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It was wonderful to be able to open our doors to the public on Saturday 26 June for the first time in 2 years due to Covid-19 and welcome the 365 visitors who flocked to Blackwater Sailing Club for our Open Day and RYA “Discover Sailing” event. The Blackwater was looking stunning under clear blue skies with glorious sunshine all day. 73 adult and cadet helpers from the club helped make this a fantastic day out for our guests, many of whom had never considered trying sailing before. The Friday sailors were kept busy providing numerous sailing taster sessions on our 7-acre training lake in our fleet of RS Quests throughout the 5-hour event. Once the water arrived, 26 family groups enjoyed a river trip on the launch, a Rib, a classic motor launch or sailing on a cruiser. Many just sat and enjoyed watching our club racing and the activity on the Blackwater Estuary.

Our Tour guides were kept busy showing 82 family groups around our beautiful new Clubhouse. We had a one-way system in place and a tally system operated by our Covid Marshall who regulated the flow of members into the building & ensured Covid regulations were followed. The galley did a marvellous job providing food and serving soft drinks, tea & coffee. The upstairs galley closed at 15.00 and the downstairs bar was then opened for drinks using table service.

The membership teams worked hard all day resulting in new applications from 47 adult members & 13 cadets, making this our most successful Open Day ever!

Thank you to the army of volunteers who worked tirelessly throughout the day welcoming our guests and presenting a friendly, smiling face. Blackwater Sailing Club is a family friendly, members club run by the members, for the members. We are fortunate to have so many willing volunteers who freely give of their time to make the club such a great place and help make events like this such a success. Thank you to our many visitors for coming and we hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did.

Photos © Nigel Butler & Zoe Nelson

On Sunday 27^th June 46 boats set out from Blackwater Sailing Club on a cool grey afternoon to take part in the annual Round the Islands races. 40 entered the main dinghy race around Osea and Northey Islands and 6 the short course around Northey. The entry fee was a donation to the RNLI and much to the delight of local Vice Chairman, Ken Harrison, we raised a fantastic £348.50 for our local lifeboat stations.

The 23 medium handicap boats started first in a brisk force 4-5 north easterly breeze with a short beat against the spring tide to Millbeach which helped spread the fleet out. A tight port fetch to Osea was too close for most to fly their spinnakers. The 17 fast handicap boats started 20 minutes after the medium and the chase for on. As the fleet approached Osea pier it became a beat with challenging shifty gusts which caught some out, particularly those who stayed close to the shore to keep out of the flood tide. Round the eastern tip of Osea the wind was gusting force 6 causing a lumpy swell as the leaders enjoyed an exhilarating reach along the northeast coast of Osea with the ultra-fast boats now overtaking the medium. The strengthening wind and the challenging cross swell caused a number of capsizes which continued as the fleet bore away onto a run towards Northey and kept the rescue boats busy. While passing south of Northey, some sailed too close to land mistaking tufts of grass as safe water only to impale themselves on Northey in 12 inches of water! As the fleet approached the southwest of Northey the fireballs and other fast boats were powering through onto the beat up the Northey shore to the finish.  

It was great to see such a large fleet of boats out on the river in pretty challenging conditions and bodes well for our upcoming Cadet and Club week. Congratulations to Charlie Dixon who raced his foiling windsurfer round the course in a new record time of 38 minutes, but he couldn’t beat the Viper and the Spitfire on corrected time. Well done to cadet Theo Aers who skilfully sailed his full rig laser to 8^th place and was the first medium handicap boat. Well done to the 6 brave young cadets and the short course fleet captain who battled their way round Northey on the short course.

Thanks to the race team, all the safety boat crews and the ramp helpers who helped make this such a successful race while raising money for the RNLI.

Results:

Round the Islands - dinghies:

1^st Neil McCulloch and Jane Arnold - Viper – Jubilee Goblet

2^nd Marcus Wallace and Abbie Wallace - Spitfire - Vincett Wings trophy

3^rd Mark Maskell and Nigel Sheppard - Fireball

Round Northey:

1^st Jessica Welch - Optimist

2^nd Luca Batley - Tera

3^rd Optimist – Callum Marshall

For the full results visit the race results page

Photos © Zoe Nelson

Blackwater Sailing Club welcomed the BBC Look East team to our 7 acre sail training lake on Tuesday 11th May. We were delighted to be able to support Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 and facilitate the BBC to go sailing with Chelmsford Radio Yacht Club (CRYC) as a backdrop to talk about SAILING WELLNESS and the positive benefits of getting afloat and 'blue health'. 

This is the first time the BBC have featured Radio Controlled Model Yacht Racing on the TV. The class CRYC race the IOM Class (International One Metre) and a number of club members are also members of the CRYC and take part in the competitive racing held at our training lake most Tuesday and Sunday mornings. 

You can view an article about the filming here

You can watch the action on YouTube here

For more information about how you can take part in this exciting racing please visit the CRYC website

Photo and film courtesy of the BBC

Osea Challenge Cup

A cold, blustery NNE wind greeted the 26 boats entered for the Osea Challenge Cup on Sunday 25 April. Some decided to stay dry and warm, but the 14 who did start the main race, the long course, enjoyed a challenging and eventful race, with capsizes, breakages and a collision between a Sprite boom and the crew's head forcing half the starters to retire. Perfect conditions for the Fireballs, taking 5 of the top 6 places. Congratulations to Dave Hall and Paul Constable, worthy winners of the Osea Challenge Cup.  There were no starters for the short course, this was carried over to Race 1 of the Britannia Series.

