Bartley Sailing Club Blog

Building winds greeted the team of visiting Lasers to Bristol Corinthian but by the time it came to start the back to back 3 races the wind shifted, died and then filled in 20” degrees left. So the PRO had his work cut out to relay the course.

Race 1; Jeremy maintained his previous bullet off line starts and powered off and lead to the first buoy but by the bottom of the Olympic trapezoid course the fleet were all over him and back on the beat john overtook. But on the following downwind leg the leading bunch get interwoven with the Solos and this gave Neil Crosby the chance to charge through. By the next leg it was nip and tuck to the line with Neil taking honours, and john and Robin Pitt close behind. Meanwhile Graham Royle was fighting hard with Local man Simon Beck and doing really well.

Second race john got a clean start and held it to the gun. Whilst Jeremy Higson was always there but had a tough battle against Robin Pitt who finally came in close behind for second.

This meant it was wide open for second, third and fourth sailors places, so race three was important to get away with a clean start. John and Jeremy took an early lead and this combination finished in that order followed by Robin Pitt and Neil Crosby.

This meant there was a tie in points with all three of them on 5 net. But on the low points system uses the result of the last race so final positions were.

1st John G Ling 2 pts

2nd Neil Crosby 5pts

3rd Jeremy Higson 5pts

4th Robin Pitt 5pts

5th Simon Beck 10pts

6th Graham Royle 12pts

Hi All

The sailing committee have been asked by a few members if the club are interested in entering the above event.

This is a 24 hour sailing race around the marine lake in southport for either GP14, enterprise, Firefly and Lark class dinghies. the format is that the boat keeps going and the sailors change as and when it suits the team.

There are normally around 70 teams entered.

The dates of the event this year are 14th and 15th September with a lunchtime start time.

Most teams take around 5 or 6 pairs to sail.

In order to assess the viability of entering a team would you please let me know by e mail to  if you would be interested in attending.

The details regarding team captain, type of boat, and costs etc will follow in due course if we have sufficient interest.

If you have a prefence to the type of boat please also let me know.

If you require further information there are 2 sailing clubs on the lake at Southport and the event is organised by the West Lancs Yacht Club details are available on their website.

Regards

Steve Ward

K2O kicks off in earnest this Saturday morning as Bartley's ever popular junior and youth club starts the training season. This year we have 2 groups (and a waiting list) for our level 1 and 2 courses and the usual faces returning for the level 3 and 4 sessions throughout the spring and summer months. We have 3 new members of our instructor team all of whom have progressed through the K2O club themselves and are now learning what it is like to be on the other side of the training program - great experience for them, great resource for the club, and they can use their qualification to travel further afield should they wish; everybody wins!

Please extend the usual warm welcome to any new faces you see at the club and help them find their way around if they are looking lost.

All,

The club has recently purchased a defibrillator and will be providing training in its use on 4th June at 19.00hrs. The training takes approx 70 minutes and provides a comprehensive guide and practical session in the use of the AED. This device may save your life or you may be the one using it to save another's life so please come along to the session to ensure you are confident in how to use it.

When the training has been administered the AED will be activated and ready for use in the club.

As a follow on to our feature on safety a number of members got in touch to reinforce the importance of sailors carrying a whistle to draw attention when in trouble. To help us all a number of whistles have been left in the OOD hut for members to take 'free of charge' if they do not already have one. First come first served - when they are gone they are gone so pick one up quickly!

Just a quick reminder that Rockley will be running Push the Boat Out at Bartley tommorrow should you have any friends or family who would like the opportunity to try sailing for the first time.

Thanks to the Bartley SUP team who spent last Sunday cleaning up the area surrounding the water and as the photo shows there was a lot of plastic waste collected. Some of this will have been thrown in the water by passers by, some will have blown into the water from the surrounding area, and some may have been an accidental 'overboard'.

The team did a great job and the quantity of waste just highlights the wider problem faced with single use plastics. Lets all do our bit to pick up litter, prevent litter, and recycle where we can to keep the reservoir and the planet clean and sustainable.

Congratulations to the 7 Lasers from Bartley that travelled to the Earlswood Laser open last week. After storm Hannah had passed through on the Saturday (Windsurfers - you missed out it was sailable on Saturday an I had the reservoir all to myself!) the weather was more gentle on the Sunday.

John won overall for being good at winning

Jeremy won the Great Grand Master prize for being mature

Harrison won the 4.7 prize for being little

Jennifer won the lady's prize for being, well, a lady!

Kerry, Tony, and Ollie were clearly beyond categorisation and will have to work on making themselves unique in some way!

Well done all - a great turn out with more than a third of the boats coming from Bartley maximising the prize bounty. Next open is at Blithfield next weekend with training on the Saturday and the Open meeting on the Sunday (if you are looking for somewhere to sail whilst the Birmingham Velo keeps things closed closer to home).

Hi All At the risk of giving late notice, last year the club ran a successful Wednesday evening series of sailing sessions. It is intended to do so again this year starting this evening. There will be coaching which is informal for those who can already sail and wish to improve their skills. It is hoped that these will cover a range of abilitities but they are aimed at encouraging those who currently do not race to have the skills to do so. Improvers are also welcome. As last year the sessions will start at 6.30 with those who are a little later being able to join in as they arrive. The club boats will be available as last year but if you have your own thats fine as well. Last year a number of sailors came to sail on Wednesday evenings who do not wish to race and simply enjoyed a sail without lots of others on the lake. You will also be very welcome again. At present I have not arranged for food to be available but this may be possible in future if numbers are sufficient. It may also be possible to have the bar open afterwards for a short time. See you there Steve

It was a close contest at the Rooster Zest RS400 Sprints at Queen Mary last weekend between the Bartley crews of Knight / Knight and Whitehouse / Cliff. Sam and John started strong then tailed off whilst the reverse was true for Caroline and Tony.

Great to see two Bartley boats on the podium in the Gold Fleet only a single point apart in this competitive field.