It’s set to be a breezy south-westerly for this Saturday’s GJW Direct Bloody Mary, the legendary single-race pursuit race near Heathrow which is also the fifth leg of this season’s Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series.
With 250 boats already entered, it’s going to be a tough contest with a lot of the big names and usual suspects vying to get their hands on the coveted trophy. Queen Mary Sailing Club has turned this mammoth event into a smoothly oiled machine, thanks to a legion of club volunteers.
The largest entry is the RS Aero 5 class with more than 30 boats, followed by RS Aero 7 with 24 and the Topper with 21. Overall there are more than 50 different classes signed up. Make sure your class is there too!
Entries will be accepted on the day until the entry limit is reached. The Entry desk will open at 8:00am on Saturday 11th and close at 12:00pm, please arrive early and head to the clubhouse to complete the forms.
To save you time and hassle on the day, you can watch the online briefing video here:
As with all events in this season’s Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series, boats will be provided with SailRacer’s GPS tracker units with the action streamed live via the internet and available to analyse after racing. On the day head to Training Room 5 to collect and return your trackers, this is the big room on the ground floor.
THE SERIES STORY AT THE HALF-WAY STAGE
Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series overall rankings
As we reach the half way stage, the various overall rankings are still wide open, with four events to count and four events to go.
Defending series champions, Simon Horsfield and Katie Burridge (2000), jump one place to take top spot for the fist time this Winter, looking to make history to be the first sailors to win more than once, since the inception of the Winter Series 11 years ago.
Sailing Chandlery Top Class
The GP14 class continue to hold onto top spot, but are being pushed hard by defending champions the Laser class, who are closing the gap and jumping up to second place. The RS Aero 7s are in third position. Rankings are based on the best three results for each class across every race.
Trident Top Club
Burton Sailing Club, jump one place to knock Draycote Water SC off top spot, with Staunton Harold SC completing the podium. Based on the best three results for each club across every race.
SpeedSix Challenge
Not surprisingly the cats recorded the highest top speeds on the SailRacer GPS trackers at Grafham, with the big Nacra 20 of John Tuckwell at the top of the SpeedSix Speed Wall, with over 15 kts. On adjusted speeds, Greg Bartlett (RS Aero 9) recorded the best sustained speed.
Great British Sailing Challenge
With all races being tracked by SailRacer, all events will be 2020 Great British Sailing Challenge qualifiers, which are based on various group rankings across all extracted results for each race, with an additional discard at every third race.
GBSC Overall
1 Peter GRAY GP14
2 Simon HORSFIELD 2000
3 Steve COCKERILL RS400
GBSC Youth
1 George SUNDERLAND Laser
2 Dylan MCPHERSON 420
3 Tim HIRE RS Aero 7
GBSC Junior
1 Dylan MCPHERSON 420
2 James CROSSLEY Topper
3 Abigail LARR RS Aero 5
GBSC 19-30
1 Dan JOHNSON Fireball
2 Alex HORLOCK Comet Trio MK2
3 Ellie CRAIG RS Aero 7
GBSC 31-60
1 Peter GRAY GP14
2 Steve COCKERILL RS400
3 Simon HORSFIELD 2000
GBSC Masters
1 Philip MEAKINS Osprey
2 Val MILLWARD Challenger
3 Roger BLAKE Osprey
GBSC Ladies
1 Val MILLWARD Challenger
2 Ellie CRAIG RS Aero 7
3 Emma PEARSON Europe
GBSC Fast Asymmetric
1 Steve COCKERILL RS400
2 Mark BARNES B14
3 Robert GULLAN RS800
GBSC Fast Symmetric
1 Philip MEAKINS Osprey
2 Richard SMITH RS600
3 Dan JOHNSON Fireball
GBSC Slow Asymmetric
1 Simon HORSFIELD 2000
2 Luke FISHER RS Vareo
3 Alex HORLOCK Comet Trio MK2
GBSC Slow Symmetric
1 Peter GRAY GP14
2 George SUNDERLAND Laser
3 Andrew SPENCER D-Zero
Extracted class results
For classes fielding 10 or more boats across the Series we will be proving class prizes, based on extracted results. Currently there are 17 classes eligible:
420, 29er, Contender, D-Zero, Fireball, GP14, Laser, Laser Radial, Musto Skiff, Phantom, RS Aero 5, RS Aero 7, RS200, RS400, RS600, Solo, Topper
THE EVENTS
The following events are in the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2019/20):
Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club
23 & 24 November 2019
Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club
7 & 8 December 2019
Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club
27 December 2019
Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club
29 December 2019
Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club
11 January 2020
King George Gallop, King George Sailing Club
26 January 2020
John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club
1 & 2 February 2020
Oxford Blue, Oxford Sailing Club
15 February 2020
Prizegiving, RYA Dinghy Show, Alexandra Palace
1015am Saturday 29 February 2020
You can find out more about the Series here: www.SailJuiceSeries.com
Further Information for media:
Please contact Andy Rice
email: info@sailjuice.com
Phone: 020 8133 9330
Website: www.sailjuice.com
Photo Credits: Tim Olin
Notes to editors:
Current and previous winners of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series
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 our unique XPS aluminium with CNC cut tapers, automated welding and heat treating resulting in the highest quality and most consistent dinghy spars available. Seldén 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.
