Sailing Reports Winter 2011/12

Sunday 19th February Winter Series 2 Race 17

•Race Officers: John Parke and Jerome Nollet •Safety Boat Crew: Hannah Steagles and Tom Sherratt

A most wonderful sunny Sunday with gusty winds often above 20 knots and with 11 intrepid mariners having a go; all boats led by Simon Adler who was never seriously challenged. We set an exciting race circuit with John asking for the second buoy to be placed below the start line resulting in a nice run and the fleet going across the line at each lap AND with excellent views from the race box. John, with characteristic modesty, attributed the idea for the unusual circuit to both Allan and Steve King though I am certain he won a large number of Southbank races on this formation before either of them was born.

Among the mortal sailors (positions 4 and further) the race was actually very close, particularly with Stephanie (4), Steve (5) and Olga (6) all within one minute in corrected time, for a roughly 55min long overall race. The prize for best performance is awarded to Joe who came second in the Solo after time correction, closely beating Renato to the spot. Meanwhile, a persistency award goes to our Commodore Allan and Vice Commodore Sara in the Enterprise; they started the race with a big capsize followed later by another capsize with the boat completely overturned but having sailed half the race with a boat full of water they still managed to complete the course. They crossed the finish line just as the second ‘Crews Race’was starting and joined it without even pausing for a break taking the 3rd position. Meanwhile the bravery award goes to new member Tom Brill who capsized without a dry suit and still kept smiling. With such a spirit he is certain to join the pack of leading sailors very quickly.

Now, the prize for ingenuity goes to Digby who brought his buddy Richard (same build and similar features). Each took a Laser but both had the exact SAME sail number! Since I am not that smart I started marking " Digby lap number 1 done" then very shortly after " Digby lap 2 " I thought we had a new club champion!!!! I eventually figured it out at "Digby lap number 8 or 9 " .....

I have always admired John Parke’s willingness to help and as OOD (Officer of the Day) John ran up and down from the race box several times to assist returning sailors (including a wounded Olga who seemed to have dented her boom). John helped pull nearly all the boats up the slipway! I could not stop him but I trust you all noticed him welcoming you back whilst I was hiding in the warmth of the race box. John, I hope to be like you when I grow up!

Our brilliant Safety Boat team -Hannah and Tom Sherratt - helped quite a few sailors, despite feeling extremely cold in the strong wind. They used our new WHF licence to keep the Race Officers in the race box informed about all developments via Channel 37 and also to organise the second race. We shared that channel with Corinthian and another club so it was essential to have a good radio protocol and I think we did that!

You can see the full race results with corrected times in the website ‘Club Sailing Results’ section.

JEROME NOLLET

Sunday 12th February Winter Series 2 Race 16 Downriver

•Race Officers & SB1: Sally Pearce and Gary Marshall •Safety Boat 2: Elaine Agius and Mario Lombardo

The weather forecast for this race promised 10mph winds, however this was a promise that was well and truly broken. As the boats assembled at the top of the ramp we all consoled ourselves that at least we would drift down on the tide – – and if necessary drift all the way back again. As it turned out we did drift pretty well all the way to Wandsworth Bridge – – but frustratingly for some of the "sailors" some boats seemed to consistently drift faster than others---namely Steve King then Steph who reached the mark quite a way ahead of the others. There was a little chasing pack of Jerome single handed in his Wayfarer, Renato Laser and Allan and Callum in the Enterprise all swapping places in very close quarters at times. Simon in the Laser being the ultimate gentleman kept the company of the two ladies Sara and Jane in the Enterprise on the way down---but we could sense frustration from these two chasers and they spurred each other on to push up into the field.

As the mark – laid expertly by race officers Sally and Gary – was rounded Jerome cleverly managed to get into third position, which is a great feat in light winds having to control the balance and both sails and somehow keep the boat moving — a very very creditable performance! Allan and Callum then Renato followed closely. Steve and Steph had created a pretty large breakaway by this time and were a long way ahead. After rounding the mark Jerome was pushing Allan and Callum (who were windward) into the middle of the river causing them both to continually luff up and both boats lost speed allowing Renato to take advantage of the better stream and wind on the side of the river and sail straight passed both crews – – a salutary lesson there somewhere. However there is danger taking the shallow course at low tide as it isn’t very centreboard friendly so it is always a balance there.

So by the time all the crews returned to Putney Bridge there was a nice wind to beat back against and Simon and Sara with Jane definitely got back into the swing and started making good inroads into the leaders. However it was too late as Renato now slipped past Steve in the run in to the line and Steph caught Steve up just at the line, then followed Allan and Callum then Simon, Sara and Jane, with Jerome having slipped back from his earlier success. Thanks go to Elaine and Mario in SB Southbank 2 for valiantly trying to use their new VHF skills- unfortunately they failed to hear any of SB Southbank 1’s messages; well at least we didn’t inadvertently send out false Maydays!

Final positions were:- Steve King in first place, then Allan and Callum followed by Renato , Steph, Jerome, Simon and last but definitely not least Team Blonde Sara and Jane because of their 5 minute penalty. This wasn’t due to any misconduct on the ladies part just the usual South Bank trap of drifting over the line too early! To see the full results and times go to the website ‘Club Sailing Results’ section.

