Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

Tel: 01702 587 563

great fun race yesterday and fantastic to see so many cadets taking part in the windy conditions, the sandhoppers were out in force with Nemesis taking first place in our class, well done Paul and Toby.

I would like to point out that one of the sandhoppers was taking part in a different race, Sand  Star helmed by our commodore and crewed by a man with his own fleet of boats thought it was the Queenborough race and headed for the kent shore, yes messers saunders and Hopper made a massive school boy error and went the wrong way, to make matters worse, upon rejoining the pursuit race all be it a country mile behind, they decided to retire and go fo an early bath.

with all the experience that hopper has sailing around the Uk and the commodore who has just returned from a sailing holiday in Greece, you would expect them to be able to navigate to mark Y.

next time boys follow the cadets, they seem to have better idea of where to go.

Fellow members, when you see either Steve or Gordon dont forget to talk to them about their school boy error.

SANDHOPPER CREW AVAILABLE

I HAVE RECENTLY JOINED THE CLUB, HAVE VERY LIMITED SAILING EXPERIENCE BUT AM WILLING TO CREW AT SHORT NOTICE GENERALLY ON THURSDAY FRIDAY OR SATURDAY WITH A VIEW TO GAINING EXPERIENCE AND HOPEFULLY PURCHASING A SANDHOPPER EVENTUALLY.

I CAN BE CONTACTED ON:-

0208 508 9878      (MON/ WED)

07973 115928 (THURS/ SUNDAY)

JOHN DALTON

The Sandhopper open was combined this year with the TBYC regatta, 21 sandhoppers competed over the two day event consisiting of 4 races, the weather was forecast for 17mph for both days however it turned out nearer 25 with upto 38mph gusts.

The first race started in 30mph plus providing a long wave battering windward leg, windrush was first to the mark closely followed by little wing and sand star, the dead run proved to be very exciting with windrush staying in top spot to take 1st positon followed by sand star in 2nd squiffy 3rd and satisfaction 4th. Continue Reading »

2 Club members are off to the moth worlds in 2 weeks time David Hopper (Cadet) and Danny Clark. The event is from 5th July to 11th July.

I will try to keep you updated with there progress

Steve

What an Adventure! The sandhopper nationals held at RCYC was the largest fleet recorded for several decades; the sight of 26 sandhoppers sailing in the crouch was a fantastic site.

To get there and back added to the occasion, 3 boats went in 40mph winds the Monday before and the rest sailed on the Thursday in pouring rain, on both days despite the weather everybody had a huge smile.

Saturdays race was held in very light fluky conditions and we only managed one race out of 3, local knowledge was the key to the race and sand star took line honors followed by sandstorm in 2^nd Zeus 3^rd windrush 4^th and squiffy 5^th .( the rest of the results are on the RCYC web page)

The rest of the day was spent anchored by the windward mark of the second race where the real fun began, the banter was relentless and such a good laugh, upon abandonment late afternoon we headed for the great hospitality at the club bar and waited for the evening meal, over 80 people enjoyed a tremendous 3 course dinner at RCYC where the banter continued, Tony Padbury won the sponsors lonton and gray raffle prize which was a brand new spinnaker,Tony then kindly donated it immediately to be auctioned which raised £450 which once added to the donated mooring fees from rice and coles plus the raffle money raised over £1300 on the night for the RCYC local hospice charity, which for me was the icing on the cake to a brilliant weekend.

Sunday started with a huge good value buffet breakfast for nearly all the entrants at the RCYC followed by the next race, once again light conditions saw 6 finish in 45 minutes who were , satisfaction, sandstar, Apollo, sandstorm, squiffy, windrush and true blue the rest eventually crawled across the line 2 hours later. It looked like the championship would be abandoned but fortunately patience paid off and we managed one more race, the points were so close every place counted .

With the race over and two of the top finishers being ocs ( o dear, o dear, o dear)the final results saw sand star (Thompson and hopper) become the new national champions, worthy champions in everybody’s eyes , I have never met two people who put so much effort into helping others, if they weren’t coaching they were tuning boats, lending sails, blocks , shackles local knowledge etc, they were ensuring everyone’s safe passage to Burnham, both steve and peter did all the journeys with the boats to Burnham.

