Brightlingsea One Design

Even if you can’t do the whole of Pyefleet Week please would all BOD sailors answer our clarion call to race in the President’s Trophy on Sunday 10 August.  As always, we want this to be our biggest turnout of the year and with luck we will make it to 25 boats – possibly the biggest number of BODs ever to race together in the history of the class!

The start will be from the committee boat (located somewhere in the Colne between Bateman’s, Point Clear and Mersea Stone) at 14.36.  Please double check the exact time at the BSC Race Office just in case they have added any extra classes into the sequence ahead of us, but currently we will be the third start after the Cat Handicap and the Fireballs.

If anyone needs help getting their boats afloat, finding crew or generally getting sorted for the race please let Fi know on 07711 718470 or fiona.brown@fionabrown.com and she will fix you up with the help you need.

And don’t forget that there is a good warm up opportunity on Saturday 9 August with the Carole Cruickshank Pursuit Race starting at 14.00 which many of the BODs will be racing in too.

SORRY FOLKS – THIS BOAT IS NOW SOLD Jack Wills has been in contact with us to ask us to list C30 Sarah Louise on our For Sale Page.  Sadly Jack has not been able to sail her for the past couple of years due to work commitments and so he is putting her on the market.

The boat was fully restored by Malcom Goodwin in 2007 and comes with two suits of sails, one little used, plus all the usual kit and caboodle.

Some small repairs are needed to the centre plate and casing, but Malcom advises that these are very straight forward and he would be happy to talk any prospective owners through what needs doing (call Malcom on 01206 823223).

The boat is stored locally so if you are thinking of buying a BOD and want to make a last minute entry for Pyefleet Week here is your big chance to secure a very nice boat.

Click here for the full details.

Next weekend (Sat 2 August) is Wivenhoe Regatta and the NOR and Entry Form for the event are now online Here.

The start time is 1330 at Bateman’s Tower and they will be operating on VHF Channel 77.

It will be an old fashioned 10, 5, go start sequence and they have a choice of 6 courses given on the notice of race.  Finish will be at the Old WSC Start Hut in the middle of the village.

Please make sure you enter in advance using the form at the bottom or by contacting Phil Thompson on 077602 83960 or email phil.thompson@thls.org as this will get you a free beer for all your crew.  When putting in your entry don’t forget to mention any interesting facts about your boat and crew (boat recently refitted, brand new boat launched this year, first BOD ever built, in the same family ownership for 9 million years, etc) so the commentator can use them as we arrive.

They have offered us a start back down river so if enough of us want to do this we can get it arranged.  Please email Fi on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com and let her know if you would like to race home too.

NOR and Entry Form

We just heard from Dan King this morning that he and his sons have got Nan rigged and been out sailing in her and are well on their way to being ready to race in Pyefleet Week!

Welcome to the fleet team King/Nan – we look forward to racing against you very soon!

Yippee – Only two weeks to go folks and Pyefleet Week will finally be here!  We have two special BOD social events for you during the week so please make sure you have the following in your diaries and don’t miss out on the fun.

To get the week off to a good start we have a BOD Fleet First Friday Sundowners on Friday 8 August from 7.00pm at Fi Brown’s Flat at 13 The Colne, Waterside Marina (ground floor overlooking the Sailing Club).  All BOD sailors, family and friends are welcome for sundowners to start the week as we mean to go on!

But most importantly of all we have the BOD Bavarian Extravaganza at the Club on Monday 11 August from 6.30pm.  This is the Fleet’s Big Night and Mark Wilby and Marianne White have done a great job of pulling together a German Oompah band, plus German food and beer.  To get everyone in the mood the entire fleet is asked to come in fancy dress – see our pictures to help you find the right look when rummaging in your dressing up boxes.  To finish everyone’s outfit perfectly you can buy your first beer and a German Hat for just £5, so even if you are struggling to find your lederhosen or dirndl you can still look the part!

