skill none of us could have possibly imagined).  Full details of the event and how to book tickets will follow shortly, but please mark this date in your diary and start thinking about who to invite to join your table and what to wear now.

In the spring/early summer we will have launching events for both Adrian and Sue Bouckley’s C50 Eider and Mark Wilby and Phil Holding’s C75 The Mike (dates for these will be confirmed in due course).

By popular demand Mark and Marianne White’s BOD Summer BBQ makes a welcome return and the date of this will also be confirmed shortly.

The Pyefleet Week BOD German Night will this year take place on Monday 3rd August. Dirndls and Lederhosen will be the order of the day and don’t forget to bring your best drinking boots and singing voices (yes Katie Holland this means you).

The ever popular Final Fling Lunch will follow the Final Fling Race on Sunday 11th October at the Colne Yacht Club.

And last but by no means least, we will end the season with a spectacular BOD Halloween/Curry Party at the Colne Yacht Club on Saturday 31st October.  Can Charlie Lightly out do his Mexican night Tequila Bottle outfit? Will Celia Charlton be able to retain her disco queen crown? Will Kate Button prove to be as good at the Bollywood hip wiggle as she was at the Samba? Can we rely on Chris Matthews, Mark Wilby and Mark White to put on their usual impromptu floor show? OK – that last one is just a silly question as we know perfectly well they will whether we like it or not ;-), but put 31st October in your diary now and be there to find out the answers to the others!

Following the AGM on Sunday we are delighted to publish the 2015 BOD Sailing Programme. The fleet has some serious momentum at the moment and we are looking forward to another amazing season so hope to see everyone out on the water as early as possible in the season.

This year we are welcoming/rewelcoming at least four boats to the active fleet in the shape of Sue and Adrian Bouckly sailing their brand new boat C50 Eider, Richard Austin sailing C44 Janice, which is just nearing completion of a full restoration by Rob Maloney, Phil Holding and Mark Wilby sailing C75 The Mike, which is in the final stages of a major refit, and Graham and Claire Bridle in their newly purchased C31 Blue Peter, which we understand is also undergoing a little bit of titivation.

These four boats will join the 22 we had racing in Pyefleet Week last year so we have a very real expectation of hitting 25 boats for this year’s big event.  We’re also looking forward to regular weekend and Thursday night racing with fleets in the mid to upper teens.

We can’t wait for it all to begin to Click Here to view the programme and get your diaries updated!

Graham and Claire Bridle loved their time racing Endeavour (on loan from Nick and Pam Readings) last summer so much that they couldn’t resist the lure of the BOD fleet and have become the proud owners of C31 Blue Peter. Graham is one of Brightlingsea’s top racing sailors and is more often to be found careening around on foils, winning Cherub championships and racing his 18 Foot Skiff.

Although the BOD couldn’t be more different to his other boats, Graham loves the close and very tough competition in the BODs and the fact that he and Claire can race the boat with their sons Will and Eddie too.  Claire suffers from MS which severely affects her strength and mobility, making dingy sailing extremely difficult for her, but the BODs room and stability mean that she can not only sail, but can take an active role in racing again.

We are thrilled to welcome Team Bridle to the BOD Fleet and very much look forward to racing against them this summer.

At the same time we are very sad to say au revoir to Blue Peter’s previous owners Adrian and Judith Gibbons, for whom a combination of cruiser ownership and working away from Essex takes BOD sailing off the agenda for the next couple of seasons.  There is good news however, as they expect to be back in Essex full time in a few years and very much hope to rejoin the fleet then, possibly with a brand new boat. Come back soon guys – we will miss you!

If you have found yourself down at the boating lake at the same time as our local model boat club recently you just might have come across this little beauty!  She’s a wonderfully detailed and accurate scale model of a BOD which is sailed regularly on the boating lake by her owner.  John Bines kindly drew her to our attention and brought her to the club to allow us to grab these photos.

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