COMMODORE ALLAN M-F with highlights from SALLY PEARCE

Sunday 29th January Winter Series 2 Race 14 Downriver

•Race Officers and Safety Boat: Steven King, Julia Payne and Maria Borg Barthet

The change in forecast from a nice 11 knot wind down to 2 knots did not deter people from turning up for Sunday’s race, and we ended up with 9 boats on the water. With a little encouragement from those of us on duty, the competitors were down on the beach close to the advertised on the water time; including one member who only turned up 20 minutes before and is usually known for taking a long time to get ready!

As usual with a down river there were a range of strategies as to when to launch. Alan and Elaine decided to go for the early launch and were holding steady against the tide, encouraging some of the others to follow suit. Unfortunately Sara was not quite so lucky; she rapidly drifted over the start line and was unable to get back over again before the start. In order to avoid the 5 minute penalty it was suggested that she should walk her boat back to the start line, so out she jumped unfortunately without first considering how far from the bank she was and how deep the water was. Steph was able to gain an initial lead down to Putney Bridge while being kept under constant pressure from the chasing fleet.

Despite fears that with the low wind we would struggle to get to Wandsworth Bridge, the lead boats arrived well before the predicted low water time and so onwards towards Battersea they proceeded. When the leaders of the fleet passed Battersea heliport they were treated to some additional wind in the form of a landing helicopter, with at least Jeremy being able to use it to his advantage. By now the fleet had spread out a fair bit which made placing the mark an interesting challenge. An initial mark was placed just before St Mary's Church on the Battersea bank, however the tide was still flowing out quite quickly and the first boats to reach the mark struggled to hold against the tide and quickly drifted on down the river. So the mark was moved slightly further down the river and over to the Chelsea bank. Initially this looked like a good decision as the tide was now beginning to slow down, however coupled with a drop in the wind this proved to cause problems for the rear markers of the fleet.

First around the mark were John and Bob (Ent), closely followed by Allan and Elaine (Ent), with Steph (Las) in third place. Sally (Las) and Jeremy (Ent) were next to approach the mark with the tide just beginning to turn. Unfortunately due to a drop in wind and despite some great efforts Tom G (Solo), Tom S (Las), Sara (Solo), Jerome and Charles (Way) were unable to make the mark, with some likely to have struggled even to the initial placing. The return leg saw Alan and Elaine taking the lead from John and Bob. Sally managed to give Steph something to watch out for, but couldn’t overtake her. Despite an initial increase in gap between Jeremy and the leading boats, he made a comeback on the final section, managing to get ahead of Sally just before the finish.

Congratulations to 1st Allan and Elaine (Enterprise), 2nd John and Bob (Enterprise), 3rd Jeremy (Enterprise), 4th Stephanie (Laser) and 5th Sally (Laser). Unfortunately the other 4 boats didn’t finish. The full results with corrected times are on the website in the Club Sailing Results section.

STEVE KING

Saturday 21st January 2012

This weekend provided some excellent sailing with clear sunny days and winds gusting up to 37mph. Coincidentally, and unfortunately (for them) a lot of the regular and quite good sailors of the club could not make it, making turnout lower than usual but still enough to have some good races and at any rate a lot of capsize practice!

Tom Sherratt brought his new laser to test it out in a baptism of fire involving a complete inversion and Mario, Elaine, Tom Glockner and Steph turned up the provide some competition, together with Jeremy manning the safety boat single-handedly in some pretty tough conditions. Sailor of the day had to go to Tom for coping commendably with a full rig when everyone else was in more manageable 4.7s and still managing to win half the races. Mario did well on one of his first outings in a laser, Tom S sailed his new laser excellently and Elaine continued to prove that she is one to watch! The last race ended in chaos with Mario's protracted capsize due to his main sheet being entwined in the buoy, Steph capsizing endlessly, Elaine heading back and Tom G playing hide and seek in the pier by Crabtree, but under Jeremy's watchful eye, no damage was done to either the boats or sailors.

Sunday 22nd January Race 13 Winter Series 2

• Race Officers: Jane Stanton-Humphreys and Trish Gutteridge • Safety Boat Crew: Jeremy Kahn and Tom Brill

A Westerly wind made launching on Sunday quite straightforward but that was about the only bit of the day that was easy! A 5 lap, 3 buoy race was set by race officers Jane and Trish. It was quite an exciting race because there was no obvious winner out of the 4 laser sailors (Peter Mack, Tom Glockner, Steve King and Steph) who turned up.

For the first few laps, Peter and Tom were fighting for first place with Steve and Steph fighting (not far behind) not to be last. On the third lap though all four merged together with Steve and Steph doing some amazingly fun planing on a great gust on a run to catch the full rig lasers and then Tom emerged as leader until he capsized, losing his place to Peter, with Steve not far behind.

Although the gusts were enormous, there were also times with no wind at all, and it proved to be one of those days when the wind direction changes all the time. However, at the end of the day, the byte and the 4.7 won over the full rigs and on corrected time Steve came first, then Steph, only 4 seconds ahead of Peter and then Tom. The results with corrected times are on the website in the Club Sailing Results section.

Massive thank you to Jeremy and Tom Brill for safety boat cover, and Jane and Trish for race co-ordination.

