Instructor & Assistant Instructor Training Opportunity

Berkshire Sail Training are looking for new volunteers for the coming season. Training sessions run most Saturdays from November to March inclusive. Sessions are spent working on skills leading to entry level for the Assistant Instructor and the Instructor course depending on age and ability.

If you are interested in joining our team please contact the centre and speak to Jean (info@berkshiresailing.co.uk) or Jonny (schools@berkshiresailing.co.uk).

Tel: 01189 303467

Volunteer Requests

Autumn has arrived and brought with it a number of urgent volunteer requests following accidents, injuries and changes in circumstances.....

Sat 29 Oct 2016 (DZero/Phantom Open) - Safety Boat Officer
Sat 29 Oct 2016 (DZero/Phantom Open) - Safety Boat Assistant
Sun 18 Dec 2016 - Assistant Race Officer

9 Oct 2016 - Assistant Race Officer - Volunteer found - Thanks Doug Powell

If you are available to help it would be very much appreciated. Please remember that you can always swap into an earlier date if you have already been allocated a duty, or if you haven't completed 2 - 3 duties during your membership year we can allocate a duty to you.

Members are reminded that it is your responsibility to find a replacement if you will have difficulty attending.

Further details about all volunteer duties can be found on the website HERE

Updated: 29 September 2016, 13:45

Optimist Winter Training

IOCA(UK) Thames Valley Area will be running a series of Optimist training days between October 2016 and March 2017.

All 6 days: £140
Individual Days: £28

Training Dates:

• Saturday, October 15th
• Saturday, November 12th
• Saturday, November 26th
• Saturday, January 14th
• Saturday, March 4th
• Saturday, March 25th

More details & Book a Place

Seavets Championship - 1 October 2016

Promoting responsible & sociable windsurfing for the not so young. Membership is open to those over 35 years old.

For further details www.seavets.co.uk

2016 RS 200 & RS 400 Open Meeting - 8 October 2016

Pre-registration is now open for the 2016 RS200 & RS400 Open Meeting.

Pre-registered boats benefit from a reduced entry fee if registered by midnight 6 October 2016.

Entry fees are:
Pre-registered: £18
Entry after 6 October/on the day: £23

Pre-registration and further details
View Entries

Laser Open Meeting - 22 October 2016

The 2016 Laser Open meeting will take place on Saturday 22 October. This is also the last event in the 2016 Thames Valley Area Series.

Pre-registration is available until midnight 20 October with pre-registered boats benefitting from a reduced entry fee. Entry fee is £12 if pre-registered, £17 on the day. Open to Laser Standard, Radial and 4.7 rigs.

Pre-registration & further details
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Phantom & D-Zero Winter Sprint Championships - 29 October 2016

The 2016 Combined Phantom and D-Zero Winter Sprint Championships will take place at the club on Saturday 29th October 2016.

Pre-registration is available until midnight 26th October with pre-registered boats benefitting from a reduced entry fee. Entry fee is £10 if pre-registered, £15 on the day.

Pre-registration and further details
View Entries

Galley Opening - Autumn 2016

From 19th September the Galley will be open as normal on Sundays and during scheduled events only.

If you are planning to visit the club on a Saturday please remember to bring a packed lunch! Coffee machine is available next to the clubroom and stocks a wide variety of, teas, coffees and hot chocolate.

Weather Data

Unfortunately, due a slight leak (all sorted) in the clubroom, the Weather machine has been disconnected for a few days. Should all be up and running again before the weekend.

Bart's Bash - Thank you!

Sunday 18th September was the 2016 Bart's Bash & inaugural Pursuicap race at Burghfield. A great day despite the lack of wind!

Those who took part joined a race across 58 countries & 356 venues with in excess of 7000 competitors. Congratulations to the Burghfield Oppie Club who are currently topping the Optimist Fleet Leader board.

Burghfield Bart's Bash Club Results
2016 Bash Board - Burghfield currently 5th Largest Fleet!

