Roger Wilson

Solo open report

RBSC Eastern Area Solo Open Meeting Report – 20^th April 2024

The freezing cold and strong northerly wind conditions may have deterred some from travelling to the RBSC Solo eastern area travellers open meeting on the 20th April but at least it made the decision about what to wear simple. Spring may be here, but full winter thermals and dry suits were the order of the day. There were 12 entries including 6 visitors.

Four races were scheduled but with wind speeds recorded up to 29 knots and gusting regularly in excess of 23-24 knots and mindful that some competitors would be headed to Hickling the following day, the OOD settled on a 3 race format with a single discard. With the wind direction predominantly in the north to north/west it was possible to set a long upwind/downwind course starting from a committee boat half-way down the broad. However, there were frequent shifts to the west, coming over the trees, which inevitably meant that the beat to No 5 mark would have to be a bit one sided.

Race 1 was won by Mathew Frary from NBYC with Chris Bunn from LYC 2^nd and another visitor from NBYC, Duncan Ellis, taking 3^rd. In Race 2 the positions were reversed with Chris Bunn taking 1^st and Mathew taking 2^nd and Steve Ede from Ardleigh SC coming 3^rd.

Conditions were taking their toll and many of the competitors, having done enough to qualify already , decided not to push their luck and venture out for the 3^rd race after lunch but with Mathew and Chris each recording a 1^st and 2^nd place, the podium positions were still all to play for. Conditions remained challenging and with Mathew leading Chris Bunn up the 2^nd beat, rather than deciding to cover Chris, Mathew split left over towards the trees and was hit by a particularly vicious gust which resulted in a capsize and, alas, the end the race for him, gifting Chris the overall win. Steve Ede finished 2^nd which secured him 3^rd place overall and Roger Wilson finished 3^rd securing him 4^th place overall and 1^st local club boat. The full set of results can be found here Sailwave results for 2024 RBSC Solo Eastern Area Open Meeting at 2024

At the prize giving Chris Bunn thanked the OOD, Clive Girling and his team of assistants and safety boat crews for their excellent race management in tricky conditions and the competitors travelled home tired but very satisfied with an excellent day’s racing.

New Years Day Regatta Report

It was feared that with the forecast over the Christmas holiday period being what it was and for some suffering the effects of a late night seeing in the New Year, that some people may have been deterred from turning out but as the car park started to fill and the dinghy park was abuzz with boats being rigged with plenty of friendly banter and shouts of “Happy New Year” any fears were soon dispelled.

The day was bright with blue skies , wall to wall sunshine and a moderate south westerly breeze – possibly too much westerly blowing over the trees to make it a perfect direction and resulting in some wicked wind shifts to master.

With 3 races scheduled, the Sallis family, who once again had kindly volunteered to run the regatta, made the decision to set a conservative 3 Lap first race to “test-the-water” and see how everyone would manage shifting wind conditions. With 28 boats including 6 visitors representing 12 different classes (I bet nobody had heard of the “Unit” class before!) all sharing the same start line this seemed very sensible. With a long start line set across the broad in front of the clubhouse the decision was to either take advantage of the starboard bias and start at the far end of the line closer to the trees or hedge your bets and go for the middle of the line where the wind was more consistent. A long first leg down the length of the broad to No 3 mark meant that tactics would also come into play as to whether to point high, stay on the wind, taking advantage of any lifts to possible lay the mark without needing to tack at the risk of maybe sailing slower and capsizing to windward in the vicious headers as the wind came over the trees, or to go for speed and sail freer, with the possible downside of needing to tack to make the mark.

It was the single handers who seemed to make the best calls in Race 1 with Daniel Bull in his Laser leading the way and a visitor from WOBYC Adam Yoraston in his Streaker 2nd and Chris Barker with his Radial rig on his Laser in 3^rd.

With wind continuing to shift further right for Race 2 the start line was once again loaded with boats all keen to pull the trigger and get clear of line as soon as possible, so much so that a general recall was required (much to Phil Highfield’s relief in his Streaker) . Everyone got away cleanly on the second time of asking and with a longer 4 Lap Race now set it was possible for the Wayfarers of Mike McNamara and Dave Houghton with their deft spinnaker handling to pull clear of the fleet and secure 1^st and 2^nd place respectively. Daniel and Adam, after their stella performance in Race 1 were both buried well down in the pack making everything to play for in Race 3 after lunch.