STEPHANIE TOLLEMACHE

Sunday 15th January Winter Series 2 Race 12 Downriver

• Race Officers: Joe Driver and Sue Rapley • Safety Boat Crew: Tom Glockner and Andrew Rapley

The majority of Sunday’s sailors were burning the candle at both ends after attending the previous night’s regalia celebrating South Bank SC’s annual awards dinner party. Conga lines, a magnum of vodka and Michael Jackson’s Thriller all played a major role I am told. But, for the most part, none seemed the worst for wear. Allan looked as fresh as daisy, arriving back at the club to spearhead an early morning clean up, only hours after initiating several "three finger"award toasts. Very suspicious. What exactly was in the Commodore’s glass the previous night while prompting us all to drain ours?

Things would get slightly stranger out on the racecourse; Eight boats entered the down river race; four double handed and four single handed crafts. In the beautiful winter sunshine, the wind blew in a South Easterly direction and as luck would have it, the windiest point of the racecourse proved to be the starting line and the beat towards Putney Bridge. It was " game on " the minute you pulled your tiller down, and headed for the start line. The gusts were reaching up to 20 knots in speed with a steady breeze of 12 knots over the deck.

The starting bell sounded and the majority of the boats nailed the start. Renato in his Laser and Steve King in his Byte both hit the line with full speed. Not far behind were two of the three Enterprises entered, helmed by both Jeremy and Allan respectively. Jerome with Jane in his Wayfarer was powered up and Sally was in the mix with her newly kitted out Laser closest to the club on Starboard tack. Curiously the Commodore of Vice was sailing her Solo in the opposite direction. Maybe an " upriver " to Barnes was on her mind? No, a miscalculation of the starting sequence proved to be a very costly but fully understandable error. The rest of the fleet had an excellent tacking battle up to Putney Bridge. With a slightly late start to the race the river was certainly very shallow and the wind was still piping. But, multiple skilful tacks ensued and no one beached their boats. After passing under the Putney Railroad Bridge, Renato popped out with clean air and took and kept the lead to the end.

The windward mark was set next to the India Wharf pier right across the river from the London Heliport. After crossing under Wandsworth Bridge, our fleet entered the Thames ’ version of the doldrums; not only had the wind died down but the Post-Modernist Condo’s on the south bank and Brutalist architecture of the north bank blanketed the wind with their obscene shadows. Nevertheless our sailors all navigated the stretch well and the accompanying " hole" , rounded the mark and headed for home. The wind never picked up again, but the South Easterly still had enough oomph to make it interesting with a reach/run back to the finish line.

Other tantalizing titbits: Jeremy and Elaine tacked well rounding the windward mark in third position. Sally looked a tad overpowered in the beginning but kept her wits about her and sailed beautifully in the aforementioned doldrums (it must have been the inspiring Post-Modernist architecture). She made the biggest jump in the race, finishing second. Its hard to keep our Commodore, and trusty crew Mario, from the podium. He caught Jeremy in the end for third place (but it was a battle). Keen Laser sailors Steph and Tom Sherratt commandeered a club Enterprise but suffered a lost rudder and had to retire. Steve did well even though our mark drop forced him to fight adverse tide more than the other boats. Jerome and Jane looked great in the Wayfarer when it was windy and continued to fight gallantly to finish the race when wind died off. Sara fought back hard and did not finish last, proving 1/2 a "Team Blond " on any boat is better than none at all!

Congratulations to Renato 1st (Laser), Sally 2nd (Laser) and Allan and Mario Lombardo 3rd (Enterprise). The full results with corrected times are on the website Club Sailing Results section.

Things are looking mighty competitive out there racing wise and safety boat duty does not look like a bad place to be after all!

TOMGLOCKNER

Saturday 7th January 2012

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/161107/Foiling-moths-dominate-39th-Bloody-Mary#Photos

South Bank sailing club’s sailing was dominated this weekend by a brave band heading out on Saturday to partake in one of the world’s great sailing events The Bloody Mary Pursuit Race, held on Queen Mary Reservoir near Sunbury. There were 302 entries in 63 classes from 104 clubs! 7 boats and 11 of our members took part and survived what can only be described as a great spectacle with over 250 boats chasing around a course of 13 buoys which was as great a test of eyesight as it was sailing ability. The successes that should be mentioned are Renato’s finish at 138th and Gary and Hannah in the GP 14 being the second GP14. Chris Philips and Allan Munro Faure learned how to quickly put a number on a sail and had a couple of good attempts capsizing the Xenon. Olga made a good start on her Laser and then moved into metal testing by checking out the impact resistance of her boom on her cranium (ouch), despite this she went on to sail to a good position and have a large bump on her forehead to show off after the race.

Sunday 8th January Winter Series 2 Race 11 with Ranelagh SC

• Ranelagh Race Officers • SBSC Safety Boat Crew: Jeremy Kahn and Amanda Lake

After the excitement of Saturday the first sailing Sunday in 2012 felt rather uneventful by comparison. The sailing for the day was a race against (or should that be with) Ranelagh. Held in surprisingly mild conditions for the beginning of January, South Bank had its smallest turnout for several weeks with only 5 boats taking to the water, while Ranelagh had a veritable armada of 14 boats.

