Brightlingsea One Design

The Final Fling certainly gave everyone something to think about.  Twelve boats came to the line on a gloriously sunny Sunday morning and made a delightful sight starting off Bateman’s Tower in a very light and fickly northerly(ish) breeze.

There was just enough wind to enable the boats to beat up to Number 15 against the tide before they turned downtide to Point Clear and then across to Inner Fishery and finally back up tide to the line. Sadly the light northerly was soon fighting with the sea breeze which was attempting to come in from the south west and the result was a big old hole in the breeze.

The majority of the boats got round number 12 just before it shut down completely, but sadly Ruff didn’t quite make it and found themselves struggling to fight back against the ebbing tide while the rest of the fleet set off down tide with pace and very little directional control. Those with a knack for spotting the slightest spot of wind gained, whilst the less experienced or observant lost.

The leading group eventually battled their way back up to the East Mersea shore and spent a good half hour tacking back and forth attempting to get round the corner and head for the line.

Meanwhile White Spirit and Gelasma had already given up all hope and headed for the bar for a pre-prandial livener before the Final Fling lunch.

Back out on the water Colin Willett in Bidi finally managed to find a zephyr of breeze to pull him up to Batemans and win the Final Fling with Danny Fox in Egret second and Malcolm Goodwin in Jean following him in for third. Back down tide Phil Rust in Dulcet, Jeremy Newman in Avocet and Alan Hicks in Storm Petrel were still struggling to get around Mersea Stone and decided to call it a day and join the others at the bar.

This left Celia Charlton in Sarah Louise and James Anderson in Wind Sprite duelling it out around Mersea Stone and Fi Brown in Grethe miles back barely stemming the tide off Inner Fishery.

Fi and her crew had decide to give up too when suddenly the sea breeze put in an appearance and they were once again underway and closing the finish and the other two boats.  The breeze held just long enough to bring them right up to about 50 yards off the line and directly abreast of Wind Sprite and Sarah Louise, before shutting down once again leaving all three boats stemming the tide just before the line.  Eventually the northerly filled back in a tiny bit to allow Sarah Louise to finish fourth with Grethe fifth and Wind Sprite sixth.

Back ashore the Colne Yacht Club had managed to delay lunch to allow the sailors to get their boats ashore but before long more than 50 people were enjoying a Sunday roast and the chance to look back on a fantastic season of BOD sailing.  Class Chairman Bob Richardson took the opportunity to pay special tribute to Nick and Pam Readings and Marilyn Hempstead and their various supporting crews who have given up so much of their time to act as our race officers this year.  Without their fantastic support our CYC racing would not be possible and the entire class is extremely grateful to them.

Final Fling Results

1.  C9 Bidi – Colin Willett
2. C8 Egret – Danny Fox
3. C1 Jean – Malcolm Goodwin
4. C30 Sarah Louise – Celia Charlton
5. C54 Grethe – Fiona Brown
6.C55 Wind Sprite – James Anderson
Rtd – C20 Ruff, C53 White Spirit, C54 Storm Petrel, C32 Avocet, C14 Dulcet, C14 Gelasma

It’s time to book your tickets for the amazing BOD Mexican Fiesta Night being hosted by the Colne Yacht Club on Saturday 22 November.  Tickets are going to be in big demand for this event, but are on exclusive sale to BOD sailors via Mark Wilby until this Sunday 5 October.  To secure your tickets call Mark on 07803336960 or see him in person at the Final Fling lunch this Sunday!

Great news everyone – we will be at least 10 boats on the water on Sunday for the BOD Final Fling (start 10.30 at Bateman’s Tower) and the weather forecast is looking OK too.  Sadly the very hot weather will not last that long, but it should still be dry and bright with a SW breeze in the mid teens and temperatures in the mid to high teens.

The official deadline for booking lunch tickets with the yacht club was today but if you didn’t already book and want to join us for the carvery lunch at 1.3opm you can probably still get a ticket if you call first thing tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Call Sue on 01206 302594 or book at the bar.

Its been a great season so we look forward to racing against as many of you as possible and to seeing everyone (whether you have raced or not) in the bar and for lunch afterwards!