As the wind became lighter and continued to shift further right in the afternoon a course change was needed to try and get a couple of true upwind beats diagonally across the broad from No 6 to No 4 and No 2 to No 3 . It was Daniel Bull securing 2^nd place, making him the overall winner and Adam who came 3^rd, securing 2^nd place overall who once again found their touch to make the most is this new course and the lighter wind conditions but the story of Race 3 was the spectacular asymmetric spinnaker work of Howard Ashley-Jones in his RS Vareo which gave him the race win and pull him up to 3^rd place overall, ahead of Dave Houghton in 4^th and Mike McNamara in 5^th, both of whom had decided not to venture out in the afternoon.

At the prize giving Jon Sallis presented the New Years Day Regatta Binnacle, surely the Norfolk Broads most sought after trophy , to Daniel Bull in his Laser and thanked all the competitors, particularly the visitors, for turning out to make it such a spectacular way to kick-off the new year.

Full set of results can be found on the website at

Sailwave results for 2024 New Years Day Open Regatta at Rollesby Broad 2024 (rbsc.org.uk)

Race Management Eve 11th Nov

Race Management Evening at RBSC Friday Nov 11th at 7pm in the clubhouse

Now the evenings are pulling in we thought it would be a good opportunity to get everyone together in the clubhouse to go over some Race Management best practices and share with one another our experience running the races at Rollesby on a Sunday. Whilst primarily intended for those on the OOD duty list it should also be of interest to anyone interested in learning more about Sailing Race Management in general. We would also like to take the opportunity to familiarise everyone with the race management tool we have been trialling this year. This has got the “thumbs-up” from all those who have tried it so we are proposing to formally adopt the use of this App at the club going forward.

Please come prepared with any questions you may have and to share your own experiences (if any) from running races, not only at Rollesby but at any other sailing clubs you have been involved with in the past. I’m afraid we have no bar at the club so it will be a question of bringing your own refreshments !

Hope to see as many people as possible…Everyone is invited. Any question please email sailing@rbsc.org.uk and I will get back to you.

Roger Wilson

You can find out a bit more info about DSRC Race management app here….

Summer Series Report

Summer Series concludes with convincing win for Howard Astley-Jones

Sunday’s sailing marked the end of a competitively fought summer series. The winner was never in doubt with Howard Astley-Jones enjoying a stella series and sealing an impressive 10-point margin victory, securing a 2^nd and 1^st place in the final two races of the series. 2nd place was all to play for with Daniel Bull just pipping Tony Fullford into 2^nd place on countback, having secured a 2^nd place in the final race of the series. 3^rd was then Tony, with Richard Bailey and Ian Curtis in their Wayfarer close behind in 4^th . There were 38 entries and 14 races in total with 15 competitors completing the qualifying number of races. Members completing in their first series at Rollesby included Mike and Jenny Harris in their RS Vision who finished a respectable 16^th and Keith and Jane Minster who finished 13^th in their Albacore. It was also nice to see Merlin Rocket “Warpath” crewed by various willing volunteers (for some their first taste of racing!) successfully qualifying in 10^th place after a 40 year absence from Rollesby. The afternoon series was also won by Howard, with Tony 2nd and Bob Sparrow in his Wayfarer 3^rd. The full set of results are on the website. Trophies for all the summer series will be presented at the AGM on the 16^th Oct.

As we reflect on a glorious Summer Series and the temperature begins to drop it’s time now to don our wetsuits and drysuits and get ready for the Autumn Series which kicks-off this weekend with a one-day Autumn Regatta which is open to both club members and visitors. 3 races, split into two fleets, with best two results to count. We also look forward to welcoming back our winter members in the weeks to come as they start to return from their summer adventures.

Whit Series Report.