Commodore Munro Faure led our fleet of 3 Enterprises, 1 Laser and 1 Byte into what can only be described as a very mild afternoon of sailing. Wind conditions were very calm with a steady breeze from the North West allowing a slow sail back up from the buoy at Crabtree. Although the main fleet stayed closely together for the race the lead was taken by Ranelagh’s Chris Edwards in his Laser closely followed at the finish by our glorious Commodore. With little to do the safety boat crews enjoyed a relaxing day.... Ranelagh’s safety boat piloted by Fran Gifford who had come 23rd the day before at the Bloody Mary and South Bank’s crewed by Amanda Lake and potential new member Abi. The highlight of the day was Brian from Ranelagh’s fantastic cooking which we all enjoyed.

The day was a good gentle start to this new sailing year and next Sunday sees the next downriver race.

JEREMY KAHN

Sunday 18th December Winter Series 1 Race 10 Downriver

• Race Officer: Commodore Allan Munro-Faure • Safety Boat Crew: Allan, Gareth Turner and Lucinda Bailey

The final race of 2011 was an amazing event despite the near freezing conditions. It was scheduled to start at 13.45 but at 12.30, the club opening time, we had a very low turnout so wondered if it was going to be worth doing a race? However as people slowly started drifting in it was clear we would have one of the best races of the year. How nice to see Norma Nunn who came down to join the carol singing later – she used to be membership secretary over 20 years ago and approved of the big transformation of our clubhouse interior and the positive feeling from the members. Norma was also a stickler for getting races off on time and while we were having a lovely chat she reminded me that I was race officer so shouldn’t I be doing something!

THE RACE

The wind was light and variable generally W wind making it just possible to hold position above the start line. The race start sequence commenced and the fleet of 14 boats set off– – with the exception of Hannah who was fine-tuning her laser rig before setting off. There was a good leading bunch heading towards Putney Bridge headed by Rory and Stephanie with a big group of all the other boats very closely behind all swapping places in their search for the best puffs of wind. There was one laser which was gradually making its way through the fleet helmed by Renato who by the time we got to Wandsworth bridge had taken the lead, however he wasn’t having it all his own way as Steph was chasing him having got ahead of Rory and Chris Phillips with Jan in the Xenon had charged through and was well into the leading group by the time we passed Chelsea Harbour.

The race was due to have turned at Wandsworth Bridge but the tide hadn’t turned and as it was still a nice day we decided to go to just short of the Battersea Reach where the tide was just about turning. The mark was placed and first to it was Renato followed by Steph, Rory and Chris and Jan.

On the beat on the way back the wind was quite flukey especially at the railway bridge by Chelsea Harbour. The three leading lasers got through until the wind just died a bit and almost the whole fleet bunched up under the middle arch. It didn’t go un-noticed however that there was a canny Scot Don who took advantage of the tide changing on the outside of the river first and managed to slide past a lot of the fleet with a little bit of wind found on the outside. This propelled him into 4th position and Sally also pushed up from the pack and there was a good group vying for these middle places. It was a shame then when Don tried an adventurous deep roll tack that ended up being deeper than he thought as he capsized allowing the others to pass him.

The chasing group now found some good wind and Sara with Jane in a club enterprise found a turn of speed and pushed up into the field passing Chris in the xenon.

Renato managed to retain his position by the finish line and there had obviously been a good scrap amongst the lasers as second heading towards the line was Peter Mack who had taken a commanding lead over Rory and Steph who were battling intensely with each other. Well that is until Peter ran aground about 10 m from the line and let Rory slip past while Steph was trying to cover him but eventually ended up 5 seconds behind. However even though they had a great battle the Sara and Jane combination proved too strong especially when you add in their big handicap and they came in second overall on corrected time so well done.

The fleet was not that spread out which is a good sign of the skills definitely improving and the final results are on the website Club Sailing Results section.

ALLAN MUNRO-FAURE

Sunday 11th December Winter Series 1 Race 9

• Race Officers: Jerome Nollet and David Lees • Safety Boat Crew: John Parke and Amanda Lake

On a mild and windy winters day on the banks of the Thames a fleet of ten boats headed upstream after the start of the penultimate race of our Winter Series 1. We were joined by seasoned sailors Steve and Kathy Collins from Minima YC and they were quick off the mark in John Parke’s Enterprise. Unfortunately the tall-ship ‘Tenacious’ was not available for this event!

The race was 4 laps of a short course between Craven Cottage and Crabtree wharf. As the fleet disappeared from view heading towards the first mark a clear gap was created between the Collins team followed by Allan and Elaine (Enterprise) in second place. Not too far behind them were the Lasers helmed by Tom Glockner, Tom Sherratt and Steph chasing each other around the mark. In the race to complete the first lap, the two Enterprises were in a commanding position as they began their second lap with the lasers in pursuit.

However back in the race box, as Jerome and I were chatting about his recent surgery and watching the Koe children play in the club house, the peace was suddenly broken by cries for assistance from Amanda and John in the safely boat. We saw that one of the fleet had capsized, but at this stage we didn’t know who it was? At John’s request Jerome calmly called for the RNLI, who then told us to call Thames Barrier who then told us to call the Port of London Authority!

While all this was going on the two Enterprises continued to lead the fleet and as the remaining craft completed the second lap there was no sign of Sara? The wind during the race seemed to swirl making conditions somewhat difficult and we noticed a number of the fleet had capsized however we were confident that the safely boat had this all under control.

