Bournville Radio Sailing and Model Boat Club
News
Lake Status
16th April clear to sail
Twelve skippers competed for the second day’s racing at Bournville RS&MBC where the conditions provided some good challenges.
A fresh WSW breeze stayed with us for the entire day with increasing strength, gusts and rapid shifts. As a result, racing was fast and full of frustrations as boats were headed whilst tacking and then broaching on runs. Rig changes were essential and many opted for conventional rigs rather than swing rigs in the process.
By the end of the day, the fleet had reduced to just six boats on the start line as others encountered rig or electrical problems. Alan Bennett just took first place with 23 points ahead of Tobias Laux with 24 points with several of the races seeing very close finishes. A full set of results are here: RG65 TT2
Many members of the public came to watch, take photos and enquire about the sport on this sunny spring day – one of the first without rain since Christmas!
The RO would like to thank all skippers for their sporting nature throughout the racing with turns being done promptly. The race team of Nick Probyn, Graham Robinson, Vic Bellerson and Peter Hopkins did us proud. Gordon Sears supported the team with HMS spreadsheet results and generally keeping the team advised.
The event proved to be a great demonstration of the RG65 class being sailed skilfully and highly competitively.
Race report by Chris Cook (PRO).
Posted 24/02/26
Discussions among members and the committee over the last few months have resulted in a new sailing berth allocation policy which has been incorporated within the updated 2026 Club Rules. The committee met on 17th February and agreed that the new sailing berth policy should now be implemented. Members can view the details in section 3 of the recent committee meeting minutes that are available in the members area on the website.
Allocated berths will be shown with a new tag showing the name of who the berth is allocated too.
Your support in moving towards a much fairer system will be greatly appreciated.
Posted 21/2/26
Thank you to all those club 500 skippers and marshals who joined in with our new series of club 500 races. 5 skippers braved the cold damp conditions on a virtually wind free afternoon. being our first day of racing everyone was on a learning curve. A new course was set out and our marshals got to grips with the scoring and recording of penalties. The Club 500 Race results are on the club 500 web page along with a link to register for a boat number ready for our next race on Sunday 15th March at 2pm.
Posted 14/2/26
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Ken Daniels.
Ken was instrumental in the running of numerous model boat clubs across the UK. A Life member of Bournville Model Boat Club, Little Radford Model Boat Club and a long‑serving member of the MBPA and a member of the MYA, he dedicated countless years to supporting, guiding, and inspiring fellow enthusiasts.
His knowledge was vast and generously shared. Ken mentored many modelers over the decades, offering deep expertise in steam, electric, and IC power, as well as competing across a wide range of disciplines including Scale, Straight Running, IC racing, Yachting and more
Beyond model boating, Ken was also an expert in model railways, with a particular passion for N gauge, where his precision and enthusiasm were equally admired.
Ken will be profoundly missed within our hobby. His absence leaves a significant void in everything connected to model boating and model engineering. His legacy, however, lives on in the countless people he taught, encouraged, and inspired.
Thoughts are with his family, friends, and all who had the privilege of knowing him.
A celebration of Ken's life will be held on Friday 27th February at 1:00pm The service will be held at Lodge Hill Crematorium, Weoley Park Road, Selly Oak, B29 5AA. All are all welcome at the service. Following the service the family invite you to gather at the clubhouse in Valley Parkway to share memories and spend time together in Ken's Memory
Posted 12/2/26
As part of the clubs 2025 AGM held on Saturday 24th January 2026 our club president Vic Bellerson presented the trophy's to this years winners
Posted 25/1/26
The Club has received some excellent news to start the new year. The Environment Agency have informed the club this week that they will not be proceeding with the plans to use Valley Parkway as a flood storage area.
The statement from the environment agency is below.
Key decisions made:
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Valley Parkway – After consideration of numerous design options in conjunction with our consultants Jacobs, we’ve concluded that temporary flood storage here would be too impactful and not cost-effective, even with smaller-scale options. We have made the decision that we will not be pursuing this location for temporary flood storage, and no embankment or wall is proposed in this park.
Posted 7/1/26
Nigel Lawson receiving the Wednesday cup from Roger Hopper
The newly introduced trophy for the Wednesday Handicap Racing of IOM yachts has been won by Nigel Lawson, with second place going to John Burgoine and third place to Martin Taylor.
The silver cup, which was donated to the club by Ian Green, was presented to Nigel by our Sailing Team Leader Roger Hopper.
The h/cap system is based on starting time intervals between three fleets, dependent upon the experience of competing skippers. The final scores of the series were evenly distributed which indicates successfully balanced racing.
The event is held monthly, and it is planned that there will be two six monthly series each year. Yellow, Green and Red h/caps fleets will be reset at the start of each series to reflect the experience levels of skippers. This takes in knowledge of racing rules and improvement in boat handling.
Our thanks go to Roger for running the sailing competitions, to John Burgoine for compiling the results and to Ian Green for providing the trophy.
Posted 27/11/25
Club 500 Racing is coming to Bournville for club members on Sunday afternoons.
We are planning to race in the afternoons on the third Sunday in each month starting in February 2026.
If you would like to join us please check out the new club 500 page at the link below and complete the registration form so that we can allocate you a race number.