Conditions for the R Stone Chalice on Sunday 28 September were wonderfully warm and sunny with a light and often shifty easterly wind, making for challenging racing and plenty of place changes.  Eight teams came to the line at Bateman’s Tower where our trusty team of Pam and Nick Readings and Marilyn Hempstead got racing underway from the RIB.

With a strong flood tide running and a first mark of Hills, the choice had to be made between starting near the committee boat and fetching straight to the Mersea shore or starting near Bateman’s and holding up on the Brightlingsea shore before crossing the tide.  It was a close call, but Jeremy Newman’s C32 Avocet took the Mersea side to establish an early lead by the first mark.

As the boats came hard onto the wind for a beat across to Beach Avocet began to eek out her lead, whilst Danny Fox and the boys in C8 Egret established themselves in second place.  Behind them the rest of the fleet jostled for positions.  Mark White in C53 White Spirit and Phil Rust in C16 Dulcet didn’t get a great starts and then struggled a bit on the first leg, but both found some form as they came onto the wind and began to pass boats.  Alan Hick’s C54 Storm Petrel and Fi Brown’s C51 Grethe initially looked pretty good, but were amongst the boats who struggled to get into phase with the tricky conditions.

Mike Hempstead sailing C18 Gelasma had stuck with the Brightlingsea shore off the start and it paid off nicely for him.  But his first beat saw him drop back down the fleet, before recovering a little on the second.

As the leaders stretched away, the rest of the pack continued to vie for positions.  By the start of the second lap Avocet’s lead looked unassailable, but Egret sailed a superb second short lap making up a lot of ground.  Egret must have been hoping for a third lap to give them time to pass Avocet, but it was not to be and on the line Avocet took victory a minute and sixteen seconds from Egret.

Behind them White Spirit had been working super hard and pulled up into third place to lead Dulcet and then Storm Petrel across the line.  Gelasma and Grethe had a lovely fight for sixth place with Gelasma just managing to hold off the girls on the line and Trevor Stone and C20 Ruff team following them in to completed the rankings.

Post racing the entire fleet retired to the CYC Balcony for a well deserved refreshment and to look back on a wonderful afternoon of BOD racing.

With the Final Fling coming up next Sunday 5 October (start from Bateman’s at 10.30) and the forecast looking promising for a lovely final fleet sail of the season we hope to see as many BODs as possible on the water and joining us for a carvery lunch at CYC at 13.30.  Don’t forget to book in for the lunch at the CYC by calling 01206 302594 by Wednesday 1 October latest – tickets £14.50 each for main course, pudding and tea/coffee – all BOD friends and family welcome.

Final Results

C32 – Avocet – Jeremy Newman – 15:22:45
C8 – Egret – Danny Fox – 15:24:01
C53 – White Spirit – Mark White – 15:26:15
C16 – Dulcet – Phil Rust – 15:27:05
C54 – Storm Petrel – Alan Hicks – 15:28:24
C18 – Gelasma – Mike Hempstead – 15:30:07
C51 – Grethe – Fiona Brown – 15:30:22
C20 – Ruff – Trevor Stone – 15:32:50

During this summer some of you will have met Richard Austin who has been guest crewing on various boats to gain experience of BOD sailing.  The reason Richard has been such a willing volunteer crew is that he became the proud owner of C44 Janice earlier this year and wanted to learn all about the BODs in preparation for her restoration and sailing her next season.

BOD restorer Rob Maloney has had a busy year helping Malcolm with Cormorant and also doing some jobs on C75 The Mike, as well as restoration work on several of the Wivenhoe One Design Fleet.  But a couple of weeks ago he brought Janice into the workshop ready for her restoration and work is already proceeding at great pace.

Rob sends us this report:
Restoration is well under way on Janice C44. I started her at the end of August, the whole boat has been stripped out and is now back to bare wood, uncovering all sorts of nasty surprises!  It turns out she had a lot of new planks fitted at some point, mostly mid-ships. The remaining original planks are in need of attention and are being dealt with at the moment. I have had the stem out and also fitted a new transom. We have left some of the ribs in as they are perfectly ok.  I am going to make a start on the centreplate case next week and hope to get the new ribs and floors in followed by the case by the end of october.

And here are some photos showing progress to date:

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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