Optimist Easter Sailing Course

The Optimist Easter Sailing course is back in 2010 at Burghfield Sailing Club.

Don’t get bored... Join in the fun and improve your sailing skills over the Easter school holiday break.

Whether you are wanting to hone your skills or have just recently learnt to sail, this coaching is tailored to your skill level.

RYA qualified, IOCA experienced instructors will coach a maximum of 8 sailors each, giving ample time to improve individual skills.

The 4 day course will run on Tuesday 6th to Friday 9th April 2010.

Places are limited and are on a first come basis and are bound to go fast, so click here now for more information and to download and complete the registration form...

Optimist Race Coaching 2010

A number of Race Coaching days are planned for Optimist sailors who have started racing or achieved their IOCA grade 3.

Chris Witty, an experienced Optimist Coach, will lead the sessions. Chris and his team will provide bespoke training in small groups of five sailors per coach.

Initially, two days are planned: Saturday 20 March and Saturday 24 April. The cost for each session will be £25 per child.

Further information and application form (.doc and .pdf versions) can be found here...

If you need any more information please contact Gareth Hughes or e-mail

A review of Mike McNamara's talk last night

A very warm thanks was given to Mike at the end of last nights superb talk by the fifty or so clubmembers and visitors alike who attended.

Mike provided an outstandingly enjoyable evening and gave us all a very detailed and sightful look at how our sails and rigs should be working. Both funny and intuitive, he entertained us throughout the evening and has left, judging by the responsess heard so far, everybody dwelling on the thoughts of how, not only set their sails and rigs better, but also to make more effective tactical judgements.

It should be very interesting to see how this affects (and hopefully improves) our sailing in the future.

After such a succesful evening we are now eagerly awaiting the next talk by Steve Cockerill on the 7th April. The booking form is now available and with the success of this talk I am sure that we will once again not be dissappionted by Steve's insights into sailing!

More Details and to book click here

Autumn Series 2009 Prize Giving

Prize giving for the Autumn Series 2009 will take place this Sunday (28th) over lunchtime. Appologies for the delayfrom last Sunday's intended prize giving, but inclement weather left little time over lunch for the awards.

Hardy Burghfield Topper Sailors Compete at Snowy Rutland

Six of the Burghfield’s junior and youth Topper sailors set out to compete in the Topper Winter Regatta on the 20th/21st February at Rutland Sailing Club. They joined over 180 other junior, youth and a few adult Topper sailors from all over the country to dust off the cobwebs and put their winter training into practice.

The weather was cold with fickle winds on Saturday which meant only two races were completed before the sailors were glad to be ashore. To everyone’s surprise Sunday morning dawned with a few centimetres of snow. Nevertheless most sailors managed to get to the club and sailing got under way, again in light winds, and a further two races were completed.

Josh Stone finished in the prizes with an excellent 16th overall. Lottie Harland was 52nd, Matt Stephens 62nd and Adam Stone 109th. Unfortunately Ella Nicklin didn’t manage to make it back to the club on the Sunday suffering a minor car accident in the snow, and Katie Barraclough met with the same fate trying to get there on the Sunday having missed the Saturday returning from holiday.

Full results can be found here...

RS600 Winter Championships

Not to be outdone by the travelling RS200’s, 50% of the Burghfield RS600 fleet travelled up to Grafham for their winter championships. Although the turnout was a relatively modest 12 boats the competition was tight enough that places were always uncertain until the finish line. Without the benefits of the thermos flask spotted on some of the 200’s the weekend was pretty cold but great fun.

Showing the benefits of all the short tacking/ boat handling practice at Burghfield Mark Cooper was able to make the most of the shifty conditions to post a consistent set of results to finish 3rd overall, a welcome change from the normal handicap positions.

RS 200 Winter Championships

Five boats from Burghfield made the trip to Grafham SC for the 2010 RS 200 Winter championships last weekend, which accounted for just over 10% of the 47 boat fleet that entered.

