Last Chance for Feedback on Admiral's Club 2008 - take the survey


Summer 2008 - not much sun, too much rain and quite a lot of wind, but what about Admiral's Club?

Tell us which bits you liked, what we should do more of and what we should change.

Your last chance to take this quick survey - it's closing soon: Click Here to take survey

Laser Performance Sale

Are you in the market for a new boat? Or looking to buy some further bits for your current boat?

If so, you may be interested in the Laser Performance Sale that is taking place on Saturday 29 November.

Lasers from £2345 (saving £1920).
Laser Pico from £1695 (saving £970).
Laser 2000 from £5995 (saving £1834).
(From price for ex-display and ex-demo boats)

Up to 40% off spares, clothing and accessories.
Call 01327 841600 for more details, or visit Laser Performance in Long Buckby on Saturday 29th.

Credit Crunch Bites

With almost all other Junior/Youth events cancelled for the weekend, and 50 6-sailor teams competing it looked like it was going to be a no expenses spared, high profile event.

But, things are tough... and it looks like the credit crunch has hit the RYA hard. So hard in fact, that they've had to resort to Blue Peter meets Scrapheap Challenge (or maybe a re-run of Top Gear goes Sailing) to cobble together all the necessary resources...

Pictured is the finish "boat" at the RYA/ET Youth and Junior Team Racing Championship taking place at Oxford SC this weekend. Yes, it really is a pick-up cover lashed to a small (and apparently sinking) tiny dory! The finish team may be smiling in the photo but that was taken at 10.30am and they have 2 full days in that boat! So, if the results take longer than usual to make it to the website, apologies, but it's because Ian is swimming round the finish boat trying to find the only pen they have!

Meanwhile, there's 15 or so Burghfield Sailors taking part, split amongst 6 teams, and 2 fleets.

Post Race Update: With over 70 races per fleet completed by dusk (quite an achievement in itself!), all the teams appear to have come off the water having had a fantastic day's racing.

Results to follow.

And the Squads keep growing...

Missed from the initial lists .... (please let us know if anyone else is missing)

Callum Ellis is also in Feva national squad crewing for Ollie Cooper, having also secured a place in the 4.7 squad and new Burghfield member Chris Taylor got a Laser 4.7 squad place.

The Burghfield youth/junior sailors who have now secured places over the winter are:

29er
RYA Transition Training Squad: Art & Ed Romano

RS FEVAS
National Squad: Amber Brown & Jamie Brown, Kat Colvin, Callum Ellis

LASER 4.7
RYA National Junior Squad: Katie Russell, Chris Taylor, Callum Ellis

TOPPERS
RYA South Zone Squad: Lottie Harland, Matt Stephens

OPTIMISTS
IOCA National Squad: Issy Hamilton, Josh Voller, Sophie Hamilton, Robert Baddeley, Dan Bullock

IOCA Intermediate Squad: Luke Burywood, Fraser Woodley, George Gibson

IOCA Development Squad: Kat Colvin

RYA South Zone Squad: Jenny Cropley, Joe Woodley, Ed Curran, Sam Pearce, Matilda Dolin, Patrick Gannon

RYA South East Zone Squad: Jonathan Baddeley, James Taylor

Half-term holiday fun - Optimist and Topper coaching

For many of the Optimist and Topper sailors at the club, the October half-term school holidays presented an opportunity to get in a few days of quality coaching. The club organised 3 days of Optimist coaching, some of which was funded through the RYA using our Volvo Champion Club status, and two days of Topper coaching.

Twenty sailors with a spread in ability from just starting out in sailing to racing level attended the Optimist courses on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in weather that was a little chilly with a variety of winds. Enjoyable sessions were had by all with excellent feedback from sailors, parents and coaches alike. All felt that they had learnt lots and were keen to learn more. As a result quite a few are now planning on doing some of the 4 Clubs winter training and then venturing out onto the circuit.

On the Thursday and Friday ten Topper sailors took to the water in the still chilly and gustier conditions. The group consisted of sailors with a range of abilities from those who hadn’t yet done any racing to some competent racers. The club’s own Ian Harrison (a RYA senior instructor) did a great job in stretching all the sailors of whatever ability. Again, excellent feedback was received from all those involved. Following the course, more of club’s Topper sailors will now be venturing out onto the open circuit.