The Wayfarer with Richard at the Helm and Digby as crew completed their first lap in a strong position, however as the race progressed the other craft took more advantage of the conditions as " the Koe family cheering-squad" watched on. As they completed the 4th (and final) lap it appeared that Allan and Elaine had closed the gap, however they finished a close (and commendable) second to Steve and Kathy Collins who were the outstanding performers of the day. In third place was Tom Glockner in his laser 3 minutes behind on corrected time. Steph, Sally and Steve all finished strongly. Steve sailing in his Byte was desperately trying to catch Olga in her laser and while Olga finished ahead of Steve the correct times showed a different story.

To add to the casualty list Tom Sherratt managed to receive a painful knock on his knee after his laser capsized on the second lap.

As the fleet pulled in we were still missing Sara. In addition, the Wayfarer which started so prominently had fallen behind the rest of the fleet. There were some anxious moments from the Koe Cheering-Squad, however fears were allayed as Richard and Digby crossed the line in 8th place.

So where was Sara? Sadly, Sara and her solo ‘Conker’ were towed back to the clubhouse with a broken rudder, lost mainsail and damaged mast, however I’m happy to report Sara though shaken was OK. Sara’s problem was her capsized boat inverted and the mast dug into the river bed by Crabtree Wharf and then the boat was forced by the tide against the bank and proved impossible to re-right it. It drifted beyond Hammersmith Bridge with the RNLI assisting. Still undaunted Sara has already bought a replacement boat which is being delivered to the club next Wednesday.

Steve Collins stayed behind after the race and provided a fascinating insight into the experience he gained sailing the tall-ship ‘Tenacious’ across the Atlantic .

To see the full race results with corrected times go to the website Club Sailing Results section.

DAVID LEES

Sunday 27th November Winter Series 1 Race 8 Bernard Driver Trophy

• Race Officers: Joseph Cabon and Jules Payne • Safety Boat Crew: Sara Bennett and Bob Jackson Recent press headlines:

from the Daily Mail; ‘Horror and Panic as River Sweeps Buoy Away’

from The Times; ‘ Sailors Stirred by Ever-Changing Course’

from the Sun; ‘ Wot, No Buoy?’

from Le Monde (translated); ‘New Theories of Motion Disproved by British Sailors’

from the Yorkshire Post; ‘ Soft Southerners Complain About Tide’

There were a couple of controversies during Sundays’ Bernard Driver Trophy race. One that affected everyone was that the second buoy kept moving in the tide. It was dropped several times but failed to anchor securely so one of the red navigation buoys was used instead. The race, however, had already started and the change of buoy created some confusion on the first lap. Unfortunately the race officers had lost contact with the safety boat earlier, and from the race box it was difficult to puzzle out what was going on. Luckily the race settled back on course. The race officers realised it would be almost impossible to unravel what had happened or exactly how any of the fleet had been disadvantaged, and as the confusion had been on the first lap, put it down as a racing incident. A couple of official complaints were duly acknowledged.

Sunday was a beautiful day to go sailing; clear and bright with good wind and strong gusts. A three&ndashbuoy, five&ndashlap race was set. Fifteen boats were on the water; nine of them single–handers. Don Henderson in his yellow Laser rounded the last mark in first place for laps one and two, closely followed by the two Enterprises (who were locked in the best battle of the race for all five laps). Other two– or three–boat battles were joined during the course of the race, making for exciting viewing and positions changing on each lap.

At the end the two Enterprises provided the closest finish for a long while, crossing the line with literally a few centimetres between them, Joe Driver and Jane S–H ahead of Allan and Callum Munro–Faure. After handicap they came second and third in the race. And the winner of Joe’s Dad’s trophy was Steve King. Bravo!! To see the full race results with corrected times go to the Club Sailing Results section.

JOSEPH CABON

Saturday 19th November Winter Series 1 Race 7 Downriver

• Race Officers: Sally Pearce and Lydia Tapping • Safety Boat Crew: Joseph Cabon and Victoria Tamashiro

Saturdays downriver race began with beautiful blue skies and a light south easterly breeze that although didn’t offer epic sail conditions at least ensured the race wouldn’t entirely be a drift downriver and back. We had nine boats out on the water; three enterprises, four lasers, one wayfarer and a byte.

The start, a classic only to be seen at South Bank SC with the fleet lined up along the bank, one leg in and one leg ready for push off at the one minute gun. Joe Driver won the prize for the worst start; he still seemed to be rigging his laser (on the water) as the rest of the fleet disappeared off towards Putney Bridge.

Allan and Callum, in the M–enterprise and Steph in her laser, pulled away with a good lead with an exciting head to head fight each taking in turns to call ‘Starboard’. That is until Steph hit the famous Thames vortex where she stopped dead until the rest of the fleet caught up with her. Elaine was providing another sterling effort and doing really well in a laser until she ran aground on the north bank.

