Burghfield Sailing Club

19th May

Light Airs and Sunshine at the Optimist Inland Championships

Whilst the club was hosting its annual open day a large contingent of our Optimist sailors were at Grafham Water this weekend (18th / 19th May) for the Optimist Inland Championships. The winds were light all weekend and quite shifty at times making tricky conditions for the sailors but the bright sunshine on Sunday was a bonus for the spectators.

In a main fleet of 210 competitors the Fox brothers were the stars of the show for Burghfield on this occasion with Fergus finishing 61st and Harry 66th. The full Burghfield results were:

61st Fergus Fox , 66th Harry Fox 95th Douglas Calder, 101st Dermot Gannon, 145th Peter Baddeley , 151st Joshua Thomas, 175th India Page-Wood, 194th Connie Stevens

Harry Fox won the Edmund Spalding Trophy for the sailor with the most improved position from the previous Inland Championship.

In the Regatta Fleet for the less experienced sailors who are just starting out racing, David Calder was the sole club representative in a fleet of 50 sailors. His performances improved as the weekend progressed culminating in a win in the final race of the series and a final placing of 4th overall.

Next stop for our Optimist sailors will be some of the south coast open events during June before then heading to Scotland and the National Championships which this year are being held in Largs during the summer holidays.

BSC and BSTC Open Day

2013 Saturday 18th May from 11am until 4pm

Saturday 18th of May sees the The Club and Sailing School open the doors again to welcome anyone who would like to find out more about learning, sailing and racing at Burghfield Sailing Centre. Weather permitting there will be the chance for all visitors to get out on the water with our crews and experience the fun of sailing. Last year we made over 200 runs with visitors of all ages; many of whom decided to join us on the spot.

Visitors should bring a spare set of clothes and shoes on the day, something to change into if they get wet. Hot food will be available all day in the Club House where everyone can relax and talk to other club members to gain an insight into the activities at this flourishing sailing venue.

If you enjoy sailing at Burghfield please encourage your friends, neighbours and colleagues to come a give us a try. The more the merrier.

Please click below to see the poster.

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12th May

RYA Eric Twiname Championships 2013

Rutland Sailing club 11th-12th May 2013

The pinnacle of the RYA racing calendar for the RYA Zone and Home Country Squads, the Championships which is now in its 27th year, pit the nine squad teams against each other over two days for the prestige of picking up the coveted Eric Twiname Shield and being named top RYA Zone.

Burghfield had three Optimist sailors in the team of ten, representing the South Zone Optimist squad. Dermot Gannon, Douglas Calder and Peter Baddeley all did their part in ensuring that RYA South Zone won the top Optimist Zone and the Eric Twiname Dinghy Trophy which is awarded to the Zone performing best from the top two dinghy classes out of the three.

Full Results

11th May

Challenger Open - 10th & 11th May

On Friday the 10th and Saturday 11th May Burghfield SC and Burghfield Sailability hosted the annual Challenger Open.

10 boats entered the event from as far afield at Rutland SC. The sailors and their teams were met with a range of conditions with some particularly tricky winds on the Saturday!

For a full report please click the link below:

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For pictures of the event:

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There is a gallery available to view on his website.

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RS200 ladies open meeting / training: 8 June 2013

Are you a girly 200 helm?

Do you like prosecco?

Do you enjoy going racing but sometimes feel a little intimidated by open meetings or get fed up by being out-hiked by boys? If so, this could be the event for you… We are running a one day coached open meeting specifically for girly RS200 helms.

Please pre-enter on the link below to give us an idea of numbers. Any questions please call Ellie Martin on 07809 628475.

More Info

Entry Form

View Entries

7th May

Prize giving

The frostbite prize giving will be held on Sunday 19th May at 1pm.

Afternoon racing will follow as normal.

4th May

Windy Treasure Hunt

A windy Treasure Hunt was the first Saturday sailing event of the year, and it saw 30 people in 18 boats on the water today, coping with gusts over 30 knots. After a tie with 7 correct answers from the fiendish 'What Knot' board, the first prize was won by Team Bullet (Jeremy and Sofia) with this limerick:

There once was a sailor from Burghfield
Who tacked on the lake and said "Sir, Yield
"You're on the port tack
"So you must go back"
But he sank and his fate was Grrrr! Sealed!

A great start to the season for Saturday sailing and watch out for other Saturday sailing events like the Development days.

1st May

A great day for Burghfield junior Sailors at Banbury Optimist Open

Burghfield's younger members had a good show at the Banbury Open on 17th April, the narrow north/south lake had 12-17 knots from the NE, challenging conditions for the 6 main fleet sailors, and a significant test for the 3 new regatta fleet sailors. The conditions were quite squally, shifty and very testing for many of the young sailors.

There were 34 entrants in total and we had 4 sailors in the top 10, the highest place being Douglas Calder coming 5th, India and Joshua continue to make steady progress, Harry looked comfortable in the conditions, Peter showed good determination and Dermot demonstration of clever starting, port tacking the fleet twice. David Calder won the regatta fleet, closely followed by Oliver Woodley and Jacob Allsop. Our next mass outing are the Inlands at Grafham on 18-19 May, with an ex Commodore as Regatta fleet PRO and 9 sailors attending.

