New Year at KGSC

How often do you browse around the club web pages?  Not much I’ll bet, unless you’re looking for something specific.  Well, the Members Handbook has had a bit of an update, and might yet be refined a bit more in the coming weeks - Credit and appreciation to Sarah & Princess Pete for this one.  You’ve probably already seen the Racing Events Calendar and now there are a couple of new items for your perusal / amusement.

New SIs for the dinghy racers:

We have for some time been using flag Z (Zulu) as the class Warning Signal for race starts.  However, Dans recent excellent ‘Fun with Flags’ talk highlighted that we really shouldn’t be using Z, or even 9 (which seems to be missing anyway) as detailed in the previous SIs from the club handbook.

So, new updated Sailing Instructions (SIs) are now posted on the club website under Policies & Documents https://www.kgsc.org.uk/s/KGSC-Club-SIs-2026.pdf.  Credit and appreciation to Dan for this.  The main thing you should be aware of is that you will hopefully begin to see Flag F (Foxtrot) being used as the Warning Signal in future.

Guidance for Race Officers:

We have also introduced some helpful Guidance for Race Officers https://www.kgsc.org.uk/s/Guidance-for-Race-Officers.pdf which can be found under the Duties tab on the website.  Worth a look for racers too!

Sailrace Web based Invite Link for remote sign-on:

To help our duty Race Officer set up the Sailrace App ready to start the race, we are trialling a new feature whereby you can tally-on for the upcoming race from your PC or smartphone.

When an invite link is posted, you can click on it and use the search box to find your entry options, or fill in the form to add a new entry if you aren’t already in our database.

Please submit your registration at least 1 hour before race start time.

If you later change your mind, ie different boat or rig choice, please let the Race Officer know before the race begins.

Please also continue to sign-on at the Race Box as usual, at least while we evaluate the benefits or pitfalls of this new feature.

Link to enter the Good Friday Hot Cross Bun Race - https://sailrace.app/register?raceId=430983d9-58fb-4f39-b54c-a812a9bf3b32

Link to enter the Easter Saturday Sprint Series - https://sailrace.app/register?raceId=1d3970cf-dc9a-4df0-855e-e4d723de3adc

The Easter Sunday Pursuit Race won’t be using the Sailrace App.

Easter Regatta 2026

OK, so that’s the end of another club year, and I hope you’re all renewing your memberships very soon, so you can come and join us for our first event of the new club year, at the 2026 Easter Regatta.  3 days of racing with 1 discard available if all are completed:

Easter Good Friday Handicap Race 11:00, 3rd April 2026.  The 1st race in the new 2026 club calendar.  A handicap race with the first use, here at King George, of the new updated 2026 PY handicap ratings.  Followed in the afternoon with a sizzling BBQ (weather permitting), Hot Cross Buns, and the bar will be open.

Easter Saturday Sprint Series 11:00, 4th April 2026.  10 quickfire windward / leeward sprints, 3-minute signals as usual, with a committee boat start!  Up to 3 discards, applied after 4, 7 & 9 races completed.  Overall scores for the day will go forward to count towards day 2 of the Easter Regatta.

Easter Sunday Pursuit Race 11:00, 5th April 2026.  A 90-minute (for the ILCA 6) pursuit race completes the Easter Regatta.  The new PYs have made some small changes to starting times, check out your offset times, rounded to the nearest whole minute, here https://www.kgsc.org.uk/2026-2027 .  And, as it’s the 1st Sunday of the month, the results from this race will also be counted as Andy’s 1st round of this years’ Laser First Sunday (BST) Series.

Easter Bank Holiday Monday, 6th April 2026.  There’s no planned formal racing event, but Buddy Sailing is available as always.  Reach out on the WhatsApp Buddy Sailing chat group for others who might be at a loose end for some more sailing practice.

Winter ILCA First Sunday - The Final Results

That concludes the winter series of Laser First Sunday. Challenging conditions today. Congratulations to Pete Edel who won the series. Full results here.

Why ILCA First Sunday?

We can't all sail every week, so if we all make an effort on the first Sunday of every month, we can be sure of decent competition.

It has had the effect of re-invigorating fleet sailing at KGSC, boosting the number of ILCA’s on the start line throughout the year. Sailors from other classes have been hiring the club Lasers, or buying their own second boat, to take part in the competition.

Come and join us for the Summer Series that starts on 07-Apr-23

March 3rd Racing - ILCA First Sunday

13 competitors again this week, including 10 ILCA’s, a Contender, an RS400 and a Pico. Not bad considering the forecast. With virtually no wind, it took the fleet nearly 1hr 40 to get once round 5,3,1. Pete C went ahead straight out of the start, and was never challenged, while the rest vied for position the whole way round.

Remember that Pico, I don’t think I’ve seen a Pico in a club race before, in fact we didn’t even have a PY for it in our system and had to it look up. When we did and applied it, young Zhayne from GCA had beaten the lot of us. Very well done to that young chap, keep up the good work.

While everyone was thinking that was quite enough of that, the faintest breeze started to come in from the west. Just 3 takers stayed for 2 laps round 5,14,11,1 in half the time of the morning race.

Big thanks to Bob & Leo in the race office who stayed long into the afternoon to finish the 3 diehard remainers. Race results on Sailrace and the series summary on Sailwave as usual, here.

Hope you all have a great week, TTFN...…...

February 25th Racing - Dinghy Show Weekend - Winter is Ending - Simpson's moment

13 competitors, a little thin on the ground today, probably due to it being Dinghy Show this weekend – and it was still cold. The ESE breeze was very light and coming from the opposite direction as we arrived, but duly swung around and filled in by the time we started. ‘A’ was too far out of position for the start so we started without any distance mark, relying on the transits, which caused a little confusion and 3 boats over the line had to come back as the pack set off round 1, 6, 10, 11, 0.

Shortened to 2 laps, and with ‘A’ back on station for the finish, 2 boats forgot to round ‘0’ before finishing and one heard a horn and thought they had finished without actually crossing the line.

Dohhhhh.

Race 2 quickly under way with a clear start this time, round the same course for the full 3 laps taking nearly 55 minutes for the leaders.

Today’s results are posted on the Sailrace App and the series summary on Sailwave in the usual place

Thanks this week to Abi for helping in the race office and Paul for the safety cover. Other mentions: Tim LeC, who rinsed the cobwebs off his RS300, Andy trying to break-in another crew in his RS400 and a very big welcome to Sunday racing for Maryn & Alec from UCL in their Firefly.

Laser 1st Sunday next weekend of course, last one of this GMT series.

Have a good week y’all, B4N…...