Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

Tel: 01702 587 563

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.

Well done to Paul Clarke for launching his new Sandhopper Nemises on Saturday evening, Paul launched with Toby under the cover of darkness to ensure none of us could take a look at his new machine, Nemises performed very well over the races on Sunday and Monday and I’m sure will be up in the chocolates at the Nationals, keep it up boys.

The Nationals are at the end of this month, to download the notice of race and entry please click on the link.

Download the NOR & Entry Form here

I have an old but complete Sandhopper mast, contact Peter on 616738 if you are interested.

Morning All,

This Sunday is the first long distance race of the year, high tide is at 05.30 so we should leave the moorings at around 07.30, the race will be to the Whittaker Bouy and back taking in a set course which I will email to those who are coming, could you please let me know asap if you are able to play, the weather looks stunning with 14mph winds sunny 70s, we will get back to the moorings as the tide comes across the bank in the afternoon,
Hope you can all come and play, if you are short of a crew or boat let me know and I will put you together, 3 up is always a good idea so you could always bring a friend as well.

Cheers.
Barry

Only a few weeks to go and it looks as if we will have 30 Sandhoppers sailing for the 2008 title.

Entry forms are available from RCYC website or Ken Clarke. We have arranged moorings for all, also there are options for bringing the boats home, we will be sailing to Burham may bank holiday Monday 26th, should make a great picture for the club wall.

For full information about the event please contact Barry or Ken, notice will also be placed on the Sandhopper board at TBYC.

Click on the link to download the notice of race and entry form.

Download the NOR & Entry Form here

The weekend racing saw some difficult conditions however the racing was exciting, it was very gusty and challenging however Saturdays race was won by Satisfaction, 2nd Windrush, 3rd Sandstar ( new boats can be beaten), 4th Apollo, and very very far back in last place was Squiffy.

Sundays Benfleet shield had very mixed conditions, Thompson/Hopper (Sandstar) were top in the Sandhopper fleet coming 2nd overall, well done boys, Satisfaction was second and Sandpiper was third, Apollo had her third collision of the year ( out of four races) and Windrush had 25 foot of plastic wrapped around the keel to help slow things down, pearl threw away a great 3rd place to finish 21st ??? and Squiffy made a better show finishing 4th.

The Sandhopper Nationals are not far away so i’m sure the current racing fleet circa. 12 at the moment will swell over the coming weeks as 22 are booked from TBYC to attend at the moment, many thanks to those who have lent their Sandhoppers to others to help make the event such a success.

So far we have 22 Sandhoppers from TBYC going to the Nationals on the 31st may, with the other boats from MBSC and a few more from us we could get 30.

Sandstar (Thompson/hopper) has been dominating the number one spot in the first few races this year with the rest of us fighting for the other positions, Sunday saw 11 of us start in mixed conditions, mike and Shaun had their maiden voyage in 153