Brightlingsea One Design

Alongside Cormorant, on which we report below, Malcolm Goodwin and Rob Maloney have several more BODs in stock awaiting restoration.  Rob has just placed an advertisement for C44 Janice, built in 1955, which you can find out more about by clicking here.

Also ready and waiting to be rehomed and brought back to life is C23 Black Shadow.  Built in 1952 for John Glanfield she has been out of commission for some years.  Kate Button (daughter of John who now sails with Fi and Ginny in Grethe) well remembers sailing the boat as a youngster and kindly sent us the photo below.  It shows Black Shadow in the foreground along with C15 Merlin, C7 Mildred/Edwina and we think C5 Sybil/Tiller Girl/Oxbird – all with the original rig and bowsprits.  

We’ve been trying to decide where the photo was taken and our current thinking is that its at Burnham as we think that is the Pile House Line start box in the background and we know that the fleet went to several Burnham Weeks in the 1950s.  But if anyone else can shed more light on the photo’s background do e-mail Fi on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com with your info.

Over the Christmas break our roving reporter called into Rob Maloney’s yard in Wivenhoe where, under the watchful eye of Malcolm Goodwin, the restoration of C4 Cormorant is in full swing.  Rob reports that the majority of the planking was in excellent condition and only a few repairs and replacements were needed.  The boat has been pushed back into shape and new ribs fitted and the deck frames are now almost completed.  The next step is to put the deck back on and then it will be over to Malcolm for coatings and fittings.  Check out our photo gallery below to see how she is looking.

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The plan is to have Cormorant back in the water for next summer and up to speed in time for Pyefleet Week 2014.  Cormorant was something of a wonder boat in her day.  Launched around 1930 (exact date not known) and originally owned by Robbie Stone himself, Cormorant’s most successful years came in the ownership of Ralph Sutton who sailed her from 1934 until 1979 and whose name can be found on just about every one of the BOD Trophies, often on multiple occasions.

Barry Newman owned her after Ralph (also very successfully) and in a nice twist to the tale we understand that, while Malcolm will sail Cormorant in Pyefleet Week 2014, Barry will be taking Malcolm’s other boat C1 Jean for the week.  It will be interesting to see who gets the upper hand!

We’ll bring you more news of Cormorant in due course.

The Minutes of the 2013 AGM, held on Sunday 8 December at the Colne Yacht Club, are now available to view online by clicking here.  Our thanks to all members who were able to attend the meeting which was extremely productive.

The 2014 BOD Racing Programme is now available online so go check it out and get your diary marked up!

In particular please put the evening of Saturday May 10 in your diaries as this will be the BOD Dinner at Brightlingsea Sailing Club.  Full details will be published shortly but save the date right now as it promises to be a great evening.

We’re expecting good turnouts at all the events next year, but as always the highlight of the year will be Pyefleet Week which runs from 9 to 16 August with the President’s Trophy on Sunday 10 August.

After Pyefleet Week 2013, when we had 20 boats on the water for the President’s Trophy, Malcolm Goodwin joked that we’d have to aim for 25 boats in 2014.  At the time he thought he was being a bit ambitious, but with 2 new fibreglass boats due to launch in the spring, Grethe (the first glass boat) now back in Brightlingsea, plus several boats in restoration or being brought back into commission for racing in 2014, this is now a very achievable goal.  Let’s all work really hard to make it 25 boats for the President’s Trophy.  In turn that will mean we should see 20+ boats racing the whole of Pyefleet Week – bring it on!

Our roving reporter snuck into the White Formula shed yesterday and found that James Anderson’s C55 had just started construction.  As you can see from the pics below the white gelcoat for her bottom had been applied and the lovely stormy blue grey of the topsides was applied to port and soon to be added to starboard (the green colour is the colour of the mould).  So exciting to have two brand new boats in construction for the 2014 season!

We’d like to introduce you to two new officers appointed at the recent AGM:

Chairman Adrian Gibbons stood down having completed his full term of office and new Chairman Bob Richardson was elected.  Bob has owned C42 Sabrina and recently purchased C29 Panic in partnership with Alistair Burt.

The meeting also created the new post of Social Coordinator which will be filled by Mark Wilby who volunteered to help put together some fun informal social events during the 2014 season. Mark is co-owner of C75 Mike.

Other officers remain unchanged and you can find everyone’s contact details Here.