The day was all about raising awareness and money for the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation - supporting grass roots sailing and Disabled Sailing. Thank you for the £354.58 raised at the club, plus the other donations by text and online.

The overall Bart's Bash Burghfield trophy winner will be announced as soon as the worldwide results are all uploaded, calculated and published (we're uploading the burghfield results to bartsbash.com at the moment).

Introducing the Pursuicap Race - Sunday, 18 Sep

pursuicap
/pəˈsju-ɪkap/
noun
the action of starting a race as a pursuit race and finishing as a handicap race

Race Format
There will be one race in the morning and one in the afternoon for both a slow handicap and a fast handicap fleet. The start sequences for the two fleets will overlap so all boats will be racing at the same time.

Races will use a staggered start similar to a pursuit race but with a static finish line where times will be recorded.

Results will be calculated based on PY handicaps taking in to account each boat’s start and finish times. No personal handicaps apply.

As for pursuit races, all boats will sail the same course with no lap timing and should finish at a similar time but the first boat to cross the line may not necessarily win on handicap.

A word of warning for faster boats which are used to starting much later than the first start of a pursuit race: As there are two separate races going on, your starts may be earlier than expected. e.g. the Laser 2000 start will be at 04 minutes and the RS 400 start will be at 14 minutes.

When to Start?
A full list of start times is available HERE

FULL DETAILS

Schedule:
Sign on: 09:00 - 10:00 in the clubroom & collect ribbons (Slow = BLUE, Fast = YELLOW)
Briefing: 10:30
First Race: 11:00 (see Bart's Bash start times)
Second Race: 13:00 (see Bart's Bash start times)
Prizegiving: After Racing

Bart's Bash - 18 September 2016

Join the largest sailing event in the world on 18th September 2016!

The event coincides with the end of the Sunday Summer Series and the end of Oppie Club so we're hoping to make it a Brilliant Burghfield Bash!

Race format is the all new Pursuicap Race see above for details. And, in great news the Buoy Race (a fun time-trial for everyone to participate in) is back!

Pre-registration
Please pre-register for this event as soon as possible: via bartsbash.com

Fundraising
Whilst the racing is primarily for fun, we will also be raising money for the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.
The recommended donation is £5.00 but, if you'd like to donate more, please do so via the club's Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation's Just Giving page

More Details
For further information about Bart's Bash Click HERE

Kris will be providing catering all day, and it should be a great, fun event for all the family, sailors & landlubbers alike. So bring your friends, family and colleagues along and sign them up as a Bart's Buddy!

2016 Bart's Bash - 18 Sep 2016

Join the largest sailing event in the world!

The 2016 Bart’s Bash coincides with the Paralympic Closing ceremony in Rio on the 18th September so this year’s Bash will be focussing on raising funds and awareness for disabled sailing globally, allowing the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation to support disabled sailing programmes across the world.

Burghfield SC has already registered as one of the 100s of venues taking part in Bart's Bash this year. So why not sign up and join the World’s Largest Sailing Event!

We’ve been working our way up the infamous BashBoard

• 2014 - 10th Largest Fleet
• 2015 - 7th Largest Fleet

Lets see if we can make it into the top 5 in 2016!

For further details, and to sign up

Burghfield Blast Results - We have lift off!

With apologies for the delay - we have now ironed out the issues with the Burghfield Blast results and they have been uploaded HERE

Please take a look and let us know if there are any ongoing problems.

Burghfield Blast - 11th Sep 2016

What is it?

The short answer: Short course, rapid fire sprint racing.

Longer answer: We will try and set a course which will take 15-20 minutes with a finish on a separate line from the start but in the same area of the lake.

Initially, classes will start in the same sequence as for normal Sunday racing but as soon as all of a particular fleet has finished, they will be re-added to the back of the queue for another start. Given the right number of entries, we should also have a Juniors class for Oppies, Toppers, Fevas, Laser 4.7's etc.

In an ideal world, the races will take about the same length of time as a complete set of starts so you should have a few minutes to get your breath back and then be ready to go again.