In bitterly cold conditions some of the Burghfield contigent really showed the benefits of their winter racing at the club by posting some great results on day one of the two day event against top boats from across the country.

In particular Ian sharps and Ellie Martin took a bullet in race 1 and not to be outdown by their daugther, Caroline and Nick Martin followed suit with a race win in race 3 ensuring they were first to the very welomce warm showers!

read more

So what do Burghfield Sailors get up to?

Well, some but perhaps not all of you know, that we have our very own Olympic hopeful at the club. Ally Martin has been a member for many years and grew up on the lake sailing oppies alongside other members. Since then she has gone from strength to strength and has been heading the direction of the Olympics for many years.

On the introduction of the Womens keelboat Match Racing format, Ally teamed up with Lucy Macgregor and Annie Lush and they have been Striving to reach the top of the world rankings.

And now they have achieved it!

A little over a week ago they were in Miami and had not lost a single race in the run up to the final. Though they did not fair quite so well in the final, with lady luck throwing them some cruel blows, this did not stop them from achieving both second place overall at the event, but more importantly, put them firmly at the top of the world ranking table.

With the event over, Ally briefly dropped into the club last weekend on her way out to Palma to continue training.

From now to the Olympics we will be keeping a close eye on how Ally and the team progress and have dedicated a page on the BSC site to this.

Read more

30th Jan: Solos on tour 2010: Richard Willetts takes the glassware.

On Saturday 30th Jan two Solo helms from BSC kicked off the Solo open season with a trip up to Graffam Water for the winter championships. 58 boats took to the water for three back to back races in cold but manageable conditions. Paul Bristow made up the numbers as part of his continued learning curve and Richard Willetts had mid fleet positions in the first two races followed by a superb 4th place in Race 3, having battled for the lead with the top solo helms in country.

Richard's great effort was rewarded with glassware for 1st place in the veterans series. The next major event, the spring championships in April, will hopefully see more BSC solos travelling.

Race report on the Solo class association site here

Junior Topper coaching - parent/sailor evening Tues 9th Feb at 7:30pm

We are planning a Topper parent/sailor evening on Tuesday 9th February, starting at 7:30pm in the clubhouse for all current parents/sailors of Toppers and those sailors thinking of transitioning to the Topper (perhaps from Optimists/Oppie Club) and who are interested in receiving coaching at the club. In fact any parents/sailors with any interest in what is happening at the club regarding Toppers are very welcome.

The aim of the evening is for you to all meet each other and we will review what has been happening with Topper coaching to date and discuss what sailors want through 2010. The success of any programme very much depends on understanding needs and putting in place a plan around the available resources and so if you have an interest in Topper coaching for the junior sailors I look forward to seeing you.
For more details and to register your interest click here...

Topper Open Coaching - Burghfield SC 27th February

The 2010 Topper Southern Area Open Coaching days are now published and available to book. The first of these coaching days will be held at Burghfield Sailing Club on Saturday 27th February and is an excellent opportunity to get in some early season coaching, whether you are an experienced Topper sailor, just transitioning to the class or have recently started sailing a Topper.

These coaching days are very popular within the Southern Area and places are limited so do make sure you book now to secure a place. Burghfield members must still complete a booking form to attend the coaching at the club on the 27th February and places will be allocated on a first come basis.

For more details and to download the booking form click here...

Racing- Sunday 24th January

Hopefully good news!

Though there is still ice on the lake we are planning on trying to set some racing this weekend
Yesterday there was ice covering around 60% of the lake but we are hoping that today's mild weather and winds will break it up quickly. With this in mind we are planning for racing to go ahead on Sunday but a final decision will be made based on the conditions found on the day.

If nothing else we can all have a bacon sandwich in the morning courtesy of Kieran and Antony!

Frustration starting to mount

I am sure, just as I am myself, that people are starting to get serious withdrawal symptoms from the recent lack of sailing. Unfortuantely, the lake still remains stubbornly frozen, and though the thaw is underway, the 3.5 inches of ice that covers a large proportion of the lake is, as yet, refusing to significantly break up.

