read our club news

Massive congratulations to Blackwater Sailing Club sailors who have won the famous transatlantic ARC race from Gran Canaria to St Lucia. ‘Sunbeat VI’ finished the crossing in 18 days to not only win their monohull class D but they also achieved the fantastic result of first overall out of the 95 competing cruisers!

The Dehler 42 was skippered by Steve Kuhl and crewed by Drac Norman, Tim Gratey, Angela Docherty, Ed Sadd and Nigel Clark with shoreside support from Andy Pickering.

The full results can be seen here

On Friday 18th November, Blackwater Sailing Club members and their guests packed into the beautifully restored 17th century thatched Essex Barn function suite at Channels, Chelmsford for our black-tie Laying up Supper. Everyone looked very smart in their finery and there was a great atmosphere with the venue looking very festive and decorated for Christmas.

After grace from the Rear Commodore, Sheena Berney, everyone settled down to enjoy a delicious three course meal with friendly and efficient service from the house. During coffee, the raffle was drawn. Thanks to the generosity of members, we had some amazing prizes including a delicious looking (and tasting) showstopper lemon cake made by Zoe. The raffle was followed by the 200 Club draw.

Without further ado, DJ Mitch Fisk entertained us with his mix of music and the dance floor was quickly full of people showing off their moves. As usual, the Friday Sailors energised themselves with ‘fortified’ coffee and led the dancing all evening until the carriages arrived at midnight to take them away!

A great time was had by all - many thanks to the team at Channels for looking after us so well and to Tracy Haigh and Sheena Berney for organising a most enjoyable event.

Photos © Nigel Butler, Zoe Nelson

On Thursday 20 October members sat down to enjoy a delicious Trafalgar lunch in celebration of Horatio Lord Nelson’s famous victory at Cape Trafalgar in 1805. Don Baines introduced the proceedings and following the Trafalgar Grace by the Commodore, diners enjoyed crowned steak and ale pie, monarch’s mashed potato, carolingian carrots, cheesy leeks and roasted vegetables. This was followed by patriotic sticky toffee pudding with Trafalgar toffee sauce and cream.

Don then gave an entertaining talk “The Admiral Requests” which detailed the complexity of moving from one ship to another in an open rowing boat to allow face-to-face meetings between the admiral and his captains. We also learnt about the niceties of heaving-to in a ship of the line like HMS Agamemnon or HMS Bellona. At the end of the talk the Commodore gave the loyal toast to the King for the first time in 70 years! The Rear Commodore then read Nelson’s prayer before battle and then former Commodore, Anthony Sinclair, proposed the toast to the Immortal memory of Horatio Lord Nelson, and to all those who fell with him. Guests then “Spliced the Mainbrace!” with Lady Hamilton’s nip – a tot of spiced rum. Tea, coffee and pieces of eight followed to round off what was a most enjoyable occasion. Many thanks to Don for organising and to Marilyn Sinclair and her team for continuing to provide these popular lunches at the club.

Photos © Nigel Butler

A fantastic Autumn morning, with a clear blue sky and a building breeze from the southeast greeted the 29 boats taking part in the traditional end of season Dyer Cup race. This is an all-in handicap race sending the fleet down river to Doctor, then back upriver to Herring Point before finishing at the club line.

This year the fleet ranged from a foiling Moth and an IQ-Foil windsurfer, both starting from a PY of 490, through to the doublehanded Mirror’s with a PY of 1390. As was shown by last years winner, Julie Nelson, sailing a Mirror, it isn’t exclusively the fast boats that could win this one.

A Committee boat start was set up at Clarks, with a long start line from Clarks to Osea Road, giving a tight fetch down the river to Doctor. The fleet got away first time, despite several boats pushing as close to the line as they possibly could to get away in clear air. Best starts were Rob Carver, Laser, Brett Townsend, Solo, Guy Welch, Snipe, and Charlie Stewart, Fireball. Charlie Dixon, recently crowned IQ Foil World Youth Champion, hit the line at full speed a few seconds after the start gun, and made it clear that he was the man to catch! Gareth Davies in his Foiling Moth was never far away from Charlie, and the pair were being chased hard by Rory Dixon in his Waszp.

