The 5th edition of the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series was launched at the PSP Southampton Boat Show yesterday, 18th September 2014.
Glen Wallis of GJW Direct met with Andy Rice of SailJuice.com and Simon Lovesey of SailRacer to announce the 2014/15 Series.
The series of 8 events at some of the largest inland waters throughout England runs from late November to early February. Participation has increased steadily year on year with the 2013/14 series again bringing record entries with 835 entries from 95 classes overall. There were also record on-line visitors and reach across the web and social media. Reacting to the obvious interest from the armchair sailor, the Datchet Flyer and Oxford Blue were fully tracked by SailRacer last winter, as well as representative boats from fleets at the Rutland Tiger Trophy pursuit race. Datchet and Oxford will again be tracked this season, streamed live together with blog and twitter updates via www.sailjuiceseries.com – tracking at further events to be confirmed.
New for this series, SailRacer are hoping to put cameras in some of the top boats to give everyone the chance to get up close with the action at the front of the fleet, such as this battle between Michael Sims and Tom Gillard at the Carsington Summer Trophy a few months ago:
Solo v. Streaker
Nathan Batchelor (right, with Simon & Andy) has moved from the Fireball, in which he finished 3rd overall in the Series during the winter of 2013/14, and will this winter be in his Ovington built VX-One. "I’m looking forward to getting the new boat out at the venues I know so well from previous years, bringing structure to my winter sailing." said Nathan "It’s also great to meet up with mates from other classes."
The entry website will go live at the start of October with full details of all the events, but dates are provisionally confirmed as follows:
Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash
22&23 November 2014
Datchet Flyer
13&14 December (including evening meal)
Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey
Saturday 27th December
34th Grafham Grand Prix
Sunday 28th December
Oxford Blue
Saturday 3rd January 2015
42nd Bloody Mary
Saturday 10th January
Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy 2015 (Northampton)
Saturday 24th January
Rutland Challenge for the John Merricks Tiger Trophy
31st Jan & 1st February