28th April

Close Sailing at Burghfield Comet Open

The Comet Open on Saturday 27th April, held in conjunction with the Solo and OK Opens, was a great success, with eleven helms from ten different clubs sailing.

The shifty wind was punctuated by some very windy squalls throughout the day, which made the sailing very challenging at times.

The clear winner was Ian Stone from Maidenhead, who won all four races. However, behind him the racing was very close, with a different helm coming second in each race. Third place was a three way tie on points, with Burghfield sailor Chris Robinson taking third on count back.

Junior Sailing!

Following the success of Saturday's first Junior Sailing session there have been more added! As well as this, we are encouraging Junior Sailors to get involved in some of the Admirals Club events!

4th May- Admirals Club Treasure Hunt.
18th May- Burghfield SC Open Day
6th July- Family Fun Day - For more details and Cardboard raft race rules see 6th Jul Calender entry.

Specific Junior Sailing dates:

1st June, 22nd June, 20th July.

Whether you are a racer or a social sailor time on the water is important! Come down and try different boats, with all club boats available, Including: RS Fevas, Toppers, RS Q'bas, Oppis, RS Visions and lasers!

See who is coming on the facebook events, make sure you click attending and tell your friends!

To see Facebook Events page Click Here

9th April

Introduction to Racing - Wednesday 10th April

Wednesday Evening Pursuit Racing starts again on Wednesday 17th April and Rob Martin, Principal Race Officer, is giving a shore based presentation on Wednesday 10th April as an introduction to racing.

If you haven’t raced before, need a refresher or would like to pick up some tips, this is an ideal opportunity to find out more. Rob will talk about the pursuit race format and the personal handicap system. If requested we can also cover the Sunday racing format. We will then break for a meal and continue afterwards with a short introduction to racing for those who have not raced before. Nothing too complex, just how to get around the course safely and enjoy the racing.

Please register now if you plan on attending so that Kyran,our caterer can get an idea of numbers.

Register Here

8th April

Blaze Open - 6th & 7th April 2013

The second of the two experimental 2 day open meetings took place at the weekend. Hard to believe it was only two weeks after the recent ice age that cancelled the N12's open, as sunshine greeted 26 Blazes.

A different weather problem on Sunday morning; no wind, which threw the planned interleaved racing into disarray. The race teams rose to the challenge and once some wind appeared managed to fit 2 club races & 3 Blaze races in.

Full Report

Results

Photos

24th March

Blaze Open - 6th & 7th April 2013

The first event in the 2013 Blaze Traveller series will be held at Burghfield on 6th & 7th.

More info here.

General open meeting info

Club sailors please note that the normal club races will still happen. If the weather co-operates the plan is to interleave the Blaze races with club races. The morning club race is due to start at the normal time of 11am, the afternoon race will have a slightly later start of 2pm.

Solo, Comet and OK Open- 27th April 2013

Burghfield's Solo, Comet and OK Open Meeting will be on Saturday 27th April. The club utilises a pre-booking system to aid in planning for events so please use the link below to enter.
Pre-entry entitles you to save on the entry fee (£10 pre-booked, £12 entering on the day).

Pre-entry for the event closes on Thursday 25th April, after which normal entry fee applies.

First race not starting before 11am. NOR and further information for visitors is available using the links below.

Entry Form Here

Open Meeting info here

23rd March

Solo winter series trophy presentation

The presentation for the Solo winter series trophy which was calendared for this Sunday day has had to be postponed due to unforseen circumstances.
The presentation will now take place at a later date, time of which to be confirmed.

22nd March

National 12 Open Postponed

Unfortunately due to the rather inclement weather forecast over the weekend the decision has been taken to postpone the National 12 Open which was due to take place this weekend(23-24 March). We will look to re-schedule the event later in the year.

Thank you to all those who had volunteered to help and apologogies for the short notice of postponement.

To keep things simple, club racing will remain at the delayed start time of 12.30

20th March

Late start for Club racing this Sunday

Club racing will have a delayed start this Sunday (24th March) to allow the National 12's to try out a new format of two day racing. 12's will be racing from 10am to just before midday (two races back to back) as part of their two day national ranking series open.

Club sailors will then take to the water for a midday start. Lunch will follow with the pm race taking place after. Please remember that there is also prize giving over lunch for recent club series including last weekends Commodore's cup.

This format for an open event was put to club racers last Autumn and was agreed to trial at this event. The Blaze two day open takes place in April and is taking a slightly different format on the Sunday, holding three races, one at 10am before club racing and two back to back over club racers normal lunch period.

Both events are a trial format so please feel free to feedback to committee members on what you thought of them so that they can be effectively appraised.

19th March

Burghfield Topper Open 2013

The Burghfield Topper Open on March 16th was the first event in the year of the Topper Southern Traveller series. Although there was a cold wind and occasional rain this did not detract from what was a cracking day of racing. The wind was a good force 3 gusting to force 4 which changed enough to make the Race Officer, Steve Townsend, provide a variety of courses. The wind and cold did, eventually, tire out some of the sailors as well as some of us old geezers in the committee and rescue boats.

