Brightlingsea One Design

Rowhedge Regatta is fast approaching on Saturday 14 June and the organisers have now sent us the Sailing Instructions which include details of both the traditional upriver race and the new downriver race which will be sailed for the Ian Brown Trophy.

As you can see from the Instructions the start time for the downriver race will be announced over the PA in Rowhedge so listen out for that when you are there.  If the wind holds up the plan is to finish on the BSC line, but if it is dying there is the option to finish at Bateman’s instead so look out for a shorten flag and sound signals as you come to the Bateman’s line.  If we are using this line the full width of the river will form the line.

The new downriver Ian Brown Trophy is currently in production and is to be a lovely specially commissioned watercolour painting of the BODs preparing to start from Rowhedge painted by local artist Paula Webb.  Below is the initial sketch of the painting so you can see what you will be racing for!

Would all BOD sailors please note that the start time for the Andy Silk Salver, starting from the Bateman’s Tower Line under the CYC on Sunday 8 June 2014, will be 13.45 (not 14.30 as published in the sailing programme).

This change was agreed by an informal meeting of the currently active BOD fleet held on Sunday 1 June at the CYC and is an experiment to see how the fleet find using this earlier start time.  A proposal has been put forward by several members to bring all CYC start times forward to 13.45 so the outcome of this weekend’s experiment will be evaluated and a possible permanent change will be considered.  More information will be published on this in due course.

Please save the date in your diaries for “It Will Be All White On The Night” on Saturday 12 July.  Mark and Marianne White have invited the entire BOD Fleet to join them for an informal summer gathering at their home that evening and further details will be published soon!

Last year’s inaugural BSC Anniversary Summer Ball was such a raging success that the event is back again for 2014 in the guise of a Midsummer’s Ball on Saturday 21 June.

Tickets are now available and with a great evening of Pimms on arrival, pre dinner entertainment by Soloist Taffy Archer, a delicious three course meal and post dinner dancing to live band Ready, Steady Go! its going to be the perfect opportunity for some midsummer madness.  The pre-dinner reception opens at 6.30pm and dinner will be served shortly after 7.00pm.  Dress is lounge suits/blazers for the boys and fabulous frocks for the girls!

Tables are available for groups of 8, 10 and 12 and Fi Brown is coordinating BOD tables for those booking individual tickets.

Tickets cost £30 per head and can be booked online by Clicking Here or by printing out the paper reservation form which you will find by Clicking Here (if you complete a paper form and return it to the club please ensure you clearly mark it for the BOD group to assist the organisers in seating your party).  Payments should be made by cheque (payable to Brightlingsea Sailing Club) or cash and details of who to pay can be found on each form.

What a great weekend of BOD racing!  Two days of glorious sunshine and warm breezes plus the backdrop of the newly reinvigorated Brightlingsea Town Regatta made for a perfect BOD sailing opportunity.

Three Creeks Crawl

On Saturday it was the turn of Brightlingsea Sailing Club to host the racing and the BODs took part in the annual Three Creeks Crawl all in handicap, sailing from the BSC start line, out and into Ray Creek (behind Second Beach) and then back past Brightlingsea and up both Flag and St Osyth Creeks (competitors choose which to round first).  With five BODs on the line is was a spectacularly close start and the boats were neck and neck all the way round the turning mark in Ray Creek and back into Brightlingsea Creek.  As they sailed past Brightlingsea Hard Chris Matthews, temporarily sailing C43 Endeavour on loan from Nick Readings while he waits for the new rig for C27 Rebel to arrive, had slipped into the lead with Dan Willett in C9 Bidi second, Alan Hicks in C54 Storm Petrel third, Mark White in C53 White Spirit fourth and Fi Brown in C51 Grethe fifth.  At the break point where the crews had to decide whether to tackle Flag or St Osyth Creek first Endeavour and Bidi went left up Flag and the other three headed right for St Osyth.

As the fleet came together again in the Cindery channel it was clear that those who went for St Osyth had done better with Storm Petrel and White Spirit ahead as they swopped channels.  But it was close stuff as as the boats came together foar the final run down to the club line.  Alan Hicks showed the youngsters in Endeavour that there are times when experience really counts and romped home to victory by 3 minutes.  Endeavour, Bidi and White Spirit crossed the line in that order with just 22 seconds between them as the girls in Grethe trailed in behind them for fifth place.  The five BODs also filled the first five places on handicap too so a good day’s work all round.

