© www.ianroman.com: Andy Smith & Tim Needham win the Bloody Mary 2010
Smith, a former Fireball World Champion, has just teamed up with Needham in the Five-Oh, and this was only their fourth time out in the boat since both moving on from the Fireball at the end of last season. "We had plenty of thoughts about not coming to the Bloody Mary," said Smith, "but obviously we're very glad we did. We went out in consolidation mode, because in these conditions we thought it would be a race of attrition. So we didn't push it mega hard, and it worked out in the end."
As the race drew closer to the 2.30pm finish time, sheets, control lines, blocks and cleats started freezing up. "We didn't adjust a whole lot of things while we were racing," said Needham. "We didn't try raking the rig, which is just as well because when we came ashore after the race and let the rig off - nothing moved. The shrouds, the forestay, everything was iced up."
Neil Ashby and Sam Proctor were the 505's closest rival for victory in a RS800, with Richard Whitworth and Olly Turner coming third in a Merlin Rocket. Pete Barton and Ben Paton were fourth in their Cherub, showing great bursts of speed in between a number of capsizes, some of them spectacular. "We had quite a few capsizes," admitted Lymington's Barton, a multiple champion in Cherubs, RS800s and Laser 4000s. "We were fast in a straight line, not so good on manoeuvres. When it's icy like this, today's all about losers, not winners. The ice came into play. When it got above 20 knots plus the ice, it wasn't going to be our day."
Still, Barton and Paton's antics delighted the crowd, and commentator Mad Jack Nicholson judged the Cherub's stern stand to be a worthy recipient of a subscription to SailJuice.com for ‘Most entertaining moment of the day'. Barton was honoured: "In one of our capsizes we had our weight too close to the stern, and the bow ended up tipping right over the top. We aim to entertain the crowd, put on a show and try and win the race if we can." Well, two out of three ain't bad.
The fleet was peppered with champions and stars from all kinds of dinghies. Reigning Laser National Champion Dan Holman was 7th in his self-designed Punk singlehander; multiple Endeavour Champion Nick Craig finished just ahead in 6th in the Phantom. Geoff Carveth held off two RS600FF foilers, sailed by Sam Pascoe and double Olympic medallist Simon Hiscocks, to win the foiling trophy in his Bladerider Moth. With control systems freezing up, however, it was not a great day for foiling, with these delicately balanced machines threatening to buck their jockeys off their mounts at any point.
This was a brutal event for the competitors, but however tough it was for them, it was even harsher for the volunteers at Queen Mary Sailing Club who run this event like clockwork. The rescue boat crews and the shore team who helped people pack up boats for the drive home helped make a challenging day a little more bearable.
The Bloody Mary was the first event of a brand new series, the SailJuice Global Warm-Up. This new winter travellers' series brings four of the biggest winter handicap racing events into a unified series, to find out just who is tough enough to race their way through Britain's toughest winter in more than 20 years. There are more than £2,000 of prizes up for grabs, not only for the winners but for sailors throughout the fleet.
The four events of the Series are:
Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club
9th January 2010
Steve Nicholson Trophy, Northampton Sailing Club
30th January 2010
John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club
6th/7th February 2010
Hoo Freezer, Hoo Ness Yacht Club
28th February 2010
Prizes include a two-day ‘Learn to Fly' sailing course in Spain. This is not just any sailing lesson, but an opportunity to learn how to sail a foiling Bladerider Moth at Pro-Vela's spectacular Performance Sailing Tuition centre in Mar Menor, Spain. Rooster Sailing is supplying £300 from its technical sailing clothing range, and Holt is offering £300 of gear from its High Performance Hardware range. Hyde Sails is offering a voucher for £200 worth of sails or accessories. Yachts & Yachting is providing annual digital subscriptions to the UK's leading performance sailing magazine, and SailJuice.com is giving annual subscriptions to its ‘How to Sail Faster' website.
