Bartley Sailing Club Blog

Bartley looks forward to welcoming the Merlin Rockets to the Silver Tiller event this Sunday (and a few who will be around on Saturday to get some practice in). The notice of Race and Sailing Instructions are on the website in the Open Meetings area. Tillys will be open as usual to provide food for all at great prices.

Just a few reminders - the clocks go forward an hour at the weekend so make sure you are not the crew that arrive at the start line an hour late! It is also Mothering Sunday so bring your mothers along to watch and enjoy the food in the club house :)

The boat park at Bartley was a little empty this weekend as the Supernovas travelled to Cotswold S.C. and the Streakers and Lasers went to Tamworth.

At Cotswold Mike Gibson came 2nd with Steve Hawley 3rd, Chris Hawley 6th and Garry Butterfield 8th in a fleet of 34 - a fantastic result for the club.

At Tamworth Debbie Degge took the gold for Bartley and even had time for a brief capsize in the second race (although nobody was quite sure how when you look at the conditions!). Well done Debbie, another great result.

In the Lasers I sailed from one hole to the next to end up 8th in a fleet of 22 - not my finest hour! Megan tried a Radial rig for the first time and managed a creditable 19th and more importantly won the chocolates for youngest helm. The journey home was quite a feast...

If you have any tales from the Opens please let me know at  and I will happily post them for you.

Just a quick note to let members know we are opening the bar up this Saturday, so if you fancy a crafty one after sailing we'd love to see you.

We have a few volunteers helping to run the bar with me, they are:

Marie Allen, Chris Bownes, Steve Ward, Simon Hardiman, Tony Cliff, Herr Commodore and Nick Eaves.

We will have the basic essentials to begin with (but we will have beer and wine!), and will build stock levels up based on demand for our services. So.... let us know your thoughts as we develop over the coming weeks.

See you there!

Greg Pace

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Thanks to all our members who attended the AGM today and for the valuable Q&A seesion that followed giving us some good suggestions to ponder and plan. It is the generosity of our members in terms of the time and effort that are  put in that makes the club such a success so thank you for all you do and keep up the great work!

Unfortunately the wind was howling through the shrouds and up-ending dinghies being readied for transport (I hope your Supernovas are OK for next week) so the end of series regatta had to be cancelled forcing us all into the clubhouse for the Winter series prize giving and an early lunch at Tilly's. Here are just a few of the photos taken (thanks to Jennifer Foort) of the AGM and the prize winners. 

The prizes await their winners                                       The Treasurer talks through the club finances

The various fleet, junior (well done Harrison) and series winners get their prizes (and Dan keeps on top of the arm wrestle challngers)

John Ling takes all 3 Saturday Winter Series Trophies - a first for the Club - Well done John! (But look out behind you - there is something coming up the hill!)

The weather gets the best of us for the Regatta...

Don't forget that it is the Annual General Meeting at 10.00 this Saturday morning followed by a Q&A session with the Club Committee. If you wish to know more about the running of the club this is the event to attend.

The AGM is followed by the End of Series Regatta. This is a 'stand alone' regatta of 2 Pursuit races both of which count. The first race is at 12.30 and the second at 14.30.

At roughly 16.30 there will be tea and some cakes in the club house whilst the prizes are awarded for the Regatta and for the Winter series races.

As always there are the perpetual cups for the series winners, regatta winner, Junior series and regatta winner, and Novice series and regatta winner, with wine for the top 3 overall, the coverted 'Bartley Winner' mugs for the top 3 per fleet, and some extra goodies as hand outs. But remember; you have to be there to collect your prize or it gets recycled for next time!

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

If you have held a Level 2 powerboat certificate for at least a year, you are eligible to take the safety boat drivers course.

The course is designed to teach you how to assist or perform rescues of various craft e.g. single and double hand dinghy, canoes and wind surfers.

Dave Jones has one course for 2019, taking place on 6^th and 28^th April and currently has two vacant places. The cost is just £30 for club members, none members can be considered if holding a valid certificate.

If you want to book or know more, please contact Dave at or on the following numbers: Land: 01216025328 or Mob:  07887406585

On a separate but linked note - congratulations to our new Powerboat level 2 graduates who had to battle the choppy conditions at the weekend to gain their certification - this group really had to earn their award!

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Foort

Thanks to Steve Watson for running an engaging and thought provoking session on how to use the rules to competitive advantage.

The evening started out with the basics and then gradually added complexity with lots of scenarios explained from our enquiring members. The 'dark rule' was of particular interest as were the subtle but important interpretations of 'proper course' (fastest route around the course which is not necessarily the most direct) and rights at the leeward mark for a boat on port who has water over a starboard boat meaning they must go directly to the mark and not have any right to take a wide line. The 3 boat length rule also received a lot of interrogation as to the zone relative to a boats transom.

The feedback from those who I spoke to was very positive and I was very pleased to see so many club members supporting the event. If you have any thoughts as to further sessions you would be interested in then please let me know on . For info I am just working on some OOD training to ensure consitency there - more on this in the comming months...

Some more photos of the evening from Jennifer Foort:

The crowds assemble!

Contemplating being called a GP sailor and having a small boat...

What 3 boat lengths look like

What do you do if you are boat number 5?

Don't forget to attend on Wednesday evening to brush up on the rules of sailing and how to use them to your advantage. This is a free event for members and promises to be a great evening. We hope to see you there.

Photo courtesy of Supernova Association

Congratulations to Mike Gibson for his 1st Master and 4th overall placing in the Supernova Winter Championships at Bowmoor SC last weekend in a fleet of 36. Garry Butterfield also put in a strong result coming in 7th to take the 2nd Master position in the fleet. A great start to what will surely be another great year for the Bartley Supernovas.