Our first events of the year will be:
- Skippers’ Refresher: March 2021 ( by invitation ) – Cancelled
- Boat Handling – Cancelled
- BTOSC AGM will now be an online Virtual Meeting: Sat 15 May 2021
- More to follow.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Report on a passage to Southsea Marina (12 September 2019)
The BBQ Weekend is one of the highlights of the BTOSC Sailing Programme. This year, for the first time, we chartered Sea Essay and Freyja from Channel Sailing Division and East Coast Division of the CSSA as well Viola from Hamble Point Yacht Charters.
Freyja was chartered for 3 days from 1200 Thursday 13 Sep until 1800 on the Sunday. We took her over at Hornet Services Sailing Club. The outline itinerary for the event was:
Thurs PM: Hornet to Southsea Marina (Langstone Harbour)
Fri: Passage to Newtown River, Cowes or Beaulieu
Sat: Passage to Lymington for Annual BTOSC BBQ
Sun: Return passage to Hornet
This report covers Thurs 12 Sep – our passage to Southsea Marina.
Before embarking on the 8NM passage to Southsea Marina in Langstone Harbour we took the opportunity to do some boat handling practice north of Burrow Island in Portsmouth Harbour itself.
Continue reading Report on a passage to Southsea Marina (12 September 2019)Report on West Country Cruise (2019)
The following report is from Ian Davis – entitled “Round the world to Dartmouth” :
The July West Country Cruise proved popular this year with eleven club members setting sail from Queen Anne’s Battery, Plymouth in two vessels chartered from Liberty Yachts. Many thanks to Hazel for the organisation.
Membership benefits
The benefits of BTOSC membership are:-
- A varied programme of events every year
- Cruising, racing and training events at a sensible price
- A non-profit organization with low overheads
- The club underwrites the security deposit for charters for club events
- Opportunities for aspiring skippers to become Club Skippers
- Members may also be able to benefit from discounts provided by charter companies we deal with
- We have a website available to all and occasional newsletters to members
- We offer the members the opportunity to organise club events
- Increase the network of other sailors they have access to
Report on BTOSC Spring Rally & AGM Weekend
We had three yachts out for our Spring Rally weekend (3rd Event of the year). Once again one yacht (Freyja) was pre-booked for an extended weekend based out of Hornet SSC. The other two, Apaloosa and Viola, were chartered from Hamble Point Yacht Charters. Several members also joined the AGM and meal on foot.
All yachts converged on the central Solent on Saturday evening for our AGM, prize giving and an excellent rally supper at Hornet.
We had some rain on the Friday and Sunday but otherwise the weather was mainly mild and warm with light winds.
For the record, Frejya”s 3.5 day itinerary was as follows:
- Thurs PM: Portshouth Harbour (Hornet SSC) to Itchenor (Chichester Hbr). Excellent meal at the Ship
- Fri: Itchenor to Hornet then to The Folly Inn (Cowes)
- Sat: Cowes to Bembridge. 3 hrs ashore then to Hornet
- Sun: Hornet to Langstone Harbour then back to Hornet
- Overall Mileage 75 nm
- Wind Max 21 kts
Report on Skippers Refresher 22-24 Mar 2019
Six club skippers, MG, NW, JS, CJ, ID & RD, descended on Hamble on 22 Mar for the Annual BTOSC Skipper”s Refresher.
Friday: An 18.30 briefing followed by a night passage from Hamble to East Cowes with each skipper taking turns different sections of the passage provided good material for later discussion and feedback. Discussions on a variety of skippering topics followed. Sharing of lessons learned and generally putting the world to rights. Pasta bolognaise, garlic bread and the obligatory cheese board.
Saturday: Boat handling on Medina River in tidal conditions in and around East Cowes and at the Training pontoon near the Folly. Lunch – Beaulieu. Lymington Yacht Haven. Re-aquaintance with the Ship.
Sunday: Lymington BBQ Area Reconnaissance. Man-over-board techniques off Beaulieu. Lunch anchored off Calshot.
Lunch anchored in 3 m with Luttrells Tower in line with Fawley Chimney.
This tower which sleeps 4 and can be booked is owned by the Landmark trust. For further into see:
https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/luttrells-tower-11322#Overview
2019 Sailing Programme
Hi all, here is the programme for 2019. Hopefully there is something for everyone whether you are crew or a skipper. The MS Excel version of the programme can be downloaded below. Over the coming days, the other events will also appear under the forthcoming events menu item on the right hand side of this page.
As always, please express interest early, either directly to the appropriate Event Manager or via the crew mailbox btosccrew@gmail.com
Suggestions for other events are always welcome. Even better, if you are happy to organise an event then please volunteer to do so.
Report on 2018 Xmas Jolly
I am sure that just thinking about the Christmas Jolly makes some people shudder. However, once again we were not disappointed either by the weather or the level of enthusiasm and support from members.
We had three yachts on the water. Appaloosa was booked for the weekend. Sea Essay for the Fri, Sat and Sun and Viola for Sat, Sun and Monday. Our pre-booked meal was on the Sat night in Hythe.