To find out more about the SailJuice Global Warm-Up, including the Notice of Series, How to Enter (it's not too late, even if you didn't race in the Bloody Mary), and more about the prizes on offer, click here:
www.sailjuice.com/categories/global-warm-up-2010
Sponsors of the SailJuice Global Warm-Up
Pro Vela: www.pro-vela.com
Rooster Sailing: www.roostersailing.com
Holt: www.holt.eu
Hyde Sails: www.hydesails.com
Yachts & Yachting: www.yachtsandyachting.com
SailJuice: www.SailJuice.com
© www.ianroman.com: Pete Barton and Ben Paton in the Cherub
Where Peter Barton had capsized his way around the Bloody Mary three weeks earlier, the more moderate conditions suited his T-foiled Cherub to a T, with Barton and crew David Ellis winning both races of the Asymmetric fleet. After two events, victory at the Bloody Mary plus their 3rd at the Steve Nicholson keeps Andy Smith & Tim Needham's 505 in pole position, but just a point ahead of Barton's Cherub...
After a sub-zero Bloody Mary earlier this month, dinghy racers are getting ready for another cold battle this Saturday at the second event in the SailJuice Global Warm-Up, the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy at Northampton Sailing Club....
The basic facts on this brand new series:
The third edition of the SailJuice Global Warm-up brings together five of the biggest winter handicap racing events into a unified series, to find out just who is tough enough to race their way through the brutal cold of a British winter. It kicks off with the Grafham Grand Prix on 2 January 2012.
How Andy Rice & Nick Murphy won the 2003 Bloody Mary in the 49er. "We expected to have a fight on our hands with Dave Hall and Simon Hiscocks, but when their jib came separated from the forestay on the first tack, we had a clear jump on the rest of our fleet. This was a huge benefit for us, as now we could focus on looking forwards...."
After 13 years of trying, the £1,000 cheque to the first team to win all races at the John Merricks Tiger Trophy has gone to Andy Smith and Tim Needham, who conquered some fierce conditions in their 505 this weekend. Some competitors were surprised when race officer David Wilkins, an Olympic silver medallist, decided to send sailors out for the three handicap races on Saturday. "David reckons it's only 20 knots," muttered competitors grimly in the changing rooms, looking as though they were about to sent out to almost certain doom. 
One-design racing is the purest measure of sailing prowess, but if you spend most of your sailing doing club races, then doubtless you will be spending much of your time racing under handicap. So of course you want to know how to 'milk' the system! Indeed, some sailors even choose their boat according to its perceived performance under handicap. Now, that's what you call pot hunting...
"Looking at the heinous forecast, under normal circumstances there would have been no way that I would have bothered to get out of bed that Saturday morning. With sub-zero temperatures, and a wind chill from a strong northerly breeze threatening to make a freezing day feel Arctic, the prospect of competing in the Bloody Mary was not my idea of fun...." Andy Rice reports from a shattering experience competing in a Devoti D-1 at the Bloody Mary....
Olly Turner has won the SailJuice Global Warm-Up, the four-event winter travellers' series which concluded at the weekend with the Hoo Freezer. Turner's victory is particularly special because he sailed as crew in three events and as helm in the other, proving himself a versatile sailor at both ends of the Merlin Rocket that he competed in. Turner, crewing for Richard Whitworth at the Hoo Freezer in Kent this past weekend, finished 9th in Saturday's practice race, which was won by the International Canoe sailed by Simon Allen. At the time Turner can't have realised the significance of completing the practice race, but with winds gusting up to Force 7 across the Medway estuary on Sunday morning, Saturday's warm-up took on a new level of importance.
Some of the UK's top dinghy sailors are steeling themselves for a windy conclusion to the SailJuice Global Warm-Up Series at this weekend's Hoo Freezer in Kent. Hosted by the Hoo Ness Yacht Club with the assistance of nearby Wilsonian Sailing Club, this will be the 39th edition of this historic event. It's looking to be a windy one....
Tom Jeffcoate and Tom Pygall won the John Merricks Tiger Trophy 2012 by the skin of their teeth. Competing in sub-zero conditions, the Scorpion National Champion equalled Merlin Rocket racers Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis from Blithfield with 20 points apiece from the four races. But on the tie-break the trophy went to the Scorpion sailors.
With the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy just completed, the SailJuice Global Warm-Up 2012 has passed the half-way stage, with a Fireball still sitting in pole position. It was a light wind regatta at Northampton last Saturday, but it could be a different story at the Tiger Trophy this weekend....