Three Creeks Crawl Full Results

Hickley Tiller

Sunday’s Hickley Tiller from the CYC’s Batemans Tower line saw the fleet back on a more conventional round the cans course with Nick Readings and Marilyn Hempstead officiating as Race Officers.  With nine boats out the line was quite busy and for White Spirit at least not quite long enough as they found themselves making as one with the sea wall in front of the Tower just as the gun went. Fortunately they extricated themselves pretty smartly and were soon off after the pack.

Blue Peter

Adrian and Judith Gibbons’ C31 Blue Peter was called OCS but failed to realise their error and did not return.  Grethe made the best start and a couple of tacks later was heading the fleet and making the most of the clear air to slowly gain distance.

Off the line Storm Petrel was a long way off her usually blistering pace.  Alan had been complaining about difficulty steering the boat before the start and they had looked at the rudder but couldn’t identify the problem.  Matters weren’t helped when bowman Craig Bond thumped his kneed very badly in a tack just after the start putting him out of action for a few minutes.  Alan initially suggested they pull out and go home, but having recovered a little Craig said he’d go take another look at the rudder.  This time the rudder had swung up a little and lo and behold Craig discovered that Alan had forgotten to remove the protective sleeve they put on the rudder ashore and they had been sailing around with what is effectively a sleeping bag on their foil.  Sadly for them the entire Newman family were out spectating in Dug and perfectly placed to observe this highly entertaining discovery ensuring that no cover up was possible! Having removed the offending cover the boat miraculously regained her performance and set off after the fleet.

Egret

As they came round the first mark the Grethe girls had opened up a nice lead and looked well set up for the run.  Unfortunately the unexpected sight of the entire fleet behind them left Fi so over excited that she managed to trip herself up on her own toe straps and badly sprain her ankle.  It took a few minutes before her crew managed to pick her up off the cockpit floor and sort themselves out which allowed  Danny Fox in C8 Egret and Endeavour to sail around them.  Having decided the ankle wasn’t broken the girls hoisted their kite and managed to hold third place on the next two legs to Batemans.  But as they came onto the second lap Mike Hempstead’s C18 Gelesma slid through them to leeward and then their problems in getting Fi across the boat on one leg caused them to forget the need to go back through the gate and so they decided it was time to head in and get Miss Hop-Along some ice for her ankle.

L-R Ed Gibbons, David Conlon and helm Chris Matthews with the Hickley Tiller

That left Egret, Endeavour and Gelasma in a final dog fight for the trophy.  Egret was looking good as they came around Batemans and set off on the second lap.  They would have looked even better if they had rounded the mark to port, as called for by the course card, and not to starboard. Having been advised of their mistake later in the race the boys tried to exonerate themselves by doing a penalty turn, but this was not adequate and so they had to retire post racing.

Meanwhile White Spirit had be quietly creeping up on the leaders after a somewhat lack lustre start.  They had played the tidal advantages to the hilt and on the second lap showed both smart tack ticks and blistering speed to sniggle their way through the pack.

Ultimately the Hickley Tiller went to Chris Matthews, Ed Gibbon and David Conlon sailing Endeavour with Mark White, Dick Stephens and Mark Wilby second in White Spirit and Mike Hempstead and Ed Howson sailing Gelesma third.

Fi icing her ankle and enjoying a purely medicinal post Hickley Tiller refreshment on the Colne Yacht Club balcony.

After racing the teams gathered for a well deserved post race refreshment on the Yacht Club’s sun drenched balcony and the prizes, including the historic Hickley Tiller were presented by Colne Yacht Club Commodore Graham Chasney.

Overall the Regatta Weekend was declared a resounding success by all!

Hickley Tiller Full Results

1. Endeavour – Chris Matthews
2. White Spirit – Mark White
3. Gelasma – Mike Hempstead
4. Storm Petrel – Allan Hicks
5. Jumbo II – Tom Sargeant
6. Ruff – Trevor Stone
7. Grethe – Fi Brown – Rtd
8. Egret – Danny Fox – Rtd
9. Blue Peter – Adrian and Judith Gibbons – OCS

Don’t forget we have Brightlingsea Regatta this weekend.  Key points for BODs are:

Saturday 31 June

All day – lots of stalls, fun and games around the hard and Harbour Square at the marina plus a full programme of events at both Brightlingsea Sailing Club and Colne Yacht Club plus the Volvo Sailing Academy at BSC.

14.00 – Three Creeks Crawl starting from the BSC line.  Its a fantastic fun all in handicap race – more details and info on the course from BSC.

Evening – Colne Yacht Club regatta party with BBQ and dancing to Johnny and His Mates live band.  Tickets available from the CYC bar (or call 01206 302594)

Sunday 1 June

All day – lots of stalls, fun and games around the hard and Harbour Square at the marina plus a full programme of events at both Brightlingsea Sailing Club and Colne Yacht Club.

