Nine events on the schedule for the 16th edition of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series...
The Polar Chase will be joining eight other familiar events in the 2024/2025 edition of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series. Chase Sailing Club near Walsall in the West Midlands will host the one-day event on 14 December. The Series will as usual begin with the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash at Draycote Water Sailing Club in November, and conclude with the ninth event, the Oxford Blue at Oxford Sailing Club in February 2025.
Co-organisers Simon Lovesey and Andy Rice are introducing a number of innovations for the next Series, including:
New Life for Old Boats
Plans to create handicaps for older versions of dinghy classes. Already a number of fleets have developed their own systems for creating fair racing for same-class boats of different vintages and varying quality. “Working closely with the Great Lakes Handicap Group over the past decade we already have a well-proven set of handicap numbers for the ‘best in class’,” explains Simon. “Now we are looking to work with all interested parties to create a fair playing field for sailors, often younger with minimal budget, to be able to compete on equal terms in older boats that cost a few hundred pounds rather than multiple thousands.”
Coaching Support
Many sailors across the fleet are using the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series to hone their skills. Where else can you compete against 100 boats and some of the country's top sailors in some very close racing? Next winter we will be introducing coach support from an event briefing session, boat park coach advice and post-event debriefing based on video and tracking content from the racing.
New Ranking Categories
Many sailors compete representing the forces (ASA, RAFSA, RNSA) or their school, this winter there will be new extracted rankings for Forces and Schools.
THE EVENTS
The following events are in the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2024/25:
Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club
23 & 24 November 2024
Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club
7 & 8 December 2024
Polar Chase, Chase Sailing Club
14 December 2024
Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club
27 December 2024
Gill Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club
29 December 2024
GJW Direct Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club
11 January 2025
King George Gallop, King George Sailing Club
18 January 2025
John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club
1 & 2 February 2025
Oxford Blue, Oxford Sailing Club
15 February 2025
Prizegiving at RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show, Farnborough
You can find out more about the Series here: www.SailJuiceSeries.com
Previous winners of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series
2023/24 Sam Pascoe (Musto Skiff)
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.