The fleet of ten boats was small, but of very consistent quality. The Trophy winners were;

1st Ben Whaley from Swanage
2nd Will Birch-Tomlinson from Hayling
3rd Nathaniel Gordon from Parkstone

We were pleased to be able to award the prize for the 1st Burghfield sailor to Hanna Comfort. She was able to keep pace with the lead boats who were unquestionably fine sailors.

The comments from the committee boat usually referred to the competent starting positions and excellent boat handling skills of all competitors. It was a great day and a pleasure for Burghfield to be able to host this event.

11th March

Burghfield Optimists Spring in 2013 Action.

Last weekend (9th & 10th March) saw six of our young Optimist sailors head east for the Optimist Spring Championships hosted jointly by Dabchicks Sailing Club and West Mersea Yacht Club. This was a new location for the event and the strong tidal conditions certainly presented additional challenges which were new for our sailors.

With 140 entries in total the fleet was split into flights for the three races on Saturday which would determine qualification for the Sunday Gold and Silver fleets. Top race result of the day was Fergus Fox with a 14th in his first race.

At the end of the day Fergus along with Peter Baddeley and Douglas Calder all qualified for the Gold fleet whilst Connie Stevens, India Page-Wood and Joshua Thomas for whom this was their first big Optimist event qualified for the silver fleet.

On the Saturday evening all six combined to put a Burghfield team into the sailors quiz and came 4th overall competing against many older and even some adult teams!!

Sunday dawned with sleet, snow and bitterly cold conditions for the sailors to contend with but they persevered and battled hard to achieve good results and gain some great experience for the year ahead.

Overall results were:

Gold Fleet
53rd - Douglas Calder
66th - Peter Baddeley
67th - Fergus Fox

Silver Fleet
38th - Joshua Thomas
45th - India Page-Wood
52nd - Connie Stevens

Well done to all our sailors and good luck for the rest of the season.

8th March

Prizegiving

For the Frostbite Series, the Solo Winter Series and The Commodore’s Cup will take place at lunch time on Sunday 24th March.

Come and cheer on the leaders as they step up to the podium.

23rd February

Topper Traveller

Saturday 16th March

The first of the Southern Traveller Series will be here on Saturday 16th March.

Below you can find a links to the NOR and the SI's. We are hoping for a big turn out for the first Traveller of the year.

More Info...

26th January

Photo by James Clayton, click to enlarge

Burghfield Optimist Winter Open Meeting 2013

The first sunny and relatively warm day of the year greeted sailors to the Burghfield Sailing Club Optimist Open. The wind appeared on cue at the start of the race to give a steady 10 knot breeze throughout the day. This proved perfect conditions for beginners and experienced alike. The event was organised by David Baddeley who has run it for a number of years and the Race Officer was Ian Bullock who likewise has been volunteering his expertise for our great benefit. The Regatta Fleet race was run by Frazer Woodley assisted by Patrick Gannon. The fleet was coached around the course by Robert Baddley and Louise Hughes both of them accomplished Oppie sailors.

The main fleet totalled 36 and the first three results were;

1st Max Clapp (Royal Southern YC)
2nd Milo Gill-Taylor (Spinnaker)
3rd Robbie King (Warsash)

We awarded a prize to the top Burghfield sailor- Douglas Calder who came 19th

The top three of the eight strong regatta Fleet sailors were;

1st Keelin Greene (PaperCourt)
2nd Theo Gumbley (Wierwood SC)
3rd David Calder (Burghfield)

All contenders can pride themselves that they competed, in the main Fleet, by some of the best sailors in the country and it was also the first experience of racing for some of the sailors in the regatta Fleet.

We very much look forward to welcoming all the sailors back to race again next year.

Charles Gilchrist
(Rear Commodore Sailing)

23rd January

Prizegiving 27th January

Prizegiving for the Autumn and Christmas series will take place on Sunday 27th January in the Clubhouse.

This year we have revamped the prizes to make them more versatile. The certificates will be acceptable for redemption at the Clubhouse Bar and Canteen, as well as Mayday Chandlery. First prizes can also be exchanged for glassware available from the office. Sailability will willingly accept donated vouchers.

The prize structure has changed too;

1st Prize £8.00
2nd Prize £5.00
3rd Prize £3.00

14th January

Lottie Haralnd - 2012 Young Sailor of the Year

RYA Regional Young Sailor of the Year award

Lottie Harland from Burghfield Sailing Club was presented with the prestigious RYA Thames Valley and London Regional Young Sailor of the Year Award 2012 at the Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show on Saturday 12 January 2013.

Lottie was nominated for the award by the club for her enthusiasm in helping out at the club, motivating other junior sailors, and for helping at the club’s Sailability sessions one evening each week over the summer.

Lottie does all of this in addition to competing in her Laser Radial nationally and internationally and being selected at the end of last year for the demanding RYA Volvo National Youth Squad.

Read more about the award on the RYA website…

9th January

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