After the fetch to Doctor, the fleet turned to head back upriver, a tight reach allowing some spinnakers to be flown, but for others it appeared frustratingly too tight to hold them.

Chasing Gareth and Charlie, the Fireball was enjoying a fast 3 sail reach all the way to Hilly Pool and seemed to be in contention while Mike Iszatt in his RS600 was setting a blistering pace. Other mid-race contenders were Andy and Florence Pickering, Mirror, Jess Welch and Hugh Andrews in their Laser 4.7’s, who were enjoying their own private match race right up to the finish. Other races within the race were Brett Townsend and Ian Smith, continuing their season long duelling in their Solo’s, and Jess Finch and Gary Ling enjoying a close tussle in their Laser Radial’s.

Leading cruiser was Breezy, John Dyer and team, but not flying their spinnaker on the tight reach, it wasn’t going to be their day.

The fleet rounded Hilly Pool for a long beat up to Herring Point, followed by a fast run back downriver to the finish. Gareth and Charlie finished just four seconds apart, in an incredible race time of just 16 minutes!

After finishing, there was the lure onshore of the cakes and drinks being served as part of the Macmillan Charity cake event, but others chose to go back downriver and make the most of the stunning October afternoon. 

Sheena Berney and her team on the bridge turned around the results very quickly, whilst competitors enjoyed some well deserved cake, and a prizegiving was held in the sunshine on the patio. It is a lesson to us all that the first three winners all missed the prizegiving because they were still on the water practicing!

Thanks to the generous support of our members the event raised £600 for Macmillan Cancer Support and £400 for the RNLI. 

Results:

1st Charlie Dixon, IQ Foil

2nd Gareth Davies, Int. Moth

3rd Rory Dixon, Waszp

1st Cruiser – Breezy, John Dyer

1st Club Cruiser – Ffumbler, George Whitchurch and Jonathan Payne

1st Slow Handicap – Andy and Florence Pickering, Mirror

1st Cadet – Rory Dixon

1st Slow Handicap Cadet – Jess Welch, Laser 4.7

Photos © Steve Perkins, Tracy Haigh, Peter Gould

Steve Perkins, Hon Sailing Secretary

Congratulations to our latest National Champions Dave Hall, Emilie Hood and Heather Chipperfield who won the closely contested K6 National Championships held at Mylor Yacht Club from 15-18 September.

Dave said that Mylor YC put on a great event in a great setting and thanked Heather and Emilie for successfully getting them around the racetrack to victory. He reported that there was great sailing in strong wind on the first day but it was all a bit stressful on the following shifty days. You can read the Yachts and Yachting report here

On 10-11 September Blackwater Sailing Club hosted the Wayfarer Eastern Championship combined with a Snipe open meeting. An excellent fleet of 15 Wayfarers including 6 visitors contested the event. Congratulations to winning team of Andrew & Tom Wilson from Datchet Water SC with an excellent 2^nd by Steve Perkins and Martyn Hare flying the flag for BSC. Six races were run over the weekend from a downriver committee boat allowing competitors to enjoy the beautiful racing area between Osea and Northey Islands. We received some fantastic feedback after the event and here are a couple of quotes:

Tim from UKWA said “we had a really enjoyable weekend at BSC. I had as much fun as I can remember at an open meeting but whether this was down to the favourable weather, the excellent race management, the warm welcome we received from your club or the fact that the tide limiting sailing time maximises the bar opening time I really can’t decide. Probably a bit of everything!”

Another sailor said “The Easterns, held at BSC was an absolutely wonderful weekend; very many thanks to Steve Perkins and his team both on and off the water. It was very much enjoyed by all those taking part with warm weather, super hospitality and competitive racing.”

The Yachts & Yachting report can be seen here

9 Snipes, including 7 visitors contested their South Eastern Championship with some of the boats crewed by BSC cadets. Congratulations to the winning team of Peter Wolstenholme from Bough Beach SC crewed by Charlie Bourne with a strong 3^rd place by Richard and Debbie Marshall as first BSC boat.