The BODs are continuing to put in a great showing in the Thursday night series and as we get closer to Pyefleet Week more boats are joining these great evening races every week.

With 12 races now completed Alan Hicks and Storm Petrel is leading the series overall by 12 points from Pete Kyne in his fireball who is just one point ahead of Chris Matthews and Endeavour/Rebel in third place overall.

Also in the overall top ten are Mark White and White Spirit in sixth and John Payne and Grayling in seventh.

Check out the full results here.

Photo Courtesy of Colm O’Laoi – http://colmolaoi.wix.com/colmsphotos

It might have been Jeremy Newman’s first race of the season, and he might still be in recovery from a major knee op, but that didn’t seem to hamper him in any way in his assault on the BOD Mini Series on Sunday 20 July.

Under the watchful eye of Race Officer Barry Newman, 13 BOD teams came to the line for the three race mini series.  Race one saw the boats completing the first of three windward leeward races in a force three, but the wind dropped off to a force two for the second and third races.

This was a fantastic opportunity to tune up for Pyefleet Week and it’s clear that the competition is going to be cutthroat.  Although Jeremy and Avocet claimed victory in all races they had plenty of challengers and Chris Matthews in Rebel, Danny Fox in Egret, Dan Willet in Bidi and Malcolm Goodwin in the newly launched Cormorant were all more than on the pace.  Alan Hicks sailing Storm Petrel also had good speed and sailed well despite the fact that he was sailing one short and with a novice BOD crew.

After three races and with one discard allowed, Jeremy and Avocet claimed the top step of the podium with Rebel second, Egret third, Bidi fourth, Cormorant fifth, Storm Petrel sixth, Dulcet seventh, White Spirit eighth, Gelsama ninth, Blue Peter tenth, Jumbo Too eleventh, Ruff twelfth and Panic thirteenth.

Click here for the full results

What a fabulous evening for the BOD fleet!  Malcolm Goodwin’s newly restored C4 Cormorant and James Anderson’s brand new C55 Windsprite were both launched in front of a big crowed of family, friends, BOD sailors and the public at Brightlingsea Sailing Club on Saturday 19 July.

We’ll have a more detailed story for you shortly, but in the meantime, check out a little bit of video and some photos below and also take a look at the great images from Tim Bees over on our Facebook group.

Check out this first photo of C4 Cormorant in all her refitted glory (thanks to Geoff Gritton for the pic)! Malcolm Goodwin has spent well over 1000 hours refitting her and she is looking amazing. Her official launch party (in association with the launch of James Anderson’s C55) will take place at Brightlingsea Sailing Club at 18.30 on Saturday evening and all BOD sailors, friends and family are welcome.

Mike Hempstead reports from the BSC Summer Points racing on Sunday 13 July.  

The result on the water was a strange and for most a sad outcome for the BOD fleet in the difficult, no wind and strong ebb tide conditions,  All the fleet except Rough being over the line and only Gelasma going back to restart, being so far over.   At the time, in Gelasma, I was pretty fed up, however..things did improve….

In Gelasma we started the race almost 3 minutes behind the fleet, who were by then at the gate. However by not following the pack we sailed around the worst of the tide upwind and overtook Rough, Jumbo and Panic during the first lap.  We appeared to have good downwind speed and as the wind died under a huge black cloud, we closed up on the rest of the fleet in the creek and finished after one round in pouring rain with no wind at all.

For some reason the rest of the fleet rounded the turning mark and tried to do a second lap. All except White Spirit, who came over and suggested we might have actually won… so we quickly packed up the boat and went to the club where the OOD confirmed that we had won and Rough was second as the rest of the fleet were over the line. Wow!

Enjoying the moment on the beach at the club with my wonderful crew Anne and Eddie Howson we toasted the rest of the very wet fleet as they paraded back up the creek, being towed in by the RIB.   Funny sort of day….

Mike  BOD C18 Gelasma
looking forward to Pyefleet Week

FULL RESULTS