Race report 3rd August 2025
Course: D, OOD: Olly Adams, Safety Boat: David Baker; Start: 16:30 Wind WSW 14/19knots, 4/5 Beaufort (according to the Met Office in Kew Gardens)
Arriving at SotG on Sunday I was surprised that the tide was well out and on checking found that low tide was around 17:15. Never having done a D course before I wasn’t expecting that! In any case we managed to launch four boats and the SB (on rollers down the ‘beach’). The race started about 10 mins late with a plan to head as far as Chiswick Eyot. Unfortunately wind and tide were against us in the early part of the race, and progress was slow. Sam Shemtob, in his first time in a laser (Keith Clarke’s Kaia) slowly started to fall back from James Armitage (in ‘Zephyr’, Enterprise, crewed by the youngest Biekark), Felicia Biekark (in Joe Armitage’s Laser ‘Punt’) and Ben Chappell in his Laser, ‘Envy’, who were pretty much neck and neck heading down to Chiswick Bridge with the lead changing several times. The wind dropped after the bridge and the sailing to Barnes Bridge was slow going. By this time Sam was well behind the others and decided to retire and head back to SotG. We were already 35 mins into the race, so I decided to turn us at Chiswick Bandstand. By this stage James had decided to take the Surrey Bank which proved to be a decisive factor in him taking the lead at the turn and with wind and tide in his favour he soon pulled away from the others. The sail back to SotG was a lot quicker as the tide came in but the race still did last 15 mins longer than planned, with James finishing first ahead of Felicia and Ben in third place. All enjoyed the day and the race, I chalked up my first D course in the SB and there were smiles all round back in the clubhouse.
David Baker
At the start of the race the four dinghies and the SB had a close encounter with one of the smaller tourist cruisers. The fleet was heading downstream with the tide, beating into the light SWW wind. The cruiser came up fast behind them and gave a long blast on its horn. It had to slow down fast and probably put its engine in reverse. It was in shallowing water towards the bank and was probably ‘limited in its ability to manoeuvre’ with the tide pushing downstream and Olly, from his vantage point on the foreshore notes that it was “Worth making a reminder that even though there is a general Colregs rule that power gives way to sail, the Colregs state (and they apply on tidal Thames) that vessels constrained by draft or commercial ferries have a right of way. There is also an amendment to the Colregs (Art 27 Port of London Thames Byelaws 2012) that gives 20m+ vessels priority. Finally, there are exemptions to Colregs for crossing the fairway. This shouldn’t happen too often as we will be in the fairway with the tide and out of the fairway without the tide, but vessels crossing the fairway shouldn’t impede vessels proceeding along the fairway”. So the general SGSC rule is: ‘keep out of the way of everything’.
Olly Adams
Next week is a C-course at 15:40.