Britannia Series

A fantastic weekend of racing over the early May Bank Holiday weekend, with 14 boats racing for the Long course Trophy, and a whopping 24 boats racing for the Short course. Despite the forecast for light winds, Saturday delivered a cold, gusty Northerly. The long course was set to make the most of the new race marks, with long beats, runs and reaches between West Point, Mundon, Beacons and Midway. The majority opted for the shorter course, staying in the more sheltered waters around Osea Road and Clarkes. Both fleets enjoyed close racing, with Gareth Davies (Foiling Moth) leading the long fleet overnight, and Jess Haigh / Lucy Shelter (RS Feva) leading the short fleet.

Lighter winds for day two, with a late afternoon start both fleets opted for shorter races, with very close racing throughout the fleet. Two different race winners for the long course, Dave Hall (Fireball) and Julian Berney (N18), and in the short course Howard Knott (Mirror) taking two wins. 

Congratulations to the overall winners, Dave Hall / Paul Constable (Fireball), Long Course, and Jess Haigh / Lucy Shelter (RS Feva XL), Short Course. Jess and Lucy also win the Short Course Osea Challenge Cup.

Full results can be seen on the results page of our website

Photos © Tracy Haigh and Ian Johnson

Following our reopening on 29 March, BSC returned to racing in style over the Easter weekend on 2-3 April. Despite the cold, grey weather, with a biting NNE wind, there were lots of keen, happy racers out. During the two days we had 11 boats in Fast Handicap, 22 in Medium Handicap, and 8 in the Short Course fleet – 41 boats for the first event of the season! To comply with our Covid-19 protocols, all participants had to register to race via the website or member App. A ramp marshal controlled access to the ramp to ensure social distancing was maintained and the spacing between starts was increased to avoid any crowding ashore. The changing rooms had to remain closed so participants were encouraged to come changed or had a chilly change in the car park. 

All fleets were racing around the new 2021 courses, using some of the new race marks – everyone had to think hard to work out where to go, and there were a few cases of boats rounding the wrong marks, and at least one occasion of a whole fleet heading for the wrong windward mark!

There was close racing throughout, with multiple race winners. The Fast fleet was won with a race to spare by Maria Richards and Graham Hoy in their Fireball, the Medium Fleet was won by Jess Haigh and Lucy Shelter in their RS Feva XL.

Closest finish was in the Short Course fleet, ending with three Jessica’s on equal points, Jessica Taylor and Jessica Garlick in their Toppers, and Jessica Welch in her Optimist. Jessica Taylor was the overall winner with the best individual race score enough to split the three of them!

The Novice Optimist Winter Cup was won by Callum Marshall, always smiling his way around the course and finding time for a friendly wave to his friends as he passed them on the river. For the full results please visit the results page

Thanks to all the volunteers, including Race Offices Sheena Berney and Barry Foulds, and the RIB crews who endured the cold to keep everyone safe.

Steve Perkins, Hon Sailing Secretary

Photos © Nigel Butler and Belinda Sturge

As the daffodils burst into flower to announce the arrival of Spring, I am delighted to announce that we can reopen the club on Monday 29 March for general sailing, boat maintenance and cruiser launching. Now we have a roadmap out of lockdown we have a better idea of the route to normality. The Covid-19 team and the management committee will discuss our stepped plans for reopening in detail and I will send members a more detailed update before we reopen. We will continue to follow a considerate and conservative approach, but I hope that we will be able to start racing on Good Friday 02 April using the Covid-19 protocols we established in 2020.

Flooding following record winter rainfall turned into freezing during February as the ‘beast from the east’ hit with the club blanketed in snow. The swans were seen skating on the pond and Zoe flew her drone to capture some great aerial shots of the snow. As the snow melted a rapid rise in temperature make it feel like Spring and the waterlogged grounds started drying out at last. The staff are working hard getting many jobs done and we hope everything will be looking good and ready for our reopening.

Photos (c) Zoe and Julie Nelson

Many thanks to our Sailing Secretary Steve Perkins, Ewan Harris and their team from the Sailing Committee who since 2019 have been working on improving our existing courses and adding some new race marks. The new race courses have now been published and the five new marks have been purchased. The new marks are Sandy Bight, Muddy Cove, Beacons, Mundon and Kraken. We now have 96 courses with a something perfect for every wind direction and distance. You can view and download the new courses and race marks map from the Racing at BSC page. To learn more about how the new courses developed please read New Courses Development 

The biggest and best dinghy show in the world was due to be held at a new venue in Farnborough this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the show will now be held 'virtually' on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th February but will still have many great talks, presentations and exhibitors. 

For more information visit the Dinghy Show Website

Registration is free so don't forget to register and then you can join any of the many sessions and visit the virtual booths of the many exhibitors. Register for free here

As another first for Blackwater Sailing Club we have a 'virtual booth' at the show. Please come along and visit us and have a chat. Click our link on the show exhibitors page

We look forward to 'seeing' you at what promises to be another great show. 

This dinghy/tender has been found drifting in the river and is now ashore. Please contact the Honorary Secretary   if you need more photos

Blackwater Sailing Club is proud to announce that they have now been awarded the coveted status of RYA British Youth Sailing Recognised Club.

Please see the announcement in Yachts and Yachting BSC RYA Award

To see what being an RYA British Youth Recognised Club means click the following link British Youth Sailing Recognised Club