So close were the points between the top three at the King George Gallop in north London, it took a while before it was confirmed that Ben McGrane and James Ross had sailed their Osprey to the narrowest of victories.
It was the sixth event in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series and the sixth edition of the King George Gallop on King George Reservoir. A total of 79 entries from 38 different classes took advantage of the slightly milder weather after a spell of sub-zero temperatures across the UK.
With a fleet ranging from Toppers through to 505s and Musto Skiffs, the age of competitors was also very diverse, from 13 to 70 years old, and a big youth entry including six from Greig City Academy, based not far from King George.
The breeze might have averaged around 12 knots but some gusts touched up to 20 knots and caused even the best to suffer a capsize here and there. Around the long, 4.5km lap course, mere seconds separated the top finishers across the three races.
Draycote Water’s Imogen Wade and Hugo Valentine won the first race in their 420, holding the spinnaker very effectively on the tighter reaches where the more powerful asymmetric and symmetric boats struggled. In the next race McGrane and Ross powered their Osprey to first across the line, and in the final race it was Dan Vincent who came to the fore in his singlehanded Musto Skiff.
Initially it looked like Vincent had done enough to continue the Musto Skiff’s stranglehold on this season’s events. His win in the final race looked sufficient to give the Stokes Bay sailor the tiebreak ahead of the Osprey and 420. However, after a few scoring queries it was McGrane and Ross who were awarded the Gallop victory ahead of Wade and Valentine’s 420 with Vincent down to third overall.
Best of the non-trapeze boats was Pete Barton who hiked his RS Aero 7 to fourth overall ahead of Stuart Jones’s Contender. With the variable conditions the Great Lakes Handicap numbers delivered very close racing for many different classes. There were 11 different classes represented in the top 12 overall.
One of the great aspects of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series is if you’ve got a sailing dinghy, chances are you’ll get a handicap number to race off. It didn’t always used to be this way, when some events only permitted classes with a well-established RYA PY number. But for example at the Gallop the lesser-spotted Snipe, raced by Bough Beech SC’s Peter Wolstenholme and Lloyd Robert, finished 8th overall. If you’ve got a boat and want to race it in some friendly competition, bring it to one of the remaining two events, the Tiger Trophy at Rutland SC and the Oxford Blue at Oxford SC.
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Top youths at the Gallop were Wade and Valentine in the 420, with Yorkshire Dales SC’s Finlay Cochrane racing his ILCA 6 to second youth and top junior, in 13th place overall.
As they have always done since the very first year, the volunteers and members of King George Sailing Club delivered a well-run event with great humour and hospitality.
Overall Results from the Gallop…
Top Speeds measured by the SailRacer GPS trackers…
Top Speeds
Sailor
Sail No.
Best Speed (kts)
Dan VINCENT
Musto Skiff 622
12.82
Roger GILBERT/ Ian MITCHELL
505 9180
10.17
Stuart JONES
Contender 2706
10.11
Corrected
Luke FISHER, Vareo 621, 9.08
Stuart JONES, Contender 2706, 10.11
Adrian STELL/ Hugo CORDER, 2000 21103, 8.81
Overall in the Series after six events
A total of 406 boats have now achieved ranking points. After the second discard, Sam Pascoe (Musto Skiff – Castle Cove SC), holds into top spot, with last winter’s runner up Ben Flower (ILCA 7 – Paignton) still second, currently in Australia at Laser Worlds, although he will be back for the final event, the Oxford Blue. Dan Vincent (Musto Skiff – Stokes Bay/RNSA) moves up 5 to 3rd, Imogen Wade and Hugo Valentine (420 – Draycote) also up five to 4th overall…
NEXT EVENT: THE JOHN MERRICKS TIGER TROPHY
Next up is the Tiger Trophy at Rutland SC on 3 & 4 February 2024.
Enter Tiger Trophy
THE EVENTS
The following events are in the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2023/24:
Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club
18 & 19 November 2023
Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club
9 & 10 December 2023
Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club
27 December 2023
Gill Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club
30 December 2023
GJW Direct Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club
6 January 2024
King George Gallop, King George Sailing Club
20 January 2024
John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club
3 & 4 February 2024
Oxford Blue, Oxford Sailing Club
17 February 2024
Prizegiving at RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show, Farnborough
24 February 2024
You can find out more about the Series here: www.SailJuiceSeries.com
Photo Credits: Tim Olin
Previous winners of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series
2022/23 Peter Gray & Geoff Edwards (Osprey)
2021/22 Roger Gilbert & Ben McGrane (505)
2020/21 Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge/ Natalie Johnson (2000)
2019/20 Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge (2000)
2018/19 Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge (2000)
2017/18 Alistair Goodwin (Laser)
2016/17 Matt Mee & Emma Norris (RS200)
2015/16 Ian Dobson & Andy Tunnicliffe (GP14)
2014/15 Nick Craig & various crews (Merlin Rocket)
2013/14 Michael Sims (Solo)
2012/13 Tom Gillard & Simon Potts (Fireball)
2011/12 Peter Gray & Rachael Rhodes (Scorpion)
2010/11 Andy Peake (Musto Skiff)
2009/10 Olly Turner & Richard Whitworth (Merlin Rocket)
SailJuice.com is the ‘how to sail and race faster’ website, with hundreds of articles and exclusive interviews with National, World and Olympic Champions. Professional sailing journalist and editor of SailJuice.com, Andy Rice, came up with the concept of the SailJuice Winter Series (originally known as the SailJuice Global Warm-Up) as a way of increasing participation levels in dinghy racing during the off-season in the UK.
SailRacer manages event websites and processes online entry for major National, International, Youth and training events, providing online scoring, analysis and advanced sports presentation including GPS tracking and live video.
Seldén Mast Ltd is the world leader in dinghy spars. More races are won by Seldén Spars than any other brand. Dinghy spars are made using Seldén unique XPS aluminium with CNC cut tapers, automated welding and heat treating resulting in the highest quality and most consistent dinghy spars available. Seldén also produces about 400 carbon masts per year for boats including high performance dinghies and race yachts using state of the art Mandrel Filament Moulding Technology.