Following the AGM the new BOD Class Rules 2014, which will come into effect on 1st January 2014, have been published.  The key changes concern the loose footed main, electric bilge pumps and the overall boat weight so Click Here to read the new rules and check out the details.

Don’t forget that the BOD AGM is taking place on Sunday 7 December at 10am at the Colne Yacht Club.  All Class Members and BOD sailors are invited to attend.

There are a number of rule changes to discuss as well as other important issues to review so please take a moment to check out the Agenda before the meeting.  If you have any questions about the rule changes please contact David Chivers on david@sarvid.com for further information.

Outgoing Chairman Adrian Gibbons has kindly invited those attending the meeting to stay on for a buffet lunch at the club afterwards.  If you could like to attend please let Adrian on Adrian.Gibbons@swat.co.uk know so he can confirm catering numbers.

We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible!

Alan has kindly sent us some more photos showing progress on the construction of his new boat C54.  As you can see from the images below great progress is being made.  Alan confirms that the centreplate has been cast and arrived last week. Sails have been ordered from Parker & Kay One Sails. Mast and boom supplied by ZSpars are with Sailspar for fitting out. He picked up the horse and rudder blade today and the bronze fittings centreplate wheel, rudder pintles and gudgeon, etc, are ready for collection from John Saker.

The first gallery of pictures shows that the wooden buoyancy templates have been removed, the glass tanks have been made and are now being fitted.

Then the top part of the mould was taken off:

This gallery shows the boat coming out of the mould:

And finally she is put onto her cradle ready to go off to Simon Hipkin for the woodworking to get underway.

And now 54 is out of the mould Rob White confirms they will be full steam ahead to get 55 underway.

James Andreson, whose brand new boat C55 is now in construction, is new to the BOD fleet so we sent our roving reporter out to find out more about James, his sailing background and what has brought him to the class.

BOD – We are thrilled that you are joining the fleet James.  How did you make the decision to have a new BOD built?

James – I have been pondering getting back into sailing for some time and having a Brightlingsea base made the BOD an obvious choice.  On top of that I’ve got kids who are themselves very involved at BSC, Fin sailing a 49er and Maddy a Nacra 17.  My other daughter is now a medical student but because of all the pressures involved in getting into medical school, she stopped sailing at the Mirror stage although I’m hoping the BOD might get her involved again.  Fin has crewed for Chris Matthews in his BOD and really enjoyed himself so he and Maddy have been piling on the pressure to get me sailing again.  I stopped sailing regularly about ten years ago after breaking my arm rather badly and I subsequently took up cycling furiously.  I’ve really enjoyed doing that and this summer in anticipation of cycling over the Pyrenees, I got fitter than I’ve been since I left university, so I thought to myself ‘you’re not dead yet, why not get sailing again?

BOD – Tell us a bit about your sailing background

My sailing life started at Ely Sailing Club, where my Dad had a National 12 – an Uffa King No. 543 and subsequently a Proctor No. 1387.  Ely was (and still is) one of those inland gravel pit clubs beloved of National 12 sailors where the wind comes from everywhere and just as the boat starts planing you reach the next mark.  I started crewing in National 12’s  and Enterprises and then crewed for a school friend in a Cadet (We still sail together for a week every summer with Sunsail in the Mediterranean).  I probably had my greatest sailing success crewing in an Enterprise when I crewed for an elderly accountant from Cambridge.  He never spoke much, he wore BBC glasses and a black beret and he didn’t expect much from me except to be quiet and make up the numbers (i.e.he was obliged to have a crew although would probably have been happier without).  But he was a fantastic sailor and we won various events around those parts – Thrapston and Grafham I remember particularly.

I later got a Firefly which I sailed with my brother at Grafham (we were members the year it opened 1966 if I remember right) and at Brancaster in Norfolk.  I later sailed an International 14 with my brother but we were neither heavy enough or canny enough to compete very successfully.  And then as family and work intervened my sailing took a back seat.  I’ve done a bit of big boat sailing over the years including while working in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for a year in 1985-6.  But I’ve never felt big boats have the immediacy and excitement of dinghies.

BOD – Who will you be sailing the BOD with?

I’m hoping that my kids will provide me with crew, but I’ve got various old friends (including that same brother and Cadet sailing schoolfriend, who might step in if needed).  One of the things that has changed so dramatically since I started sailing, is the fantastic coaching opportunities that now exist both at a local and national level.  As a consequence my children are much better tacticians than I am, so I will just do what I’m told!

I’m looking forward to joining the expanding fleet.