Admiral's Club News Page - Burghfield Sailing Club

News Section...

We will update all of our news below - please put this page in your favourites for up to the minute news (http://www.burghfieldsailing.org/acnews).

For those who wonder what the AC is all about please follow this link for more details. Or even better, come along to one of our events!

Admirals Club Weymouth Trip July 2009

During the last weekend of July, 23 sailors from Burghfield headed down to the coast to sail at the 2012 Olympic site at Weymouth. For many of the group, a mixture of Admirals club and non Admirals club members, this was their first ever experience of dinghy sailing outside of the relative calm of an inland lake.

We enjoyed plenty of wind and sun, and over the two days got used to the bigger waves and sea spray in our faces – lots of us had to reef our dinghies for the first time ever, whilst others experienced their boats ‘turning turtle’ – not usually a problem for us here at Burghfield! It was however great being able to set a course and sail with consistent winds for much longer distances, and on the Sunday, we set out on a longer trip to explore the boundaries of the huge harbour area. Thankfully, help was generally close at hand from Jeremy and George, in Eric the rib, to deal with the odd broken halyard or booms falling off!

WPNSA facilities were excellent, especially the non stoney launch area, and Sail Laser, from whom some of us chartered Lasers, Picos and Laser 2000s could not have been more helpful. Many of us stayed at Boscowan house, which provided hostel style accommodation near to the sailing facilities and a large group of us enjoyed dinner at one of the new restaurants that is springing up near this great sailing facility.

Many thanks to Nik and Hilary Bratton for their excellent organisation, and to Jeremy and George who gave up their weekend to drive the rib and provide us with safety cover and some structure. It was an excellent weekend that is definitely to be repeated next year, so keep an eye out for the publicity in January 2010 and get your bookings in early!

For photos see here

Development Day - 16th May 2009

Our next Admiral's Club event is a Development Day on Saturday 16th May open to all members of BSC with asymmetric dinghies, who are either new to asymmetric sailing, or for those who are just looking to improve their skills.

If you have an asymmetric dinghy and have never found the courage to hoist that spinnaker, then this is the day for you.

It will teach you how in a safe environment, with plenty of encouragement from the trainers and other sailors in the group. It will add another dimension to sailing that is tremendous fun.

So take advantage of this exciting and fun opportunity to join in with others who are interested in extending the range of their sailing skills.

Nothing to pay, but to help us manage numbers, please book your place by emailing by Wednesday 13th May.

On the day, be rigged and ready to sail at 13:30, or maybe come a little earlier to join other AC/BSC members for lunch in the club house first from 12:30 onwards!

There will still be plenty of 'non asymmetric' AC sailors around that afternoon, so if this development day isn't for you, do still come down to the club for a sail on 16th May.

2009 Treasure Hunt a sell-out!

Thanks again to Nik and Hilary for organising another fantastic start of season Treasure Hunt on 2nd May. We had well over 20 boats competing and the queues to register for the event stretched the whole length of the upstairs bar area of the club house.

This time all boats had to sail to the Oppie pontoon behind pylon island before they could even find out what the treasure hunt was to involve - a challenge for some as the wind dropped quite early in the afternoon. Once at the pontoon, we picked up a copy of the nautical alphabet, in the form of the 'signal flags' and instructions to sail round some bouys and identify a well known BSC Committee member on the way, as well as picking up a few 'treasures' such as mussel shells and stones with holes.

A good number of clever participants worked out that flags on the 9 labelled bouys spelt 'TREASURER' and turned up back at the club house with their treasures in time for the time honoured 4.00 prize giving of chocolates. Some of us were a little slower in getting back to the club (not enough wind!) but had a great sail anyway!

2009 Admiral's Club kicks off Saturday with annual Treasure Hunt

A warm welcome to everyone who is eagerly anticipating joining our AC band for the first event in our 2009 calendar.

We will start the season with a fun event which is fast becoming an AC tradition: the Treasure Hunt. This event has proved to be very popular in previous years with all ages, and will include some of the previous favourite elements, together with the introduction of some new ones to keep you on your toes.

So please ensure Saturday 2nd May is in your diary.

Come along and be rigged and ready to sail at 13:30, or perhaps join us a bit earlier at 12:30 for a spot of lunch (prices are very reasonable).