I would like to thank Steve Hopper and Martin Eyre for using their ribs as support boats, Tony Clarke for seasafe 5 and all his assistance, tony padbury for his fabulous donation, Dave Johnson for the Burnham Idea, RCYC for their hospitality, all fellow sandhopper sailors for their support and fantastic company, Len, Pat, Sally and john for their kind words of encouragement from the support boats, ken Clarke for liaising between all for the event, finally Peter Thompson for getting us all back safely in the dark on Sunday night, flying spinnakers in the pitch black onto the moorings at tbyc was beautiful and a first for some.

I thoroughly enjoyed the nationals and have sailed in many classes over the years, the sandhopper fleet has the nicest most helpful group of sailors I have ever had the pleasure to sail with.

results click here

What a weekend, once again thanks to all who made it happen.

Well done Peter and Steve worthy winners.

PS: Sailing in the dark is great fun

Two days to go and the remainder of the fleet set sail this afternoon for Burnham.

I would just like to thank the following people for all their hard work in getting all our boats ready and organising this event.

Barry Duce  (for goading badgering and generally motivating us all)

Peter Thompson (for for his expertise and enthusiasm and tireless work)

Ken Clarke (for setting the whole thing up)

and last but by no means least

Steve Hopper (this list could be endless, for setting up boats,running his rib round in adverse conditions,towing boats round)

This is what TBYC is all about, SUPPORT, ENTHUSIASM. ENCOURAGEMENT.

If I have fogotten anybody sorry.

Good Luck to all

Regards Spratty

14 Sandhoppers joined in with the Hobday Trophy race on Sunday, the weather was great including the force 6 which always makes for some interesting sailing, Sandstar took top spot in our group followed by Sandstorm and Satisfaction, the surprise of the day was watching Apollo limp slowly around the course with a hungover crew that appeared to be fishing using the barnacles on their keel as bait, this helped add to the banter on the balcony whilst celebrating the clubs 60th anniversary.

The Sandhoppers will make their way to Burnham this bank holiday Monday in preparation for the Nationals the following weekend.

Any last minute entries can download all the details on the link below

Download the NOR & Entry Form here

The Sandhoppers held their first long distance race of the year (5 races left to go) on Sunday, 8 boats left the moorings at 7.30 with the start at 8.00, the weather was stunning with a clear blue sky and a 13mph north easterly breeze, Sand Storm (current national champions Chris Clarke and Nick Barnes ) were first around the mid Shoebury buoy clocking 8 knots on the gps, with sand star (Hopper/Thompson) close on their heels, Squiffy, Sand Spirit, Spider, On The Hop, Windrush and Pearl all fought for the other positions, the black tail spit was missed by Sandstorm and the national champions had to come back on themselves to round the mark, the rest of the fleet didn’t laugh to much, three and a half hours of tactical windward and tidal sailing saw Sand Star finish first, at the Maplin Edge, Squiffy second , On The Hop third, Sand Storm (current champions) fourth, Pearl fifth, Sandspirit sixth, Spider seventh and Windrush eighth (Windrush went to the rescue of a fishing boat in distress hence the position). The second part of the race was a long spinnaker leg home Sand Star again took first place, Sand Storm second , On The Hop third, Squiffy fourth, Pearl fifth, Sand Spirit sixth, Windrush seventh and Spider eighth .
However, due to the competitiveness of the fleet we had the video running during the day from our fabulous support crew on Sea Safe 3, Nik Bennindyke, Dan Henderson and Bruce Spratt, (thanks boys for giving up your day ensuring our safety) ,
After collating all the days information and video , unfortunately our national champions forgot to sign on and off for the first leg and were ocs at the start of the second race, never mind messers Barns and Clarke better a lesson learnt now rather than at the national in a few weeks time, so with them out of the chocolates the rest of us moved up a place.
The day was a great success and I hope we will have even more entrants for the next one, if anyone would like to see the video of the day we will be showing it in the club on Thursday evening, watching Chris and Nick over the line by a country mile is very funny to see.

Many thanks to Steve Hopper who tuned 5 Sandhoppers on Saturday morning, the tuning has made a noticable difference to boat speed, also thanks to both Steve and Peter Thompson for helping to lift out ‘Prey’ very early saturday morning, I would also like to welcome Dick White to the Sandhopper class who has just purchased a boat.