Brightlingsea One Design

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.

Is anyone up for joining Fi Brown and the Grethe girls on an awfully big adventure to the South Coast for the Bosham Classic Dinghy Regatta which takes place on Chichester Harbour over the weekend of 6/7 September 2014?

The regatta is a great fun mix of racing, boat bimbling and comparing and general fun and games with lots of fantastic classic dinghies involved.  As you can see from the photos with this article there are a number of classic day boats already taking part (we have Chichester Harbour 18 footers, National 18s and a Sharpie in the pic) so it would be a great opportunity to showcase the BOD to a new audience.

Logistically we are developing a plan to shuttle boats down on the available road trailers.  Fi has confirmed she will take her boat down early and then her trailer can be used to shuttle one or two further boats.  The regatta venue is about 15 mins from Fi’s house on the south coast so she can help with organising accommodation, logistics, etc.

If you are interested in taking part please drop Fi a note at fiona.brown@fionabrown.com.

Further information about the event will be posted soon at www.boshamsailingclub.com and if you do Facebook check out the Bosham Sailing Club and Classic Dinghy Racing  which will carry info as well.  There is a local accommodation list here.

A quick catch up with one Mr R White, boat builder of our parish, at the weekend confirmed the brilliant news that there will be two new fibreglass boats built this winter!!!

No formal details yet but we do know that C55 is following hard on the heel’s of Alan Hicks’ new boat.  Rob tells me that they are just waiting for the moulds to come back to them (currently Alan’s boat is still in the mould while they finish fitting bulkheads/tanks, etc) and then they will be starting the next boat right away.

Stand by for more details as soon as we have them.  Go the BOD fleet and here’s to 25 boats at Pyefleet Week 2014!

There are some very big winds forecast for the second half of the weekend (see scary pressure chart at left) so don’t forget to check your covers/tie down straps/mooring lines to be on the safe side.  Hopefully the worst of it will go south of us but better to be safe than sorry.

The Rule Change Proposals to be discussed at the BODOA AGM on Sunday 8 December have now been added to the Agenda.

We’ve also created a new section to the website for the Owner’s Association where we will keep copies of the AGM minutes.

Here is the first update from Alan Hicks on the start of construction of his beautiful new boat C54.  As you will see from the photos below Rob White’s team have finished the laminating of the hull and the boat has been moved to Simon at Thorpe for the templating for the side and forward buoyancy tanks.  Alan tells us that Malcolm kindly brought over the templates he made while fitting out White Spirit and there was much discussion about the best way to fit them with Rob making some very helpful contributions to the discussions.

The centreplate is currently being forged at East Coast Castings and should be completed in the next week or so. Much time has been spent by Alan thinking over fittings, etc, using copies of plans to make life easier later.  The big things to finalise and order over the next two weeks are mast, spars and sails.

Clearly progress is very quick with the construction so everything looks good for a launch in spring 2014.  We’ll bring you more updates soon and thanks to Alan for sharing the photos below and for keeping us update on progress.

The mould being prepared (the waterline is showing as the pink line)

The gelcoat goes on (we love the pale green colour!)

The glass layers going on

The boat goes to Simon who is making the patterns for the side and rear buoyancy tanks.