Continue reading Report on 2018 Xmas JollyReport on Spring Rally / AGM Weekend – May 2018
The BTOSC Spring Rally is an annual event during which we also hold our AGM. Last year we offered members a three-day charter on one of the yachts. Following on from the success of that, this year the plan was for at least 2 yachts to be chartered for 3 days. In a change from arrangements in previous years we chose Hornet Services Sailing Club as a venue for the AGM meeting and dinner. Continue reading Report on Spring Rally / AGM Weekend – May 2018
2018 Sailing Programme – dated 14 Jan 2018
Here is a link to a PDF version of the BTOSC Sailing Programme for 2018.
Laying Up Cruise / Trafalgar Night Cancelled
Since we have not had enough interest in the Laying Up Cruise / Trafalgar Night event this event has now been cancelled.
The committee is currently working to develop next years Sailing Programme which we hope to publish before our next event the BTOSC Xmas Jolly. This year we will be returning to Lymington and having our pre-Christmas meal at the Ship. If you have not yet booked, please do so now so that we can finalise the yacht charters and berth allocation.
Trafalgar Weekend and Xmas Jolly – Book Now
Just a quick note to encourage you all to book now for the Trafalgar weekend / Laying up Cruise and also the Xmas Jolly.
If you are interested in taking part in the Trafalgar Event can you initially let me know as soon as possible at btosccrew@gmail.com. If we have enough crew to fill a boat then I will ask for payments and make a booking. The berth cost will be £190.
The Laying Up Cruise is a good chance to do some sailing before the winter sets in. This event is timed to coincide with Trafalgar Day [21st October] so if there is interest amongst the crew then a Trafalgar theme and possibly dinner can be incorporated into the weekend !
Trafalgar Day is the celebration of Nelson’s Royal Navy victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
This year’s Christmas Jolly takes place on 1 – 3rd December – Watch this space for more details. If you are interested please contact the Event Manager Mick Curran mickcurran@btinternet.com and copy the crew mailbox btosccrew@gmail.com.
Late Summer BBQ and other news
30 August Update:
- The West Country Cruise is going ahead in early September. Anyone interested in being on the reserve list should make their interest known via the crew mailbox btosccrew@gmail.com just in case a berth were to come available.
- Two yachts have been booked for the BBQ weekend. Those who have paid will hear shortly about berth allocations.
- Currently little interest in the Trafalgar weekend. Members should make their interest known ASAP or else this event will be canceled.
- The Xmas Jolly is now on the horizon although we have not yet chosen a destination for the meal. The first yacht reserved for this event is Sea Essay. Members interested in this event should start maying deposits to guarantee a berth.
Report on Round the Island Race 2017
The annual Round the Island Race took place over the weekend. The BTOSC entry was Fleur de lis chartered from Fairview Sailing.
The event was skippered by Les Nicholls. The crew comprised James, Andrew, John, Mike Steve, Kevin M and Kevin S.
The weather forecast was NW3/4 and we had an early start.
It was a very different race to last year although no-less exhausting for some reason.
We finished with an Elapsed Time of 09:34:22 and a Corrected Time of 09:23:27.
We did very well in comparison to the other yachts in Fairview’s matched fleet coming 3rd out of 16 that were entered. C’EST SI BON was the fastest Fairview yacht finishing only 5 minutes before us.
Within our Class 6B we were 8th out of 29; within ISC Group 6 we were 38th out of 101 and out of all ISC rated yachts we were 309 out of 611 finishers, +38 RTD etc = 649 all told.
John Kelly (tactician) has now analyzed our performance. He reports that:
- We made a good start, along with the other leading 6B boats.
- Start to Needles was a reach. We all took similar tracks keeping midstream in the west flowing tide, so I guess the 4 min advantage that C’EST SI BON had on us at the Needles was down to boat speed. We had a similar advantage on MINTAKA. It’s not worth trying to compare with different boats types on a single point of sailing.
- Needles to St Cats was a broad reach/run – cruising chute deployed by all. Some like us kept in for the decreased tide, and some went straight and deep. I can’t see a clear advantage either way looking at the tracks. But what worked well for C’EST SI BON, 15 mins faster than us on the leg, was a hybrid, going wide initially (to get clear wind?), and in close after Atheridge Ledge to get the back eddy in the tide. (I’d love to know if they managed to get their cruising chute flying when going downwind, and, if so, how).
- St Cats to Bembridge Ledge cardinal was a fine reach (genoa, not chute). We all took similar tracks, and there were just small differences in leg time.
- Bembridge to finish was a beat into the tide. We did well, making up a lot of the 20 min advantage that C’EST SI BON had at the cardinal mark. We stayed in close to shallow water around Ryde and onward, but not aggressively so, preferring to minimise tacks.
- C’EST SI BON, along with HADAWAY, went across the channel to cheat the tide on the mainland side. 4th place HADAWAY was nearly up with 2nd place DODGER at Bembridge, but lost about 10 mins on the beat. So this didn’t work for either of them
BTOSC 2017 Sailing Programme
The latest version of the BTOSC 2017 Sailing Programme was emailed out to members tonight as part of a newsletter.
A PDF version may be downloaded from BTOSC Programme V1 Jan 2017.