“So after Sunday’s sunny and blustery conditions that concludes the RBSC 2022 Whit Series. The windy conditions – and with some no doubt feeling they eat too much cake after the fantastic 50 years Celebrations the day before, the turnout was a little down on normal. Congratulations go to Daniel Bull for scoring two bullets in the morning races to consolidate his position overall morning series winner with 9 points. It was a close run thing, with a tie on points for 2^nd and 3^rd place, but Tony Fullford manged to pip Clive Girling on countback into 2^nd place leaving Clive finishing 3^rd and Richard Bailey 4^th. The morning Whit Series was as competitive as ever with 14 competitors completing 7 races needed to qualify.

With strong wind conditions and tied bodies meaning there was no afternoon race this week the afternoon series was concluded last weekend. One again it was very tight for the podium positions with Tony Fullford just winning the series on countback from John Saddington in 2^nd with Clive Girling in 3^rd.

The full Whit Series provisional results for AM and PM races can be found on the website.

Time now to look forward the 2022 Summer Series which kicks-off next weekend with our one-day Summer Series Club Regatta. With no weed to worry about, lots of new members taking to the water and the weather continuing to look set fair for some time to come it looks we could be set for another great series of races. If you haven’t qualified for a race series before or maybe want to try racing for the first time, then the summer series provides a great and relaxed opportunity to join in. There are lots of very experienced sailors within the club willing the share their knowledge and help those looking to improve their sailing skills.”

Roger

RBSC – Solo Open Report

Last Sunday Rollesby Broad Sailing Club hosted a Solo Open Meeting, which was part of a two-day Norfolk weekend qualifier for the Solo Class Association Easter Area Championship. The forecast was for 20+ mph north easterly wind all weekend which may have deterred some, but the event still attracted 9 visitors together with 6 club members making a fleet of 15 Solos for a very lively and competitive day’s racing.

Kevin Edwards was the Race Officer for the day ably assisted in the race box by Jo and Clive and Chris Foster on safety boat who were kept very busy with plenty of capsizes and incidents to attend to. Thankfully whilst still very strong, the wind settled nearer to the north than the east which enabled Kevin to set a course which included some nice long beats and white-knuckle surfing downwind legs up and down the broad. 4 races were scheduled, and all were completed with 2 held back-to-back before lunch and 2 further, slightly shorter, races held back-to-back in the afternoon.

In race 1 Steve Ede from Ardleigh Sailing Club hit the front up the first beat and was the leading boat at the windward mark, a position which he maintained throughout race 1 and repeated in race 2, 3 and 4 to score 4 straight 1^st places, leaving the overall result in no doubt. Mark Maskell from Brightlingsea was 2^nd in Race 1 with Howard Ashley-Jones, who had traded in his Vereo to take up Ian Ayres kind offer to borrow his boat for the day, right up there in the mix battling it out with the other visitors in 3^rd place.

Back down the fleet race positions were changing rapidly throughout the day as capsizes, breakages and fatigue all took their toll on the competitors. Jack Ibbotson deserves special mention for taking out the clubs old wooden Solo which Brian donated to the club and showing us all that you don’t need a nice new shiny epoxy Solo to be competitive. Jack, forsaking his Finn and jumping in a Solo for the first time, put together a spectacular set of results which would have been all the better had he not capsized on the start line with 10 seconds to go before the start of race 2.

With 3 races to qualify some boats decided enough was enough after race 3. This included Mark Maskell, who was still throwing off the effects of a recent covid infection and his heroic efforts of securing 1^st place in arguably even windier condition at Hickling the day before decided to gamble that he had done enough to secure 2^nd overall. The result was already in the bag for Steve Ede but that didn’t stop him joining Roger Wilson, Godfrey Clark (from Fishers Green Sailing Club) and Jack Ibbotson in Race 4 who still had scores to settle. Mark Maskell’s gamble didn’t pay as Roger was able to snatch a 2^nd place from Godfrey on the last beat leaving Roger to snatch 2^nd place overall on countback with Mark in 3^rd place.

The Fleet recovering from the 1st 2 races and enjoying Angie’s Curry

At the prize giving Steve Eve, on behalf of all the visitors, thanked the club for putting on a fantastic day’s sailing, praised the excellent race organisation and Angie for the homemade cakes. Steve, was very conscious that the club had forgone their normal regular Sunday sailing in order to host the event passed on his thanks on behalf of the Solo Class Association.

Full set of results can be found on the website here :-
Sailwave results for RBSC Eastern Arear Solo Open Meeting at RBSC 2022