No need to book, nothing to pay, just turn up. Meet up in the bar after every event

For further information, or if you have any queries, contact:

2008 Survey Results

Thanks to the people who responded to the Admiral's Club 2008 Survey.

The full results are available here (pdf) Survey Results.

The highlights of the survey were:

Our goal is to "to cater for those sailors who enjoy the social side of sailing more than racing". Everyone thought we had achieved this either "Very well" or "Fairly well" in 2008
Everyone thought it was an appropriate goal to continue for next year
90% of people were looking for "More of the same" for next year

With this input, the Admiral's Club committee is finalising the programme for next year, with more of the same, but a few new additions as well.

13th September 2008 - Battle of Burghfield!!

Bring the whole family along to the inaugural Battle of Burghfield!!

An excellent event has been organised which will involve sailing, strategy, attack, defence, cannonballs (soft ones), island raiding and general all round team based fun!

The event will use the club toppers for island raiding but please rig your own battleship for the other elements of the battle. The event will follow strict sailing rules and has been planned to ensure there is no boat to boat (or officer to officer) battling!!

Equally importantly there will be 2 prizes for Best Dressed Battleship and Best Dressed Crew so dig out the bunting and naval outfits and get into the spirit of the battle!

Battle will commence at 1.30pm in the Officers Mess (Club House).

For further details please contact

5th July 2008 - It's a Knock Out!!

On Saturday it is the 2nd Admiral's Club It's a Knock Out!

Last years event was a resounding success and saw over 30 people taking part. The emphasis is on 'family fun' so bring the whole family down for an afternoon of sailing, obstacles courses and general all round wetness!

The events use the club boats so you don't need to rig up before hand and we will start with a briefing at 1pm in the clubhouse.

Teams will be of 8 people (or so) so either come as a unit or come on your own and we will organise teams on the day.

Following the It's a Knock Out there is a club 100 minute pursuit race starting at 4.30pm - we've arranged for all AC Members/participants to have a 6 minute handicap. For those who haven't raced before this is an excellent handicap and will prove a great introduction to racing. The race is an informal way of getting everybody in the mood for...

THE SUMMER PARTY! Don't forget to buy your tickets for Saturday night - after drying off from It's a Knock Out and pursuit racing get your party gear on for an evening of dancing, eating & the odd fizzy drink! Tickets available from the bar and are £12 adult and £8 junior.

28th June 2008 - Development Day

Saturday 28th June was the next installment of the AC Development Days.

The weather was quite windy (90% of people capsized - some twice!) but good practice in use of kicker, mark rounding and race starting was had under the expert tuition of Richard, George & Jeremy.

Don't miss out on the next one.

Novice Race 1 (31st May 2008) - Results!!

Saturday 31st saw the 1st novice race (and race training session) of 2008.

It was an excellent session run by Richard Goss, George Rowland & Jeremy Carey - our thanks to them.

The results are now available here

Looking forward to the next one on 19th July.

14th June 2008: Try a boat

14th June was a really enjoyable 'Try a Boat' AC afternoon.

It was great to see some new faces and also to see people coming back to their 2nd/3rd AC sessions.

'Try a Boat' sessions are great for meeting new people as crews/helms and boats are being swapped all afternoon!

The next 'Try a Boat' is on the 23rd August but don't forget you can always contact the club office to book any of the club boats for most weekends!

17th May 2008 - Development Day

Saturday the 17th May was the 1st AC development day for 2008.

An excellent day was had by those who attended. Nick Martin provided a great coaching session with not very much notice so many thanks to Nick.

Treasure Hunt Report

Jay's excellent report from the AC Treasure Hunt 2008 can now be found here.

New Brochure for 2008...

Our new 2008 Admiral's Club Brochure can be downloaded here!

27th September 2007 - Admiral's Cup & End of Season Tea Party

Saturday 27th is the last event of the season for the Admiral's Club.

Please join us at 1.30pm for our Admiral's Cup - a novice handicap race designed to introduce you to racing. Perhaps to prepare you for Wednesday evenings??

Following the race we are having an end of season Tea Party so please bring an empty mug and a piece of cake and we'll provide an urn and the tea bags - very civilised!

See you Saturday.