More squad places - RS Feva & 29er

Following on the successes to date of the Optimist, Topper and Laser 4.7 sailors, more Burghfield sailors have secured squad places, this time in the RS Feva National squad and the RYA Transition Training squad.

Amber and Jamie Brown, who many of you will have seen sailing their Feva at the club, have built on their successes over this year to gain a well earned place. They are joined in the National squad by Kat Colvin (who also secured an Optimist squad place a few weeks ago) who has recently taken to sailing a Feva by teaming up with friend Steph Harding (from Northampton SC, but a frequent visitor to the South).

In addition, in the Youth Classes, brothers Art & Ed Romano have secured a place in the RYA Transition Training Squad in their 29er.

Congratulations to all teams who join the other squad members in what must be a record year for youth/junior sailing at the club.

The Burghfield youth/junior sailors who have now secured places over the winter are:

29er
RYA Transition Training Squad: Art & Ed Romano

RS FEVAS
National Squad: Amber Brown & Jamie Brown, Kat Colvin & Steph Harding

LASER 4.7
RYA National Junior Squad: Katie Russell

TOPPERS
RYA South Zone Squad: Lottie Harland, Matt Stephens

OPTIMISTS
IOCA National Squad: Issy Hamilton, Josh Voller, Sophie Hamilton, Robert Baddeley, Dan Bullock

IOCA Intermediate Squad: Luke Burywood, Fraser Woodley, George Gibson

IOCA Development Squad: Kat Colvin

RYA South Zone Squad: Jenny Cropley, Joe Woodley, Ed Curran, Sam Pearce, Matilda Dolin, Patrick Gannon

RYA South East Zone Squad: Jonathan Baddeley, James Taylor

Feedback on Admiral's Club 2008 - take the survey

Summer 2008 - not much sun, too much rain and quite a lot of wind, but what about Admiral's Club?

Tell us which bits you liked, what we should do more of and what we should change.

Take this quick survey: Click Here to take survey

BSC National 12 sailors at the Inlands 2008

Four teams of BSC National 12 sailors headed to Northampton SC last weekend for the combined last national ranking Gill series event and Inland Championships.

Though the forecast was fairly grim, with chilly temperatures, high winds and driving rain, the last of the three largely managed to hold off whilst the racing took place and only dampened the spirits of the evenings fireworks.

The sailing was both testing and fantastic with almost all competitiors managing a swim at some point over the weekend!

For more information about what was a fantastic weekend's sailing and true indication of how exciting a 12 can be to sail Click Here

Oppie Club 2009

Although Oppie Club (OC) is over for the year it's not very long until the start of next season - just got to get past Christmas and we will be there!

So, although many of you may have put the boat away for a while, we hope that you can turn your thoughts to OC 2009.

BSC is the envy of many clubs up and down the country for its Junior Sailing - this year our club had junior sailors compete for and win places in a whole host of racing squads - probably more than any other club in the country. Virtually all those sailors started out in our own OC. As parents we are sure that you would like to maintain that enviable reputation and give your up and coming sailors the chance to be part of that success in the future - a strong OC is right at the heart of that process.

OC is changing for 2009 and that process starts today. The changes need the help of those parents with children who will be in OC next year. To learn more, click here…

Bonfire Success

Despite the weather the club was packed last night for the Bonfire and Fireworks party. We did consider postponing it due to the weather but in the end a huge number of people turned out for the evening.

A massive thank you is due to all of the people who helps set this up. In particular:

Pete and Ellen Colvin for constructing a mammoth bonfire in pretty appalling conditions. They were helped by Steve (I think that's right) and Ian who is not even a club member.

Adrian for sourcing, setting up and running the fireworks in very unpleasant conditions. Also for the last minute use of his music system which gave the evening such a lift.

Jeremy, Ian, Fiona and many others for running the catering.

Pat and Andy Forbes for manning that gate (very unpleasant) and the bar.

I am sure that others helped that I was not aware of so thanks to them as well.

A word of warning: Look at the list of names above and compare it to any event in the last few years. You will find that it is very similar. It seems to be getting harder and harder to get volunteers so it often ends up with a few key people heavily overworked.

Events like the party last night are in jeopardy, please look for opportunities to help in the future to ensure that they don't become impossible to run.