The results can be seen here

The full report by Richard Marshall can be seen here

Simon from the Snipe fleet said, “thank you for making me so welcome, I had a bloody brilliant time!”

Pictures © Zoe Nelson, Clemency Evans

Blackwater Sailing Club is deeply saddened by the death of Queen Elizabeth II and extends our heartfelt condolences to King Charles III and the Royal Family.

After careful consideration, we decided to proceed with the Wayfarer Eastern Championships and Snipe Open meeting on the weekend 10-11 September. Before the briefing, the Commodore gave the following tribute to The Queen and led a minutes silence.

"I would like to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II following her passing on Thursday 8 September. She was our longest serving Monarch and reigned for 70 years so for most of us she is the only Monarch we have known. She demonstrated a wonderful sense of duty and dedicated her life to service of the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. She represented much of what makes Britain Great and so admired around the world.

While 15 Prime Ministers came and went the Queen was always there as a steadying hand on the tiller throughout many difficult times for the country and her own family. It is testament to her devotion to duty that she continued her work right up to the end when she welcomed our new Prime Minister.

The Royal Family have a long history of involvement with and support for sailing. The Queen was Royal Patron of the RYA, her husband HRH Duke of Edinburgh was former president of the RYA and the Princess Royal is the current president of the RYA.

King Charles III now takes the helm and will today be proclaimed King. I have every reason to believe that the monarchy is in safe hands and he will prove a worthy successor to his mother.

As we mourn the Queen, I would be grateful if you could join me in a minutes silence to show our respect and reflect on what this truly remarkable lady meant to us.

God save the King"

Nigel Butler

Commodore

The second heat wave of the year heralded our annual Club Week which ran from 13-19 August. Events started with the Regatta with 103 boats entered and 166 sailors across 10 fleets. The canons were used for starting and the entrants had great racing in champagne conditions with a steady f4 easterly wind.

The crabbing competition got under way while the races were on and when the fireballs finished the ever popular ‘greasy pole’ competition started. A variety of other inshore games included swimming races and the cork race. The prize giving was held late afternoon and then many members stayed on to enjoy a delicious hog roast.

As the heatwave broke down, we had mostly good but very shifty sailing winds for most of the week including two days when the wind was gusting f6 which tested the heavy weather skills of our sailors and kept our safety fleet busy. We had a record 128 boats racing crewed by 202 sailors and started 69 races during the week. The largest fleet was the Medium Handicap which had 13 different classes and 31 boats, then the Lasers with 23, then the Wayfarers and Toppers/Teras both with 14. It was great to see so many of our cadets taking part across the fleets and in many cases beating the adults! At the end of the week, the winner of each class took part in a race in Toppers on the river to decide the Cock O’ the Club – amazingly, this was won by talented international Optimist sailor Callum Marshall who at the age of 10 beat the club’s finest helms!

After a tiring time on the water, we ran a full social programme and over 100 members enjoyed the ever popular Quiz on Tuesday night. Big thanks to Hatty for doing the quiz and for Drac and Marc for helping on the night.

The Commodore supper on Wednesday was Pirate themed with some great fancy dress. The evening started in the lower deck with lashings of Tommy’s secret ‘Dark and Stormy’ rum punch which created a warm glow! Excellent food from Maldon’s Chinese restaurant ‘The House of Delight’ and live music from the Hopkirks who really got the guests dancing the night away. Thank you to the cadets who helped serve the food and looked after us so well.

Overall, one of our best club weeks for years and many thanks to Steve Perkins our Sailing Secretary, Sheena Berney our Rear Commodore and all our staff and volunteers who worked so hard to make it such a safe and successful event.