Rain is forecast on Saturday, and this will probably increase the speed of the defrosting, but I doubt it will speed it up sufficiently to race. With this in mind, I'm afraid that all racing is once again cancelled this weekend so the frustration will have to last a little longer.

Please note that if you are coming to the club over the weekend that the driveway is still very difficult to negotiate and the main car park has yet to be driven in so still has a full covering of snow.

Jeremy

Snow & Ice stops Sailing

The club, as you might expect, has a good layer of snow over it at present, the lake is 3/4 frozen and when combined, this does not make a good receipe for sailing!

The driveway is currently impassable with a normal car as it is under a good 10 inches of snow so if there are any members with a 4x4 who would like to do a bit of snow flattening so that people can actually get their cars up the drive, it would be much appreciated.

With the current forecast of cold weather set to continue all sailing is postponed until further notice. If you would like to check the website regularly I will give you an update as to when sailing will resume as soon as it becomes apparent.

Jeremy

Waitrose support Sailability

We are delighted that Burghfield Sailing Club Sailability is one of the charities being supported by Waitrose in the Oxford Road, Reading, during January. Waitrose give customers a green token every visit to put in the bin for their selected charity.

The greater the number of tokens, the greater Sailability's share of £1000 at the end of the month, so please help us to benefit as much as possible from this opportunity by shopping at Waitrose in Reading this month.

All racing cancelled- Sunday 27th December

Unfortunately, the Burghfield Icicle, which was due to be run today, was cancelled due to the continued presence of ice on the lake.

Though the air tempareture is relatively warm, the ice is unlikely to melt in time for tomorrow's finale to the Christmas Series and so it has been decided that all racing tomorrow has to be cancelled.

We hope that by next weekend the ice will have receeded and that racing can resume.

Burghfield Icicle going ahead

Based on the fact that it will be thawing quite heavily over the next couple of days we are going to plan to go ahead with the race on Boxing Day.

A reminder that it will be starting at Midday, not the usual 11am, and will be one race with mulled wine and mince pies after.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Somewhat icy!

Happy christmas!

We hope you have a great chistmas and manage to get to where you need to be! The lake is currently solidly frozen and though a thaw is forecast we are not sure if there will be sailing on boxing day as planned.

More information will be shortly forthcoming, so come back to check for the latest news.

A few more pics have been added of the club in the snow.
Click on the image or here for detail

Christmas Series 1 & 2 - Photos

Click here for a few photos from the first of the Christmas Series races that took place last Sunday.

And now Ice

The snow and ice gods were extremely good to us on Sunday with the first races of the Christmas series being sailed in beautiful sunshine.

Now over 90% of the lake is covered by ice, so time to prepare those ice yachts!

More photos here.

Christmas Series 2009- Day one

Yesterday saw the start of this years' Christmas Series and even the temperature which started out at -4 degrees did not put a stop to a good gathering of slightly mad people from deciding that it would be a lovely idea to go sailing in glorious sunshine!

More detail and a gallery of pics about the days racing will come shortly but in the meantime don't forget that the Burghfield Icicle (which also forms part of the series) will be on boxing Day, with a start time of Midday. The race will be followed by a celebration of Christmas in the form of Mulled Wine and Mince Pies, so even if you are not plannning on sailing, why not come down and watch the racing from the Clubroom- or if you are hardy- the balcony!

Hope to see you there,

Jeremy

More Snow

Lots of snow today, but Pat was still at the club for urgent business - trying to clear the snow to allow more beer to be delivered.

More photos here.

Snow is here ...

But it doesn't stop the hardy Radio Control fleet from sailing.

Pictures here.

