Bartley Sailing Club Blog

There are still a couple of places left for the International Topper Class Association (ITCA) open training on Sunday 15th March at Bartley. Entry is via the ITCA website under the 'Events' section. The day is run by Topper Coaching Staff and includes fitness, theory, and practice on the water followed by a debrief at the end of the day. There is one club Topper available for use if anyone wishes to use it for the day just let me know on . Entrants will need to be able to sail a triangle course confidently (i.e. no absolute beginners). There are currently 14 entrants and it would be great to get to the full 16 so if you know someone who has a Topper encourage them to come along.

What a weekend! We hope all our membership survived without too much disruption and were saved from any floods or falling debris. As Steve's post mentioned Saturday was just too windy but Sunday was sailable - just!

5 mad fools set off for the Bartley Bear sprints; 2 laser 4.7s of Josh and Harrison, 2 Laser Radials of Ollie and Simon, and Sean going for full on, fully batterned Supernova.

After launching the squalls soon started to come in with torrential rain and spray blowing off the wave crests. The famous five lined up on the start and, after a slog up the first beat, let the sail out onto the reach providing swift acceleration to terminal velocity to the gybe mark really testing our boat handling skills! And so the day progressed; quick 12 minute races of full concentration, full speed, and full on wipe-outs, mixed with some great match racing and excellent starts.

At the end it was anyone's guess who had won but in the conditions it was clear that the 4.7s were holding their own on handicap. With Josh and Harrison tied on points the results went to countback with Josh taking the win. 

You may think we were a bit bonkers, but we were not the only ones... looking up the reservoir there was a steady stream of wetsuited warriors in high-vis orange tabards propelling their stand-up paddle boards around the perimeter in their winter series race. It was just fantastic to see so many people on the water showing their passion for water-sports whatever the  met office could throw at us.

As the worn out participants returned to shore they were welcomed by the freshly painted clubhouse and warm food and drink from Tilly's - a great end to an epic day. 

Thanks to all who organised and helped on rescue - we were working hard and it was cold - you must have been frozen!

Good morning from Steve Ward

Im at the club at present and its currently blowing over 30 knots . The water is currently closed. The wind forecast is meant to increase so this is sadly likely to be the case all day.

All bots in the boat park are currently ok.

Im also the ood today.

Regards

Steve

The Committee are very excited to announce that the Andrew Simpson Foundation have selected Bartley S.C. as their Birmingham base to offer a wide range of RYA courses and training opportunities. We encourage our members to have a look at our new partner's website at https://aswc.co.uk/our-centres/birmingham/ to see the fantastic opportunities for beginners right through to advanced training and coaching for the seasoned sailor. We look forward to working with the Andrew Simpson Centre and everything that they have to offer. 

Fingers crossed, touch wood etc.. we will get the final Bartley Bear of the season sailed this Sunday. Hopefully the wind will have dropped a bit during the week and we can get this final event under way. Usual drill - All Laser rigs welcome or any single handers with similar PY. 10.30 rigged and ready. Free to members £5 for visitors. Go-pro or similar welcome.

12 short races designed to practice starts and skills on the first beat. 

The forecast this weekend is currently showing gusts over 50 knots for Sunday. If you sail on Saturday please ensure that your boat is securely tied down before you leave to prevent any damage to your boat, or neighboring boats should the forecast wind materialise. Please also do a quick check of any boats around yours as their owners may not be regular sailors and tie down ropes do rot over time.

​Thanks to all who attended the informative talk last night about the reservoir and its various feeds. We learnt about the construction and increasing maintenance of the water collection and transfer systems running between the Elan valley and Bartley. We found that the adjacent Frankley reservoir has significant interactions with Bartley reservoir and from the air the full extent of the operation can be seen. Furthermore we learnt about the 'resilience' plans that are currently being completed to enable water levels at Elan to be dropped for maintenance whilst the river severn is regulated by an alternative dam to provide 50 days water coverage whilst maintenance takes place. We also found that Trimpley reservoir is one of our feeders too (but only when times are tough)! At the end of the talk a few short film clips were shown from youtube about the reservoir and the current activity so search these up if you have further interest.

The turnout was the biggest seen in recent years so thanks to all who supported and to Nick Eaves for organising the evening with Severn Trent. If there are other specific interest talks that you would like to see at Bartley let me know on and we will try our best to get things organised.

​Ever wondered how it all works and what Severn Trent has been up to recently in and around our reservoir? Then please come along to this informative talk on Wednesday evening in the clubhouse.

Imagine driving to a 'give way' sign and acting as if it was your right of way. You continue without stopping causing cars to swerve and collide with either you or other objects as they take avoiding action. Carnage follows and a lot of insurance claims. You then drive through every red light getting to your destination quicker than you would have done if you had followed the highway code but with vehicles dispersing in your wake! You may or may not get caught by the police or a dashcam and you most certainly will have caused a bit of road rage.

In sailing there is a highway code called the 'Racing Rules of Sailing' which can be downloaded from the world sailing website. But in sailing there is no driving test and no police so the sport relies on sailors getting to know the rules and sailing within them. It also relies on sailors doing their penalty turns when they have infringed. A sailor that hits every mark, punches their way through the fleet when they have no rights is like the driver paying no attention to the give way signs or running the red light - and rage from other sailors is inevitable! Such a sailor will get to the finish quicker but not fairly or legally. With no police it is up to those around to police the situation, giving clear signals of intent and protesting those who do not take heed. 

A few weeks ago the turn out was fantastic with over 30 boats on the start line. With a short first beat 30 boats reached the windward mark all at the same time and a few of them shot through the 'give way' sign. There was a lot of hailing and bumping but no penalty turns or protests. There was some good discussion in the bar afterwards and it was raised at the sailing committee meeting to perhaps move to fleet racing or separate starts, however, after some discussion it was decided that the racing had been great and that the cause was rules adherence rather than quantity of boats. Last year the club ran a racing rules evening and we are looking into a follow-on so all are better educated on the rules of the race. In the mean time there are a few good resources out there for learning and testing your knowledge of the rules of sailing so that you don't get caught out and can sail with confidence in any situation. 

To start you off here are a few links to cut and paste into your browser on mark rounding - see how many scenarios you get right (I would like to say I got 100% but I did get one wrong!):

https://sailzing.com/rule-18-mark-room/

https://sailzing.com/rule-18-mark-room2/

Hi all

Sorry I do not have everybodys contact details. I popped to the club today and a few boats have been blown over. These include the finn in row b  a lark in row f and a yellow moth.

It was far too windy today to pick them back up but the owners may wish to do so later in the week.

Steve