Trailer Cull
Saturday 19th May 2012
The Corinthian Otters will be hosting some important open events in the next few weeks - the Topper Traveller Event this weekend and the second qualification event for the 2012 British Cadet team over the weekend of the 2nd/3rd June. Car park and dinghy park space will be at a premium...
Team Pica in Hungary
Thursday 10th to Monday 14th May 2012
The Hungarian event on Lake Balatonfoldvar were days of frustration for Team Pica. The first two days produced summery conditions with little or no wind, the following day produced too much even for hardy skiff sailors and on the last day the storm was still pumping at 26-30 knots.
Burnham Gold Cup 2012
Saturday 5th to Monday 7th May 2012
The weather forecast of cold damp conditions with a cool northerly F4 breeze didn't deter four visitors from attending the three day bank holiday Gold Cup Regatta. This event is always held in Burnham and is the first of the National Squib Travellers' Series and for this year only, the 707 fleet joined us on the race course for their Eastern Area Championship, our other local race officer having other commitments.
2012 707 Eastern Area Championships
Saturday 5th to Monday 7th May 2012
The May Bank Holiday saw the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club host the 2012 707 East Coast Championship. The fleet of seven was greeted on Saturday morning by a overcast river Crouch and a strengthening cold north easterly breeze. The visiting team on Black Sheep was keen to learn the waters and reached the racing area in the Roach ahead of the rest of the fleet.
Team Pica heads the list in 18ft Skiffs
Saturday 5th to Monday 7th May 2012
The second UK Grand Prix was held at Calshot on the Solent this Bank Holiday Weekend. Three days of racing produced perfect skiff sailing (albeit very cold!) with nine races, in a wind range from 12-22 knots, with all teams opting for the smaller rig on the last day.
New Squib Buoys
Thursday 3rd May 2012
The Squib's new buoys have arrived and are ready to go. They are bigger than I anticipated, they’re the diameter of the dumpy buoys but six feet high. I have put them next to one of the Dragon’s marks to give you a size comparison - bear in mind that we’ve always talked about the Dragon marks as 'the big marks'. No more...
Justin Waples at Flying Fifteen Inlands
Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th April 2012
Twenty-five Flying Fifteens entered the Inland Championships at Burton Sailing Club over the weekend of 14th-15th April, including RCYC member Justin Waples. A chilly breeze of strengths varying between force 2-4 but which swung round the compass, provided a challenge for both the competitors and the organisers.
Training Weekend
Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April 2012
The Squib Fleet once again welcomed Adam Bowers to the club for an action packed weekend of sail training. The event was well attended with twelve Squibs taking part. The format is very simple, classroom theory followed by practical exercises that in turn are followed by shore based de-briefing including watching the video recordings of our masterful manoeuvres and crazy misjudgements.
RMS Titanic Sets Sail - A Night to Remember...
Saturday 14th April 2012
As the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic approached, more and more interest was taken in the subject: programmes on both radio and TV, books, interviews with relatives of survivors, plenty to please the Titanic aficionado. All were planned well in advance but none more than RCYC's event, which developed a couple of years ago from a germ of an idea from Tony Bone. Many people were involved, all providing ideas which combined to make a night to remember.
Mingming Mania in Moscow
April 2012
Roger Taylor, 'voyageur extraordinaire' and an advocate of 'simple sailing', has sailed his 21ft junk-rigged Corribee 'Mingming' on single-handed voyages every year from 2006 to 2011. These voyages are the inspiration behind his books, "Voyages of a Simple Sailor" and "Mingming & the Art of Minimal Ocean Sailing". Having completed translations into Russian of his books, his Russian publishers invited him to attend the Moscow Boat Show in March...
Dragon Regatta Easter 2012
Friday 6th to Monday 9th April 2012
Eighteen Dragons entered the traditional Royal Corinthian Yacht Club regatta held over Easter, including four visitors and two newcomers to the Burnham Fleet. This was a really good start to the sailing season in Burnham and the whole fleet is looking forward to great racing over the next eight months.
Squibs at Easter 2012
Friday 6th to Monday 9th April 2012
On Friday afternoon the Squibs Champagne Race was sailed in light airs with Micky Wright in Spoof securing the win. Light winds and strong tides presented the challenges for Saturday and Sunday, the first two days of the Mike Flint Trophy.
707s at Easter 2012
Friday 6th to Sunday 8th April 2012
The RCYC 707 Easter Regatta was a very strongly contested event, with six entries, sailed over the first three days of Easter. It should have been a four day event but with the weather forecast not looking too good for the first race on Monday, the consensus was to have the prize giving on Sunday and a well earned rest the day after!
Burnham Squib Fleet gets all Social
Tuesday 3rd April 2012
The Burnham Squib fleet are joining the 21st Century - by setting up their own Facebook page, where they will be posting brief race reports and news, as well as uploading pictures from the weekend's on and off the water activities and antics.
Triumph for Tribe!
Tuesday 3rd April 2012
You probably missed Steve Tribe's triumph! He was the only person to get the right time for the Squib start on Saturday and so beat the Commodore, who was an hour late. There was some confusion the night before about start times because half the room thought the starts went to their normal time after the clocks leapt forward whilst others thought the Dragons had a 'special' time...
RCYC honours Margaret
Saturday 24th March 2012
Margaret Pollard, together with husband, Ernie, were special guests at the Fitting Out Dinner, when Commodore Robert Coyle was pleased to offer and Margaret to accept Honorary Membership in recognition of her years of work and commitment to the Club. Although Margaret retired officially from her post as Club Controller in 2001, she has continued to to work in the office at weekends ever since and still does so on Sundays where Members are delighted to see her familiar face.