14.30 – Hickley Tiller starting from Batemans.

The forecast is looking really good with light to moderate breezes, sunshine and warm temperatures and will the public out in big numbers it will be the perfect BOD shop window opportunity as well as a whole lot of fun!  See you all there!

From Class Secretary Jeremy Newman – All available BOD owners and sailors are invited to an informal fleet meeting at the Colne Yacht Club immediately after racing on Sunday 1 June.  There are two items on the Agenda:

1.  The proposed start time change to CYC races put forward by Alan Hicks.  The proposal is to the change the current 14.30 start time to 13.45 for CYC racing.

2. Logistics for the BODs taking part in the Bosham Classic Dinghy Regatta on the 6 and 7 September.  Currently Bob Richardson, Mark White, Fiona Brown, Alan Hicks and Chris Matthews have confirmed their intention to race in this event and any other teams who are interested are also welcome to join in the discussion.

We don’t anticipate the meeting taking very long but we would be most grateful if as many of you as possible can pop into the CYC for the discussions.

David Chivers recently found these wonderful archive photos of BODs racing at Burnham, taken by Trevor Davies.  Does anyone have any idea which year these were taken and can you help identify the boats in the photos? Comment below if you can provide any more info!

This coming weekend its Brightlingsea Town Regatta and the town is really pulling out all the stops for the 2014 edition.  Ashore the regatta is taking over the Waterside Marina’s Harbour Court area which will be filled with lots of interesting stands offering everything from sailing gear and donuts to artwork and handcrafts, and as usual both the CYC and BSC will be fully involved.  Click here for the CYC programme and Click here for the BSC programme.

For the BODs there are races both days.

On Saturday 31 May we have the BSC’s Three Creeks Crawl which will take the massed handicap fleet on a tour of Ray Creek (behind Second Beach) Flag Creek (northern branch of Brightlingsea Creek) and St Osyth Creek (southern branch of Brightlingsea Creek), starting at 14.00 on the BSC line.  With members of the public thronging the Parade, Marina and Hard its going to be a fantastic shop window event so we hope to see as many boats as possible out.

On Sunday 1 June its the CYC’s turn to run the racing for the Hickley Tiller, which starts from Bateman’s at 14.30.  Again the public will be out in force at Bateman’s and along the prom so we have another perfect opportunity to grab people’s attention.

As well as the racing there are lots of fun shore side activities too and if you haven’t already booked your tickets for Saturday evening’s 2 course BBQ and dancing to Johnny and His Mates at the CYC now is the time to do so – tickets are just £17.95 each – book through the CYC office on 01206 302594 or bar!

With the forecast currently promising sunshine, warm spring temperatures and a great breeze in the mid teens we should be in for two fantastic days of sailing and partying.  See you there!

The entry for Pyefleet Week just keeps on growing and with Danny Fox and the Egret crew (aka The Mersea Boys) and the leg-end that is Mr Robert White sailing Sarah Louise, on loan from Jack Wills, now throwing throwing their hats into the ring too, we have 22 boats that we expect will race the whole of Pyefleet Week!  This is a record people…!!!

In addition we have several other teams interested in borrowing boats for the week and we’re hoping to tempt one or two more of our less active owners out onto the water too so 25 boats remains the goal for the President’s Race on Sunday 10 August and possibly even for the whole of Pyefleet Week.

We have already had some enquiries from people keen to sail in a BOD for Pyefleet Week so if you need crew please contact Fi on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com and she can help make the contacts.

Here is the updated list of the 22 boats confirmed so far:

C55 – James Anderson
C54 – Storm Petrel – Alan Hicks
C53 – White Spirit – Mark White
C51 – Grethe – Fi Brown
C32 – Avocet – Jeremy Newman
C31 – Blue Peter – David & Celia Charlton (on loan from Adrian & Judith)
C30 – Sarah Louise – Rob White (on loan from Jack Wills)
C29 – Panic – Bob Richardson + Alistair Burt
C27 – Rebel – Chris Matthews
C26 – Krystina – Richard and Mary White
C25 – White Magic – Brian Walker
C20 – Ruff – Mike Rees/Trevor Stone/Jim Bray
C18 – Gelasma – Mike Hempstead
C16 – Dulcet – Phil Rust
C14 – Aina – Steve Heppell
C11 – Grayling – John Payne
C9 – Bidi – Colin and Dan Willett
C8 – Egret – Danny Fox
C6 – Jumbo Too – Tom Sergeant
C4 – Cormorant – Malcolm Goodwin
C1 – Jean – Barry Newman (on loan from Malcolm)
C?? – Dan King (boat TBC on loan from Nick Readings)