SEASONS GREETINGS

MAYDAY CHANDLERY
Only 16 days till Xmas – DON’T FORGET – should you need any last minute Christmas Presents or Stocking Fillers for your loved ones consider your local Chandlery

Gloves, Boots, Spray Tops, Watches, Storm Hoods, & much more

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS & THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE LAST YEAR

Junior Squad numbers expand

Congratulations to Matt Hill and his crew Jo who last weekend took part, by invitation, in the South Zone Squad Feva training held here at the Club.

Subsequent to the weekend they have now been invited to join the squad on a permanent basis for the winter and will be completing their training alongside the other Burghfield SZ squad members, Matilda and William Dolin.

Well done!

Christmas Series 2009

As has become the routine over Christams, we are once again intending to run the Christmas Series over two weekends and boxing day around th Christmas period. The event is very popular and we had 70 members enjoy the series last year, which included some fairl entertaaining start from th bacloncy combined with some great wind.

If you are intending to race in the series please can we ask that you enter into the Christmas spirit and offer to help run the racing as either rescue or race officer team. In order for the series to run effectively we need 20 volunteers (you would then only need to miss either a morning or afternoon- for which you would get average points anyway).

Please click the link below to find out more and to enter the spirit of the event by offering to help. Without you there will be no racing!

Christmas Series Information

Photos of Christmas Series Fun 2008

Dinner Dance another great success

First, and foremost., a huge thank you to Richard and his social team who put on a fantastic evening last Saturday for the Annual Dinner Dance.

The evening went extremely well, and with Richard's wizardry, Table Magicians entertained the guests throughout the evening challenging us all to figure out their skills. Gary's fantastic food complimented the entertainments, and at the end there was even the chance to remove some of the caleries that had been consumed on the dance floor.

Thank you to all who generously took part in the Raffle, we managed to raise £198 towards Burghfield sailability.

Overall it was a great success and here a few pics to prove it!


Dinner dance photos

Sophie awarded Regional Young Sailor of the Year

Sophie Hamilton has been announced as the Thames Valley Young Sailor of the Year, 2009.

Only days after being awarded the club's James Acton Memorial Trophy by Paul Goodison at the grand opening of the training building, Sophie has now been honoured by the RYA as well. Both awards recognise her achievement of being selected to represent Great Britain at this year's Optimist World championships in Brazil.

Congratulations - again!

Laser Open photos now online

64 photos from the Laser Open from a very wet and windy 1st November are now online - Laser Open Photos

What a day!

Over 100 members along with a number of distinguished guests attended the opening of our new training building by Sir John Madejski followed by a talk by Paul Goodison which chronicled the lows and highs of his olympic campaigns.

A huge thank you goes to everyone who has helped on the new building and helped to make yesterday such a success. And an especially big thank you to Sir John Madejski and Paul Goodison for giving up their time to help us mark the occassion.

After the talk, we breezed through the AGM during which Jeremy Carey was elected as the new commodore.

Photos of the opening...
Photos of Paul Goodison's talk...

Burghfield National 12's do it again!

Back in May the Twelve fleet from Burghfield went off to Thorpe Bay YC for the National Championships and proudly came back holding the 'Gipsy Trophy'- awarded for the best club results.

Last weekend they again went on tour, this time to Northmapton SC for the National 12 Inlands and came back with a second Team prize of the Year, recording 4 boats in the top 10, and 6 of the 7 who entered from Burghfield in the top 16.

Pretty much every National 12 in the club went to the event and that accounted for 20% of the entry of 35 boats. They weren't dissappointed either, with sun and wind varying from F2-F4 over the two days and a very competitive fleet the racing was, as ever in this class, fierce.

It goes to show how much depth there is to the sailing at Burghfield with club members bringing back Team trophies in Oppies, Rs 200's, RS 400's and The National 12's over the 2009 season.

With the racing season more or less over, lets have a great winter of Club racing and see if we can do it all again!

Full N12 report

N12 Results

A few photos

Bonfire Party

And an earlier design of the N12 providing warmth at the Bonfire Party 2009!

More Photos...