How many races?

As many as we can. We will plan to race for about an hour and a half, then break for lunch, followed by another hour or two for more races. Depending on the conditions, we would be hoping for between 6-10 races per class.

What time?

There will be a briefing at 10.15 with the first start promptly at 11.00. Starting with the briefing makes LOTS of sense, however, boats will be welcome to join in whenever they turn up.

Sounds like a blast!

Yep, that's the idea. Short races are loads of fun. Lots of starts, lots of close tactics before the fleet gets spread out and if you have a bad race you get another chance almost straight away.

OK - so where do I sign up?

Just turn up on the day and sign in as normal, but please ensure that you are there in plenty of time for the briefing.

If you have any questions, please send a mail to

10 Sep 2016 - Saturday Safety Cover

Due to the inclement grey weather, the RS Open meeting in progress and lack of club sailors we have now stood down the Saturday Safety cover as of 13:30 today.

If you are planning to visit the club and go sailing, please pop into the club office before going afloat. Thank you.

2016 RS Aero Open

The 2016 RS Aero open meeting will take place at Burghfield on Saturday 10 September 2016. The event is open to all boats of the RS Aero class using any of the three rig options.

Pre-registration is now closed

Entry fees are:
Entry after 7 September/on the day: £15

Further Details

Fancy trying an RS Aero?

There will be a couple of RS Aero demo boats available on Sunday 11th to anyone at the club who fancies a go. The boats will be at the club all day and with the Burghfield Blast there is plenty of opportunity for anyone interested to race the boats as well. Please contact the office for more details.

Burghfield Sailability - Important Session Information

Burghfield Sailability: Important message to clients and visitors: as the nights are drawing in the last boat trip of the evening from this week (7 Sep) for the remainder of the sessions will be 7pm. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Team Building Fun!

Today we welcomed Gable Events Ltd and their clients to the club for an afternoon of team building and dragon boating! They picked a great day for it!

Burghfield Development Update

An email has been sent to all primary club members regarding an update to the Burghfield Development. The update can also be viewed Here

2016 Optimist Summer Open

What a great day at the club for the Optimist Summer Open Meeting, IOCA Thames Valley Area Championships, RYA South Zone Indicator & Rooster Optimist Southern Traveller Series. 121 entries & 6 races completed for both main and regatta fleets. Congratulations to all the prize-winners and many thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors.

Photos from Prize-giving
Full Results

Club Race Management Evening - Wed, 7th Sep 2016

This is an evening aimed at anyone interested in Race Management at Burghfield. 

It is especially relevant for all current and future SROs. 

The evening will focus on running the best club racing that we possibly can. 

It will be led by our club PRO and qualified National Race Officer, Ian Bullock, and will include sharing and discussion of hints, tips and best practice.

Evening starts at 19:30 and there will be a working supper at 20:15 approx.

If you have any particular areas of Race Management that you would like to ensure are addressed, please send an email to

View Attendees

Please note: Supper bookings are now closed. If you would like to attend the evening - please send an email to as soon as possible

Congratulations Prize Winners!

What a fabulous evening at the club!

Thank you to everyone who joined in with the Bloodbath, and/or supported the prize-giving.

A few photos from last night's prize giving are available on Burghfield's Facebook page (no login required).

Congratulations to all the prize-winners! If you were unable to attend the prize giving, your vouchers are available for collection from the club office. If you would like to donate them to Burghfield Sailability please let the office know.

It's going to be busy... Restricted Sailing - Sat 3rd Sep 2016

With 120 Optimists registered for the 2016 Optimist Summer Open meeting on Saturday 3rd September the clubhouse, grounds and water are going to be exceptionally busy.

Unfortunately this means that there will be very limited space on the water and on shore for casual sailors. All safety cover has been allocated to the event - normal Saturday Safety cover will not be operating.

If you are planning to visit the club, please call into the office before launching to check race areas and timings.

Thank you for your understanding.