Congratulations to our winners from each class:

Optimist: Callum Marshall - 5931 “Victory”

Mirror: Jessica Finch & Florence Pickering - 70223

Topper/Tera: Josephine Bernard – Tera Sport 2632

Fireball: Charlie Stewart & Sue Gibson - 14905 “Walkabout 3”

Fast Cruiser: John Dyer & crew - 1889 “Breezy”

Fast Handicap: Terry Crook – Phantom 1464 “Ghostbuster”

Medium Handicap: Ian Smith – Solo 5545

Laser: Ted Coday – Laser Radial 200489

Wayfarer: Martyn Hare & Steve Perkins - 11305

Sprite: Martin Scarth & Tricia Parker – 33 “Jack O’Lantern”

Club Cruiser: George Whitchurch & Jonathan Payne – “Ffumbler”

Full results for the week can be found on our website here

Photos © Nigel Butler, Iain Marshall, Hatty Norman, Tracy Haigh, Peter Gould

On Sunday 24 July, Blackwater SC welcomed 150 cadets aged 8 to 18 to our first Cadet Week for 3 years unrestricted by Covid. The cadets, their parents and the cadet team packed into our new upper deck club room for the daily briefings. 57 cadets were in lake training groups, 43 in river training groups and 50 in MG race groups split across six fleets. For the team activities, they were divided into six colour groups led by the Cadet Committee. Training groups worked towards the cadet badge, RYA levels 1-4 and seamanship skills. River training was provided for optimists, toppers, teras and lasers by our experienced team of instructors and assistants. Racers were supported by our team of race coaches and races were run from our club line with one down river day with a committee boat start.

Historically, cadets would start their training aged 8 learning in optimists on the lake. Increasingly, cadets are now joining the club as teenagers and are too big for an optimist! To cater for this trend we used our fleet of RS Quests supplemented with Wayfarers to provide training for older beginners and intermediates in addition to the RYA level 4 and seamanship training.

Conditions were great for sailing during the week ranging from a gentle force 2 to challenging force 6. The emphasis on the week was having fun and the team activities included lake games, field games, treasure hunt and the tractor pull. Evening social events included a gala dinner and disco.

The final day began with the fancy dress competition with some amazingly creative costumes. While the judging was happening, the Cock of the Cadets races took place with the winners of the river race series battling it out for top-spot. This was followed by the parents race challengingly held in Optimists. In the afternoon, over 200 cadets and helpers in 120 boats set off for a cruise to Maldon where vast quantities of ice creams were consumed!

Our chosen charity to support during the week was the Tall Ships Youth Trust (TSTY) and their chairman David Aisher gave an introductory talk about the work of the trust. During the week, Rafe organised a raffle which raised a splendid £809.35 which was donated to the TSYT.

Huge thanks to our Cadet Skipper Paul Trickey for putting together and delivering a brilliant and safe Cadet Week supported by the Cadet Committee, our instructors, coaches, assistants and the many volunteers who make this wonderful week possible for our young sailors.

Racing results:

Laser 4.7 – 181374 – Hugh Andrews

Laser Radial – 2 – Nick Evans

Optimist – 5931 – Callum Marshall

Topper/Tera – Topper 44412 – Robert Gardner

Medium Handicap – RS Feva BSC2 – Bella Elderton & Garci Lefranc

420 – 53332 – Jess Haigh & Lucy Shelter

Cock of the Cadets: Hugh Andrews

The full results can be seen on our website here

Members can read a detailed report from the Cadet Skipper here

Many congratulations to our talented 17 year old Blackwater Sailing Club cadet sailor Charlie Dixon who has been crowned iQFoil Youth World Champion at the Youth World Championships in the Hague held from 8-15 July 2022.

Having become iQFoil Youth National Champion at the RYA Youth National Championships held at Plas Heli, Pwllheli in April 2022, Charlie joined the 16 members of the GB team who raced at the Hague against 450 of the world’s best youth sailors from 69 countries.

The Hague was Charlie’s first ever international event and he went there without any great expectations. He completely dominated the male iQFoil class at the event notching up eight wins from 11 races to seal the title by a staggering 16 points. Charlie was the only member of the GB team to wind gold at the event from the 12 classes contested. The full results can be seen here

Charlie is a great ambassador for the Club and when he is not at a championship, he can be seen practising and training on the Blackwater Estuary. This is deserved reward for all his hard work and commitment to this exciting Olympic class.