News

Gilmer Trophy – Shearwater Sailing Club and Bristol Avon Sailing Club

imageEvery two years SSC and BASC go head to head for the Gilmer Trophy which commemorates the twinning of the cities of Bath and Alkmaar in Holland. Whilst Alkmaar no longer travel the event marks the gratitude of the people of Alkmaar for the help that they received from Bath following World War 2.
Some have referred to this as an event where the first leg is sailed on a pond with the next round sailed on a ditch ! That said the competition is no less serious and with twenty boats on the water each venue was pretty busy.
Shearwater took full advantage of being at home for the first leg and over the three races pulled out a big lead. The Dayboat of Geoff Pell and Sandy Lavelles Albacore proved particularly strong on the day. It was also good to see both clubs fielding a number of juniors.
The return leg at Bristol Avon on the river is always interesting for those who have not sailed there before. Narrow Boats, shallows and Paddle Boards coupled with a fitful breeze were bound to provide an interesting day.
The Rooster 8.1s stormed away in the first race however a change in the breeze brought the slower boats into contention with the Lightnings of BASC showing how good they are on a river. With 50 points back in the bag the home club were on a roll and maintained the pressure into race 2 with the Roosters once again benefitting from their tall rigs above the river bank. Into Race 3 and with a BFD for one of the Roosters and the Moth retiring the results were in the balance.
With the final outcome closely guarded results were announced with Shearwater clinging on to the trophy by the finest of margins over a total of 6 races.
On behalf of Shearwater Chris Mulholland thanked all of those and in particular his opposite number Mick Parnell who had contributed to the event over the two legs. Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the event, there is no doubt that Bristol Avon will be plotting the return of the trophy to their clubhouse.

Classic and Vintage Open Meeting – August 2015

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Some scenes from our Open regatta this weekend. A big thank you to all our club members for their support in running this 2 day event especially Nic Cross for organising racing and running his Saturday and Sunday teams. Thanks also to the galley teams who helped feed our Visitors. Sailors from as far afield as Cheshire in the North and Brightlingsea in the East joined us and 15 beautiful Classic and  vintage boats took to the water for some very competitive racing. The photos are a few I captured on my phone before racing started on Saturday. Nice to see members helping each other (and I was pleased to see the very sound hull of Blue Peter!) before the competition began. Ex club member Giles Penfold sailing a Hit won the event, with club member Amy Barlow, sailing a TOY, coming a close second followed by Chris Barlow and myself in our International 14, in third place. There are more photos on the CVRDA Facebook page, do take a look.

Our next Open Event is the Barts Bash and Summer Social on the 20th of September. All are welcome and it would be great to see some of our newer members bringing their boats out and getting to know people in at the barbecue.

Summer Newsletter – July 2015

Summer has arrived and we have had some very windy weather at the lake. Not always in the right direction but we can’t expect everything! I hope you have all noted the anti slip surface to the jetty has been completed thanks to Martyn, Mike D and Nic. Also a big thanks to Mike D who has repainted the clubhouse doors and windows.

We have several events coming up and we need some help be it in the start box, safety boat or galley. Please read the schedule below and let me know a.s.a.p. If you can be available to offer support.

C.V.R.D.A. (Classic and vintage racing dingy association) Open
We are hosting this event on the 22nd and 23rd August. There will be lots of beautiful wooden boats and several more unusual boats so do come along. The Saturdays racing will be for the older boats only but on Sunday the vintage boats will join in with our normal club racing. We will be serving rolls for lunch on both days and hope to have a social event on the Saturday evening at a local hostelry (as yet undecided) for the visitors to the event as well as club members.
Help required: Nic is OOD for the event but we need safety boat cover for both boats. We also need to have the galley manned for both days, this involves making drinks and selling rolls, crisps, cakes etc Any offers of cake for either day gratefully accepted. Please email me loisbarlow@sky.com if you can offer help on the day. I will be sailing but will manage registration for the visiting boats and crews.

Roadford Lake – the Goodacre Cup – August Bank holiday
Chris Mullholland is promoting this event instead of our annual trip to Roadford Lake, so if you want to know more talk to Chris. Those of you who know Roadford Lake will know that it is a large inland Lake with excellent sailing. Camping is on site and it is a great place to sail. This is a great opportunity to sail with others and I highly recommend it. Roadford Lake is very family and dog friendly with canoes, kayaks, wind surfing and other equipment for hire or you can take your own.
There will be no club racing at Shearwater that w/e but as advertised in the fixtures list safety boat cover will be available for social sailing on the Sunday.

Bart’s Bash and Summer Social – 20th September
On Sunday 20th September it is Bart’s Bash where we race and try to raise some money in honour of Andrew Simpson. There is more information about this world wide event on the Bart’s Bash website. This year we are combining Bart’s Bash with our Summer Social in the form of an early evening BBQ so be sure to mark the date in your diary. We are also hoping to have a ‘Boat and Outdoor Pursuits Jumble’ so if you have any equipment you no longer use please keep it to one side and bring it along. This is a fund raising event for SSC so we are asking for a minimum 20% donation to the club on any sales – more details will follow.

Sunday Duties
We request that all members do at least one Sunday Duty, this can be as OOD (officer of the day), AOD (assistant officer of the day) or safety boat cover. Currently a few members are doing lots of the duties and so missing out on their sailing. If you don’t have much sailing experience the AOD is a great way of learning to improve your sailing by watching those racing, read the winds and adjust sails etc accordingly. We are a small club and we need all our members to support us. Please fill in dates on the website or contact Martin Honor (duties officer)with dates you could help out.

Have a great Summer
Lois Barlow
Commodore SSC 2015