Admiral's Club - Battle of Burghfield - 13th September

Round up the whole family and join in with the AC for the inaugural Battle of Burghfield!

An event for all family members which involves both sailing and strategic thinking in true 18th century naval battle style!

For those keen to win extra prizes there is also a Best dressed boat and crew competition. Get into the spirit of the day and dig out the bunting!

Please see the AC News pages for full details or email .

Bank Holiday racing

Mark Sollars who was race officer last Monday, for the final Bank Holiday series races, had a busy time with his camera from the committee boat.

Click below to browse the gallery of 56 images he managed to compile during the gusty conditions.

Bank Holiday Racing

Last of the Wednesday Evening Racing

Last wednesday saw the last of the wednesday eveing racing for the year and being prize giving a special race was put on to keep people entertained. Rather than the normal personal handicap pursuit format being used, an all in one start lap timed handicap race was the order of the day.

With 37 boats entered, this made for a long start line and the wind was very kind running striaght down the lake and making SRO Nick Martin's job nice and easy.

Full report

Comet Nationals

Chris Robinson, Burghfields one and only travelling Comet sailor, has just completed this years Comet Nationals which were held at Hunts Siling Club. Of the 27 comets who participated, Chris managed a very creditable 7th overall with his results improving throughout the competition.
For further details of the competition click here

Crowned again!

Club members, Graham and Zoe Camm fought a tough battle last week, with the results going down to the final race, but managed to hold onto the title of National Champions in the National 12 class for a second consecutive year. This was no mean feat as the conditions for the Burton Week where fairly wild at times and Graham and Zoe are very light in the boat.
This is not to say that the heavier teams did not do well and John and Katy Meadowcroft, the heaviest paring at Burton Week managed to win the prestigious Burton Cup in their new design Twleve.

Caroline Martin once again retained The Money Cup (awarded to the higest placed female helm) and came a very creditable 8th overall.
The remainder of the Burghfield contingent perhaps spent too much time planning for the annual 'dress as a twelve boat name' party held on the thursday evening!'

Overall the week was an absolute blast and further reports can be found using the link below

Burton week

More good results for BSC sailors in Eurocup

Zoe Noble, sailing with Stuart Bailey of Wilsonian & Medway, achieved a creditable fourth place in their first ever Iso event, the Eurocup held at Lake Maggiore from 2nd to 5th of August, which attracted 23 entries this year from 5 different countries.

A busy month continues for them with both the Merlin Nationals at Looe from 17th - 22nd, where their boat will be the 4th oldest among the entry of 78, followed by the Buzz Nationals at Paington from 23rd - 25th!

STOP PRESS NEWS: Congatulations to Zoe and Stuart who won the Buzz Nationals.

Read more about Eurocup in Yachts & Yachting...

Read more about Merlin Nationals...

BSC Oppies Give Rock the Hump!

Optimists make a welcome return to Junior Camel Week at Rock. Fraser Woodley wins the series, 9 other BSC juniors took part.

Ten BSC sailors entered Rock Sailing Club Junior Camel week, 26-30 July. The sailors enjoyed variable conditions and even when the wind reached 32 knots and the race was cancelled, some of the more experienced Oppie sailors went out for a session.

With only one race a day, it was not the most gruelling or competitive of events, but this left plenty of time for fishing and donoughting, courtesy of Brian the RIB.

The week is open to all single and double handed dinghy sailors under 18. Despite the organiser's fears about the suitability of 'bath-tubs' for sailing in the Camel Estuary, our Oppie sailors did themselves proud, with Fraser Woodley winning the series, Jenny Cropley 4th, Paddy Gannon 7th, Joe Woodley 8th, Emily Gent 12th, Matilda Dolin 18th, Pippa Cropley 28th, Dermot Gannon 39th, Nellie Gannon 40th. Matilda's brother, William, sailed a pico.

Read more in Yachts & Yachting...

BSC Wins Some Silver at Falmouth Week 2008

This famous annual West Country event is run by the renowned Restronguet Sailing Club, situated on the shores of Carrick Roads where a certain Mr. Ainslie learned his trade.

The event forms part of the larger “Falmouth Week” which offers racing for everything from 68m long Superyacht Classics, 25-50’ racing yachts, traditional working boats and many local One-Design keelboat classes.

The 6 day series offers 11 races of varied courses, a formidable round of complementary afternoon teas / jazz bands / parties hosted by each local sailing club as well as a major concert / party in the Falmouth Event Center each evening! It is a simply delightful package.

This year Burghfield SC were well represented by Amber & Jamie Brown in their Feva, Chris & Georgie Brown in a Laser 2000, Richard & Sophie Goss in their lovely white Enterprise and Sally Denchfield in an RS200.

Full report by Chris Brown...

The travelling season is upon us!

As ever the summer calls for travelling with your boat and seeing the sights whilst also taking on the competition and pitting yourself against their skills. And this year is no exception. Seven RS owner club sailors have recently returned from Lake Garda in Italy which though a long haul with a boat is worth it for the famed RS Eurocup event held there every year. A variety of classes attended including 200’s, 500’s and one 800, but it was the 200’s who showed the greatest strength in numbers from the club with 4 boat entering. Of those four Chris Martin & Rachel Harrison showed their intent for the forthcoming nations (to be held at Hayling Island SC) by coming 3rd overall, a great achievement in an entry of 57 boats. Trudie fell came a very creditable 15th and Paul and Corinne Whitbread 21st, Matt Dry and Hannah Sandstrom 36th. Paul and Corinne have showed massive improvements over the last 12months and could be a surprise at the coming nationals as on occasion they show blistering speed, posting a 3rd in one of the races at Garda.

