Bonfire Night and Fireworks - 1st November

Come down to the Club on Saturday 1st November for the Burghfield Bonfire at 6.30 pm which will be followed by a fabulous firework display over the water. Keep the kids amused next week by preparing entries for the Pumpkin carving competition and a Build a Guy competition.

Entry on the gate is £2 per person or £5 per family.

Hot dogs and burgers will be available from the barbecue.

RNLI Christmas Cards

The RNLI were unable to man a stand earlier this month at the RNLI/Sailability Challenge but will be at the Club on Sunday 2nd November from 10 am taking orders for Christmas Cards. This is your chance to get your cards early and save postage and packing.

RS200 & RS400 Open Results

Saturday the 25th of October saw the RS200 and RS400 classes hold their Annual open event at the club and up until the actual day the forecast was showing it might be quite a challenge with a 16-20Knot Sourtherly on the cards.

However as competitors began to arrive on the day the lake was telling a different story and its mirror like complexion was not giving much hope. By 11am the wind had begun filling and it continued throughout the day enabling both fleets, after a brief postonement in the morning, to complete three good windward leward races each.

For a full report and links to the results click here

Burghfield 1, 2 at Grafham

Half a dozen Burghfield Optimist sailors attended Grafham Optimist Open on 25th October. Congratulations, to Fraser Woodley who won the event and Luke Burywood for 2nd place.

Full results can be found in the Results section of the IOCA website

An extra hour in bed!

Don't forget the clocks go back tonight......

Burghfield Optimist Sailors on TV!

Channel Five’s Simon Vigar investigates how a sportsman needs to be mentally as well as physically strong if we are to repeat our Olympic success in 2012.

Great Britain's medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics brought home 19 golds, 13 silvers, and 15 bronzes.

However, how do we define our future sports stars? Watch the report to find out

Courtesy of Channel Five News

The Hare & the Tortoise

(aka. The arduous route to the 21st International Opti Team Cup on Lake Wannsee, Berlin)

The great tale of the Hare (Mr Hamilton, 3 Burghfield Oppie Sailors, 2 Additional Optimist Sailors, 1 other Grown-up, cars, trains, a plane & a taxi) and the Tortoise (Messrs Bullock & Baddeley + 5 boats, a wibbly-wobbly trailer, an RYA van & a ferry) began this afternoon.

Currently, the Hare is delayed at Luton, but the Tortoise is 2 hours ahead of schedule boarding the ferry to Calais.......let battle commence!!

Result to be announced tomorrow 10am!
Update - in true fairytale fashion, whilst the Hares ate and slept peacefully in their Berlin Hotel, the Tortoise crept through, France, Belgium and Germany to reach the club 2.5 hours ahead of schedule.....and more importantly, BEFORE the Hares!!

For those who want to watch the action (once the sailors get out on the water) the web cam at the sailing club can be found here.

Updates on the event can be found Here

Another Burghfield Majority!

On Thursday three of Burghfield's optimist sailors will travel out to Germany for the 21st International Opti Team Cup on Lake Wannsee, Berlin, next weekend.

Robert Baddeley, Sophie Hamilton and Dan Bullock all secured places in the British 5-boat team. If you were down at the club this weekend you may have noticed them honing their team racing skills under the guidance of Greg Eaton. Good Luck to them all!

Endeavour Trophy, 2008

Burghfield Sailors, Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne produced a fantastic third place in this year's Endeavour Trophy held at Royal Corinthian Yacht Club this weekend.

The Endeavour "Champions of Champions" trophy is truly the holy grail of Dinghy sailing in the UK. Only current National champions are invited so being there at all is an honor but to come away with a podium finish is outstanding.

Well done!

More Info...

October Half-Term Topper Training

During the October school half-term holidays, Ian Harrison will be delivering two days of training to Burghfield Topper sailors. Ian is a senior RYA instructor and a successful ex-Topper sailor himself and now races a variety of high performance dinghies.

The training will take place on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st October. This is an excellent opportunity to get some intensive coaching with a senior instructor for a full two days - it's surprising how quickly skills can be advanced with such focused time compared to the couple of hours of a normal Sunday training session at the club.

The training is open to all abilities upwards of RYA 2 or equivalent. It will not be out and out race training, but will be more focused on building and refining boat handling skills and so Ian will use exercises that can be applied across a range of abilities.

The cost of this coaching, based on a group of 6 sailors, will be around £35 per sailor for the two day course (£20 for one day). The group will be limited to around 8 sailors. Final costs will be confirmed once we know numbers.

If we can organise a house parent rota from those involved we will also be able to have parents leave sailors at the club during the day if they have work or other commitments. Sailors will need to bring their own lunch and refreshments and be suitably clothed for the prevailing conditions.

There are some club Toppers that are available for use on a first come basis - these need to be booked with the office and the appropriate fee paid to the club.

If you are interested in this coaching, please send an e-mail to as soon as possible (places are offered on a first come basis) containing the following information:

Sailors name:

E-mail address:

Would you like to participate on both days, Thursday 30th Oct and Friday 31st October?: Yes/No

If No, would you like to participate on

Thursday 30th October?: Yes/No

Friday 31st Oct?: Yes/No

(The most benefit would be gained from doing both days and priority will be given to those booking both days, but if you only wish to do one day, please indicate your preference for which)

Short description of sailors current abilities:

Once numbers are known you will receive an e-mail with course details and the payment due to secure the place.

October Half-term Optimist Course

Following the successful Optimist coaching courses over the Easter holidays, BSC Junior Sailing is pleased to announce a new three day Optimist course during the coming October half-term holiday from Monday 27th - Wednesday 29th October.

The course is aimed at all Burghfield Optimist sailors - from those who have been attending Start Sailing regularly up to those in the Silver fleet. The three day course is subsidised by the RYA and so will cost just £40 per sailor! Places are limited and strictly on a first come basis. Places are only confirmed when we receive payment for the course. So don't delay - sign up now!

The course will run from 9am - 5pm each day and we are hoping that with parental help we can organise a house parent rota enabling sailors (over 8 years old) to be left at the club each day for the duration of the course.

A number of polypropylene Oppies are available at £15 for use in Start Sailing to G2 (again on a first come basis).

All sailors will require either a full length wetsuit or a drysuit as the weather can be unpredictable at this time of year. Parents will also need to provide a packed lunch each day.

Click here to sign up now...

Cock of Burghfield

This Sunday (5th October) sees our annual 'RNLI/Sailability - Cock of Burghfield' open race day. Advertised in the printed calendar as being three pursuit races, we have decided to change the format slightly and reduce the number of races to two, with no discards. The first race will be a 100 minute pursuit starting at 11am, and the second race will take place after lunch.

The length of the second race will be announced on the day and will be based on the number of entrants, but will either be another 100min pursuit (if demand is popular), or a slightly shorter 70min pursuit.

As a charity event, all donations to the RNLI or BSC Sailability will be gratefully received, and can be made at the clubhouse bar where there will be collection containers. Unfortunately both "official" containers were stolen at the last break-in.