Mike Peyton Tells his Tale
Sunday 25th March 2012
The Cruiser Class winter series of talks was brought to a splendid end by yachting cartoonist Mike Peyton giving his first ever talk. Now in his nineties, Mike let us into his sailing past and his private life. We learnt that he didn't much like being a German prisoner of war, so he left, headed east and joined the Russian Army. Post war Mike attended art school, bought a sailing canoe and started to explore the East Coast.
New Fleet Section
March 2012
Be sure to look at the newly rebuilt pages in the fleets section of the website, redesigned in time for the start of the sailing season. You no longer have to be logged in to explore them - just click on 'Fleets' at the top of your screen (or the link below). We'll continue to enhance them over the coming months - but as ever - we are reliant on the individual fleets for interesting content. So keep it coming!
Diesel, Diesels and Darwin
Sunday 11th March 2012
This weekend’s cruiser talk, 'Diesel, Diesels and Darwin' by Derek Corless, did what it said on the tin and more. Derek, who is setting up a motor boat section of the cruiser fleet, described how to keep your engine happy – clean inside and out, elements of good tank design, be careful where you fill up, the dangers of various new developments in fuel and the importance of filters.
Calling All Members with Engines...
March 2012
Open Letter from Derek Corless to All Members,
Our club's website now features a page in the fleet section for Motor Cruisers and you will see that it is called a sub-section of the Cruiser Fleet. I was asked by members of the committee to form a group for motor cruisers and I felt that it should be part of the cruiser fleet. Our common interest is in journeying to interesting places, we only differ in how we do it. Sue King runs a very good cruiser section and I feel we should support her rather than be a separate group of boats.
Virtual Endeavour Trophy with SailX
Wednesday 15th February 2012
The Endeavour Trophy has long been associated with the RYA Dinghy Show, but this year the connection has a contemporary approach. Racing virtual sailing boats in strict accordance with the racing rules (except no need for a wet suit) in the comfort of your own home - the finals will take place at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show over the weekend 3/4th March, and the winner will be presented with the new Virtual Endeavour Trophy.
From the Canaries to Burnham with Captain Bligh
Monday 13th February 2012
Nearly sixty people attended yesterday's talk for the Cruiser Fleet by Anne Heasley called 'From the Canaries to Burnham with Captain Bligh'. The drive through the snow did not daunt them but then, cruiser folk are a hardy bunch as Anne's talk demonstrated. Anne and Arthur brought Star Swan back from the Canaries via Madeira and the Azores, meeting old acquaintances, making new friends, having a couple of perfect sails, spotting whales and dolphins, and beating into the occasional gale...
RCOD Winter Dinner
Friday 3rd February 2012
The Naval Club, on Friday February 3rd, was the venue for a midwinter dinner for the RCOD fleet & guests on what turned out to be one of the coldest evenings of the year. We were honoured by having the RCYC Admiral Robert Melville, Commodore Robert Coyle & RCOD Class President, John Heathfield, among the guests.
Simon Fisher on board
February 2012
This is the time of year to catch up with Simon Fisher, (Si Fi) ex-Otter Commodore, who is still racing round the world with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Having just completed the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, he is now in Sanya but the race has been one of mixed fortunes for the team so far.
RCYC Celebrates Burns' Night
Saturday 28th January 2012
The Season's entertainments at RCYC commenced with yet another excellent Burns' Night celebration and a significant number of members joined in this regular event. Stuart Munro, now relaxing as our ex-Commodore, kindly delivered the Selkirk Grace and shortly this was followed by our own "Braveheart", Steve Jones, who once again excelled and attacked the haggis with his unique charm and sharpened dirk.
Cruiser Talk - The Last Sailorman
Sunday 15th January 2012
Dick Durham, news editor of Yachting Monthly, talked of his time in the late 60s and early 70s, as mate on the Thames sailing barge Cambria, the last commercial sailing vessel without an engine, in northern Europe.
Nick Craig named as Yachtsman of the Year
Wednesday 11th January 2012
Five times Endeavour Championship winner Nick Craig has won the coveted title of Yachting Journalists’ Association Pantaenius Yachtsman of the Year for 2011, beating off competition from none other than Ben Ainslie CBE and Dee Caffari MBE.
Digging to Start on Crossrail Project
9th January 2012
In March, the first of eight of these giant machines will start burrowing under central London to carve out the tunnels for Crossrail, Europe's biggest civil engineering project. Crossrail will link areas east and west of London on 118km (73 miles) of rail track. The route will descend down to 40m (130ft) under London through 21km of twin tunnels.
Ex Otter Breaks Round the World Record
Saturday 7th January 2012
Ex Corinthian Otter Brian Thompson has just broken the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world in any type of yacht. Brian, who is now based in Southampton, was the only British crew member on board the Banque Populaire V, which completed the lap in a staggering 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds.
A New Look for royalcorinthian.co.uk
Friday 6th January 2012
2012 marks a decade since Mark Eagling became involved with our website, and to mark this auspicious anniversary, royalcorinthian.co.uk has had a major makeover. Here Mark gives us a run-down of what's changed and what's stayed the same.
Boat Shows 2012
Spring Season 2012
The Boat Show season will soon be upon us with the London Boat Show opening from 6th -15th January. Several members will go and we are promised their insightful comments later. Roger Taylor, however, our member who specialises in solo Arctic trips, has received a personal invitation to attend the Moscow Boat Show, March 20-25, where he is promised 'a comfortable stay at the exhibition grounds and a chance to meet Russian sailors to share his experiences in ocean sailing...' We look forward to hearing from Our Man in Moscow!'