Of the 15 RS 500’s that went to Garda, two were from Burghfield, Richard and Sue Morley and James Tanner and Lucinda Blain. Both had a very successful event in Italy and Richard and Sue managed to pip James and Lucinda by one point to come 7th and 8th respectively- well done.Meanwhile, Mark Duckworth and Emma Clarke took their new purchase of an 800 to the event and had a great time in what was the biggest fleet which had 66 entries.
Results

Moving on from Garda there are various events currently underway or forthcoming. The Optimist Nationals have again broken all records for attendance and are currently underway in Wales, Chris and Jill Jordan are currently in Penzance for the laser 2000 nationals and posted a 14th in yesterdays rather extreme racing conditions (30kts+) before deciding sensibly to sit out the second race. Hopefully the wind will have abated today! Camel week at Rock in Cornwall is underway and is always a popular venue for the blazes, this year being no exception with most of the club boats having made the trek southwest.

Burton Week (National12 nationals) starts next Sunday and almost a sixth of the entries for the event are coming from Burghfield including, last years national champions Graham & Zoe Camm- can they hold onto their title for another year…..?
Poole week is not far away and there are a few 400’s making the brief trek to take part in what is always a fun event, both on and off the water. Parkstone YC in Poole is also holding the OK Nationals from 23rd-29th August and so expect to see a few enttries for that from BSC. At the same time The Rs200s are at HISC for their nationals and I am sure that the turnout from the club will be large.

So if you are wandering why the club racing gets a bit quieter over the summer this should explain it! The standard of racing is very high at BSC and needless to say those who race like to pit themselves against other clubs at big events!

Firefly Nationals - Torbay

Last week saw the friefly Nationals in Torbay and two very strong contenders for the title went to the event from Burghfield. Mark Tait who is regularly seen sailing his Firefly at the club during Wednesday evening racing and Andrew and Liz Palmer-Feldgate, long term firefly sailors but who have recently been competing in their RS500 at the club, made the journey to Torbay. The winds for the week were very challenging, calling for all their skills to stay in contention. Mark had an excellent week and Held first place for a good deal of it and was in close second coming into the final race. In order to win he had to hold two boats behind him on the final race and so he did.... for most of it. However though he led for a good deal of the race by the finish line he had slipped to 8th leavind him in third overall at the end of the event. It should be noted that he competed in Firefly 498 which he had rebuilt himself and has an incredible history- having been used in Torbay for the 1956 Olympics!! So who is to say that a nice new shiny boat is needed to do well!

Andy and Liz also made very good progress through the week and managed 14th overall by the end, in a fleet of 68 boats. they are now looking forward to swapping boats and pitting their skills at the RS500 nationals to be held at Netley Abbey in Southampton Water from 15-19 August. Good Luck!

Results

Wednesday Evening Racing

We are shortly to be coming to the end of this years hugely successful wednesday evening racing series. The turnout for the racing looks like it is going to once again surpass all previous records which is quite an achievement when you consider last years statistics.

With only two races to go prizes for the late series will be awarded for the following qualifiers:

First six boats
1st optimist (not in top ten)
1st youth double hander (not in top ten)
1st youth single hander (not in top ten)
1st asymmetric boat (not in top ten)
1st fast handicap boat (not in top ten)
1st Laser (not in top ten)
1st slow handicap (not in top ten)
In addition prizes will be awarded to the highest and lowest handicap and top place with no discard.

Prize giving will take place on the 27th August and there will also be the Burghfield Bloodbath that evening. This is a final fun race for the the series and will be an all in one start lap timed handicap race, which should make the start quite interesting! THe race will start for all competitors at 7.00pm and prizegiving will be afterwards.

Hope to see you there

Burghfield sailors abroad

Last seen crewing a firefly on Wednesday evening Ally Martin joined up with Lucy Macgregor and her team to sail in the Lysekil Womens Match racing on the west coast of Sweden north of Gotenburg. .

The event is sailed in DS37 yachts. These are very big for this sort of event and each has a crew of six . It is backed by major sponsors and.has huge media coverage. The event attracted 7 of the top ten women match racers in the world. The weather was generally light winds and sun, so hundreds of spectators were able to watch the high class racing from the rocks only metres from the course.

The team had a brilliant regatta. At the end of the first round robin they were just in third place, behind the ISAF world ranked 1 and 2 match racers, having beaten several of the top 10 in the world. The quarter finals were more difficult but 2 wins out of 5 won them a place in the semi finals against Clare Leroy The world Number 1. At this stage the dream ended.

Lucy’s team was the youngest in the event. It was Lucy’s second grade 1 event and the first time in the DS37. I am sure that she and the rest of the team, Ally Martin on main, Annie Lush on jib/kite trim, Sue Monson in the pit, Jane Wellington at the mast and Ali Sutherland on bow must be very excited with their result.

More Info...