The safety boat crew decided, we think with excellent judgement, to drop the buoy just beyond Wandsworth Bridge thus allowing the entire fleet to get around it and finish the race. There was only one safety boat on the water with the race officers on board as well so while we waited for Elaine and David Walker (wayfarer) valiantly trying to get past the buoy, we missed the next phase of the race. We sped past the fleet to get back to the finish line and saw there had been a lot going on in our absence– it was all change with John Parke (enterprise) and new member Sue Rapley falling right back. Sue looked as though she was having a lovely time though! Steve King in his byte had gained much and Juan Sacchi (laser) was looking in a strong position too. Then after Putney bridge the wind died and the fleet slowed right down– and the leaders battled it out to the finish line.

Allan and Callum won the race followed by Steve King, on handicap just 20 seconds behind, then Jammy Joe Driver ended up third after such an abysmal start and Steph came fourth.

You can view the full race results with corrected times at the website Club Sailing Results section.

SALLY PEARCE

Sunday 13th November Winter Series 1 Race 6

• Race Officers: Steve Barnes and Joe Driver • Safety Boat Crew: Tom Glockner, Dan Johnson and his son Alex

Today we had a steady but lightish easterly wind which blew on shore. Launching from our narrow slipway is a tad challenging under these conditions, but with some mutual assistance we got all the lasers down with their sails up and managed to avoid any of them capsizing on the slipway! We set a five lap, two buoy course that kept the sailing on the Barnes bank to avoid the dead wind on the other side. This gave a broad reach up river and a fine reach back towards the Club. Tom and Dan on safety boat set the buoys in the best wind well upstream.

With no beating today, the fleet was incredibly bunched and every lap saw winners and losers. John and Bob didn’t have the best of starts but showed their longstanding prowess jumping from fifth to first as they finished the third lap. And Olga jumped from ninth to fifth and improved this to fourth one lap later. Juan and Victoria in a Club Enterprise stayed well in touch with the fleet throughout and showed they are getting the hang of this challenging stretch of river. Team Blonde– Sara and Jane that is – showed yet again that they have upped their game this year moving from fourth to third to second to first in successive laps. That of course meant that Renato, who was first over the first two laps, dropped back a bit.

As the boats started their final reach back to the Club, Sara and Jane pulled away with Renato still in contention. Renato decided to head in to the bank taking the example perhaps of Ranelagh S C’s Merlin Rockets who had an open meeting that concentrated on the same stretch of water. Sara and Jane stayed out in the tide but in better wind and for a very long time it looked as though they were pulling well away. But as they approached the finished line, the wind dropped a little and Renato pulled through in the Laser enough to take first on handicap with S and J a close second, John and Bob in third and Juan and Victoria fourth.

The trouble with such an even, bunched fleet is that when the wind drops there’s no knowing whether you’ll get the wind when it comes back or be shrouded by other boats that pull away and leave you standing until there’s no-one left to cover you, and so of course there were similar changes in the opposite direction! However four of us have decided that Sailor of the day is Elaine for a stunning performance in a Laser Radial in which she at one stage was in the lead. Unfortunately her third position on the home leg was upset when she started a sixth lap, but otherwise she was in contention for a win on handicap. Which again shows just how much you can learn in a single season on our ‘ interesting’ stretch of Thames water.

To view the full race results with corrected times go to the Club Sailing Results section.

JOE DRIVER

Sunday 6th November Winter Series Shorts Races

No sailing was scheduled for today but with many people answering the call to early arms by our Commodore, there were 9 boats on the water and this writer was promoted (for a few hours only) from Assistant Deck Hand to Admiral of the Rescue Fleet and Race Constable. It was an amazing day on the river with water flowing one way at the start of the races and the other way when we finished!

Due to my limited mental abilities, and my safety boat assistant being 8 or 9 years old (that is until Kate arrived) the course was set to 2 buoys and two laps, with final positions shouted as "you are first!and ""second!" rather than time-recorded. The wind was fabulous. We also enjoyed watching new member David single-handedly take his Wayfarer Cassandra out for her first sail on the river to adjust her to these new surroundings. Other members should refrain from poking fun at her old mustard hull colour (slightly worse that the yellow of Digby's Wayfarer) because from what I saw she sails beautifully and David is likely to be a formidable competitor.

So, I was enjoying a few moments of absolute control over a fleet of sailors mad enough to be up so early on a Sunday morning when Kate waved at me from the river bank asking for a ride. A ride? Well, she simply took charge of the operations of the boat leaving this writer to hold on for dear life as she madly tested the engine‘s limits, even when the Harbour Master came by, cruising slowly with the tide.

However that did free me up to take some pictures and I got my revenge by asking her to position the Command Craft next to the red buoy "for a good photo opportunity" This resulted in everyone immediately shouting that the safety boat was blocking the race fleet with me innocently raising my hand with a Gallic shudder and an expression implying that it was not my fault and that I was powerless to act.

Go to the web picture gallery to see the photos. My favourites include the one showing the back view of Simon going around the yellow buoy and the clash between the two Xenons (notice how Gary and Sara look like they are going to ram a few competitors in several pictures). I really like the one of Tom grinning widely as if he figured it all out (the front of the boat is hidden but we suspect there was someone holding the line). Meanwhile the best of the best shows Allan and Jules inspecting the hull of their Xenon. Thank you both for the demonstration!

Oh.. You still want races results? Well, after the race there was a lot of shuffling of magnets on the laser racing board which definitely proves that a lot happened and Kate, young Henry and I did a fantastic job (particularly Henry with his potato shooter!)

