Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

Tel: 01702 587 563

many thanks to all those who helped lift in go so smoothly especially Paul Spratt for directing, Ryan Peacher & Dan Henderson who were excellent lollipop men, (job for life there boys) Steve Hopper for weighing the 3 very underweight sandhoppers, (Rupert Chris and Nick are looking for 3 tonne of lead if anyone has some?) Jason & Roger whose skill and speed is second to none ensuring our boats are delivered to their moorings. the Stig for showing all how to drive those fabulous machines, and finally to lisa farrall for organising the lovely dinner which was enjoyed by 80 smiling faces. We were all very pleased to see 18 of our friends from MBSC who helped make the evening such a success.
we all must of been so excited (hungover) to be racing on sunday that we were all disqualified for missing the general recall, happy days, more of the same this easter weekend.

Finally we get round to Sandhopper Lift in this Saturday 27th March, its been a long cold and very wet winter where the Sandhopper owners have taken every window in the weather to make their boats racing ready for the new season, they all look in absolutely tip top condition which is fantastic for the class and our club. The Sandhoppers are the largest One Design Keel Boat Class on the Thames Estuary and there are only a handful of locations round the country where they can boast any one design fleet above 30.
This is a great turning point in the year for me with the boats out on their moorings means summer is not far away.
If you haven’t seen our friendly Local Farmers Roger and Jason Burroughs in action with their fantastic machinery then be at the club from 2pm onwards on saturday to see machine masters at work. 2hrs later and 35 boats will be on their moorings….ready for racing on sunday morning, lovely.

The competition amongst the Sandhopper fleet  has grown to new heights with Steve Hopper (Sand Star 159) & Paul Spratt (Apollo 154) with a challenging climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.  The pair have set off from Heathrow today for their pre season training and trip of a lifetime,  Steve has taken a small laptop with him and signal permitting will be sending reports to keep us up to date with their events.

Lets wish them plain sailing & have fun.

11/3/10 16:00hrs Steve has called me several times from his mobile to give me their progress. He said that day one was tough as they walked for 5hrs and they were both exhausted on arriving at camp. Day two they walked for 7hrs and the climb was much steeper and arrived at camp at 4pm completely Kna***ed. Day three was all I could understand as Steve’s call kept failing.

I would have to say by the tone of his voice that things were tough and by the speed of the conversation that they were exhausted and finding it hard to breathe.

I hope they are well and will report any further contact.  Martyn

Made contact again, they are currently at about 15000ft,tired and suffering from the altitude. Paul is suffering most from lack of oxygen, I am not sure if Steve was just suffering from the lack of Blue Sapphire as he had not consumed any  for the last three days.

The climb tomorrow will be a tough one as the slope is getting steeper. Their attempt for the summit will be late on Monday night… Good Luck..   Martyn

Steve phoned me 7am this morning and I could immediately notice a change in his mood, they had both climbed for a couple of hours and were standing on a 1000ft cliff top (must be scary as they are already at 15000ft) Steve said the World looked great and he and Spraty were acclimatising well with the altitude. Their attempt for summit now starts this Sunday at 9pm our time.

Just a reminder that the annual Sandhopper Christmas drinks party will take place on Wednesday 9th December in the Club House, all Sandhopper sailors including wives etc are welcome.

Published on behalf of the Sandhoppers Group

many thanks to all those who helped the lift out on saturday in record time, special mention to spratty, gordon and aimmee for getting the boats racked and packed, to Roger and Jason for their speed and skill, Ann, Jane and meik for the teas, Linda and Pat for the safe crossing, Rupert and Co. for dropping masts, also thanks to Toby and the crew erecting the gantry, fantastic team work and a fun day. same again in march !!
thanks barry

18 sandhoppers raced in glorious sunshine on sunday in the final race of the year, light winds made for a tricky race, Satisfaction was the winner on the day followed by squiffy then sandstar, thanks to all those who helped on the day.

Congratulations to Peter Thompson and Steve Hopper (Sand star) who took the crown of Sandhopper National Champions for the second consecutive year.
29 boats entered this years event in champagne sailing conditions at TBYC.
Sandstar stormed the board with a 2-1-2 to secure top spot. second place was closely contested with Apollo (2nd Eyre & Burrell) just beating Squiffy ( Binnendyke & Saunders) into third.
many thanks to Hyde sails who Sponsored the prizes of new sails, the support crews headed by Tony Clarke, the race officer team of Geoff Appleton, Lisa Farrall for organising a great social event and Jo & the crew from the catering team at TBYC who helped make the whole weekend event a tremendous success.
full results and write up please go to www.sandhopper.org.uk

Thanks to all who participated in making the event such an enjoyable experience.
Barry

Congratulations to Barry for organising a very successful championship.
(And for winning a nice new spinnaker courtesy of Hydes!)

The notice of race, sailing instructions and entry form are available to download from the sandhopper web site

http://www.sandhopper.org.uk/

Don’t forget the Sandhopper Nationals on 5th/6th September!