The truth is I have completely forgotten the results, except that Allan and Jules did win the Xenon contest and Sally came an impressive 3rd in the 3rd race (which is elegant) and Tom a 2nd in the 4th (which still counts). We all know however that the day witnessed one of the greatest upsets of the year with Simon failing to win a huge 25% of all the races of the day when he conceded first place to Stephanie in the 3rd of the four races. Unbelievable!

JEROME NOLLET

Sunday 30th October Winter Series 1 Race 5

• Race Officers: Graham Bagnall and Jane Stanton-Humphreys • Safety Boat Crew: Simon Adler and Lynda Thomas

A damp squib must have jumped out of the Guy Fawkes box, because rather than enjoying the forecast south westerly winds of 12 gusting 22 mph, the 11 doughty SBSC sailors who set off for their race today, faced a mild southerly of no more than 10mph (with gusts which would not have blown away a handkerchief).

There were no greyhounds standing in the slips, straining upon the start, but an amorphous collection of keen sailors taking on the Putney tides anxious to reach the start line (and in vain)! The indefatigable race officers resigned themselves to fate, and set the fleet off backwards (Spike Milligan, no doubt would have observed that SBSC sailors are a rare species, who specialise in going backwards).

The course was 4 laps round a sausage of 2 buoys (the 3rd intended buoy got lost somewhere in the cooking). The 1st buoy was situated quite close to the Crabtree on the Middlesex bank, and the 2nd buoy, was half a mile upstream from the Fulham F.C. again on the Middlesex side of the river.

As the fleet (resembling a spider‘s web) bumbled its way with the tide to the first buoy, it soon became an indistinct blur (even in the binoculars),and it was not until they rounded the 2nd buoy that Allan in his Enterprise with Kate could be identified as the race leaders, followed by Renato in his laser, then John Parke in his Enterprise with Bob Jackson (proving that experience can prevail over youth) and then Steph in her Laser, Olga in her Laser, Steve in his Byte, and Tom G in his Laser.

This order remained the same throughout the race, except that after a gargantuan struggle Renato managed to squeeze past Alan on the 2nd lap and skilful tacking up the Middlesex bank enabled him to retain that lead for the rest of the race. To view race results with corrected times go to the Club Sailing Results section.

Our thanks to the Race Officers and Safety Boat crew; Graham and new member Lynda were joined by Jane S-H and Simon Adler who kindly stepped into the breach at the last moment demonstrating the versatility of SBSC.

GRAHAM BAGNALL

Sunday 23rd October Winter Series 1 Race 4

• Race Officers and Safety Boat: Don Henderson and Renato Hidalgo

What a spectacular day! It was an early start with glorious sunshine, a cloudless blue sky and strong south easterly winds giving perfect sailing conditions. Fifteen South Bank Sailors took to the water supported by Renato and Don combining Race Officer and Safety Boat cover. A triangular course, with 5 laps, was set allowing full use of our sailing area. The SE wind meant that there were no wind shadows and the strength allowed everyone to stem the tide, with everyone managing to get their boats onto the plane.

There was the usual messy start with some boats on the wrong side of the line. Team Blonde Sara and Jane started well and were the first to round the far mark. Everyone took their time to decide what to do after this mark, gilling about and allowing everyone time to re-group. There was no particular advantage between the Surrey and Westminster Banks and the fleet scattered out across the water. Fairly quickly Simon gave a Master Class in Laser sailing and established an unassailable lead. Sailor of the day was Callum who had a bad start, crossing the start line as most of the fleet were rounding the first mark. Callum sailed well and was second over the line, in front of his father Allan, but finishing 4th on handicap.

Everyone had a great sail as evidenced by their beaming smiles! After the race most folks stayed out on the water enjoying the strong winds and planing about in front of the Club. Unfortunately, Jeremy and Elaine were lost to sight amongst the Ranelagh boats, sailing off with them only to capsize at Ranelagh and become snagged under the moored boats, causing quite a bit of damage to Jeremy‘s newly re-furbished Merlin. Indomitable as ever, he is looking forward to engaging his woodworking skills to mend the boat.

Lessons learned: 1. After the race don‘t sail below the start line as you will be lost to the Safety Boat 2. Please check the schedule to ensure that you turn up for your Race Officer and Safety Boat duties, ensuring safe enjoyable sailing for all. 3. South Bank provides the best sailing ever!

Congratulations go to: 1st Simon Adler –Laser full rig, 2nd Allan Munro-Faure and Kate Paterson –Enterprise, 3rd Sara Bennett and Jane Stanton-Humphreys –Enterprise. You‘ll find the full race results with corrected times in the Club Sailing Results section.

DON HENDERSON

Sunday 9th October Winter Series 1 Race 2

• Race Officer: Jane S-H and Gary Marshall • Safety Boat: Armand Attard, Rex Attard and Juan Sacchi

" That was difficult today"said Tom Sherratt as he handed over payment for the laser hire. And it was– Lots of gusts, a few crashes and capsizing galore! Graham caught a rather nasty cut above the eye from a runaway boom and Jeremy and Jules, fed up with the conditions, returned early to the club to a DNF.

With the Thames barrier down we didn‘t have any tide, but then we didn‘t have much water either. The course was 5 laps around a long sausage shape –13 boats started the race but 2 didn‘t finish. At the front of the fleet Simon and Renato battled it out for first place; nail biting with Renato leading at the first buoy then Simon at the next on and on it went until the very end. Our esteemed commodore Allan M-F took third place in the second part of the race and hung on to it all the way through to the end. Sara in her Solo made fourth with some solid sailing with Don never far behind.

A lovely surprise was Jerome and Amanda proving all of his doubters wrong by sailing a superb race in his wayfarer ‘QE3’ making third for a while early on and finally seventh (Jerome and I agreed later that the Portsmouth yardstick on his boat is wildly off so he should have been given a fifth by handicap!) You‘ll find the full race results with corrected times in the Club Sailing Results section.

It was a lovely day with fast moving clouds overhead and the sun coming out towards the end of the afternoon.

ARMAND ATTARD

Sunday 2nd October Winter Series 1 Race 1 Downriver

• Race Officer and SB1: Sara Bennett and Dan Johnson • Race Officer and SB2: Elaine Agius and Simen Ruge

October the 2nd was a fabulous autumn day in London with 26 degrees C, sun and perfect wind that somehow picked up just in time for the start of our downriver race. All our sailors (well equipped with sunnies and sun cream) had a great time. We had 8 boats racing including 3 Enterprises, 3 Lasers, 1 GP14 and 1 Byte.

The trip downriver was uneventful for all, with Steph taking a commanding lead in her Laser, newly kitted out with a smart XD kit! She managed to maintain this lead right to the buoy, which was laid about 200 metres downriver from Albert Bridge, at which point Simon in his Laser managed to negotiate the buoy first, followed closely by Steph. A few minutes later, Allan and Kate went round in his Enterprise. Steve King sailing his Byte, followed closely. Juan and Victoria sailed one of the club Enterprises really well.

In the trip upriver Tom Sherratt with Eduardo, also in a club Enterprise and new member Harri in a club Laser made a fantastic catch-up such that they sped third and fourth past the finish line respectively. Stephanie sailed amazingly well and was so close to coming third across the finish line until catastrophe struck in the form of a crucial knot coming undone and a pin flying into the river. Still she made it to shore and the sea cadets were only too happy to tow her back to the club.

In the meantime Graham and Jane sailing the club GP14 did well to finish the race minus a centreboard that had snapped off and floated away just after they rounded the buoy.

The final results were: 1. Allan and Kate– Enterprise, 2. Simon Adler –Laser, 3. Steve King – Byte, 4. Tom Sherratt and Eduardo de Souza – Enterprise 5. Harri– Laser, 6. Juan and Victoria– Enterprise. 7. Graham and Jane – GP14, DNF Stephanie Tollemache– Laser. Go to the Club Sailing Results section for the full race results with times.

Well done to all sailors and safety boat crew for yet another fantastic day of sailing on the Thames!

ELAINE AGIUS and SARA BENNETT

Sunday 25th September Race 11 Last of Summer Series 2

• Race Officer: Steve Barnes • Safety Boat :Jeremy Kahn, Sarah and Sam Richardson

Sunday was a beautiful day for racing with 13 boats on the water; lasers, enterprises and a solo. We started later than planned but the race got off to a great start and was a traditional triangle over 5 laps. The wind was supposed to be blowing at 11 mph but was definitely stronger with capsizes all over the place. Olga deserved a prize for entertaining a group of people on the embankment with her capsizing again and again.

Armand’s crew was new member Eduardo De-Souza and we had another new member Tom Sherratt sailing a laser.

After 5 laps we had in first place Allan Munro-Faure with Elaine in his enterprise, second was Renato in his laser and third was Callum Munro-Faure in his laser. Sadly 4 boats did not finish but live to fight another day. To view full race results with times go to the web Results section.

One request please, with 13 boats on the river this is hard work for one person and it’s the third time this year I’ve been let down by a second race officer not turning up. We all have duties to do within the club to allow everybody to sail as often they do so please ensure you check your duties on the race schedule you’ve all just received and if you can’t do it email the group and swap it.

STEVE BARNES

Sunday 18th September Summer 2–Downriver Race with Ranelagh and SoG Sailing Clubs

• Race Officers: John Quinn and Lydia Tapping, • Safety Boat1 :Steve King, Digby Coe and Henry Coe, • Safety Boat2 :Peter Mack and Mary Mollison, • Ranelagh Safety Boat: Nick and Wendy Price.

On a relatively calm autumn day 14 boats started the race – 5 from South Bank and Ranelagh sailing clubs and 4 from Strand on the Green SC. This very large fleet drifted quite placidly across SBSC’s starting line – luckily all correctly, except for Jeremy Kahn who was still preparing to launch from the rather low water gravel! The downriver leg was uneventful, but after rounding the turning mark, some breeze appeared which required close–reach sailing on some of the homeward stretches, during which 5 of our visitor’s boats pulled ahead.

Lasers from all 3 clubs won the day: 1st South Bank’s Simon Adler, 2nd Greg Brougham from Ranelagh and 3rd David Glover from Strand–on–the–Green. To view full race results with times go to the SBSC web Results section.

John Quinn (Race Officer)

South Bank Sailing Club. Putney Embankment SW15. We are along the towpath at the end of the Embankment 020 8788 9786