At first glance, the Series looks set to be a three-way showdown between Sam Mettam and Richard Anderton's Fireball, Ian Morgan's Laser and the Scorpion sailed by Peter Gray and Rachael Rhodes. Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis also have a chance in their Merlin Rocket. They lie in 4th overall, with Tim Andrews' Phantom in 5th, but the joker in the pack is another Phantom currently in 6th place, being campaigned by Andrew Wilde.
© Malcolm Lewin
Wilde didn't compete at the Bloody Mary in early January, although he has scored very well in the other three events of the Series thus far, at the Grafham Grand Prix, the Steve Nicholson Trophy and John Merricks Tiger Trophy. The Series scoring counts a competitor's best four of five events, and if Wilde sails well at Draycote this weekend, he can discard his Bloody Mary no-show and surf past the other leading contenders for the title.
Consistency and stamina will be the key to success at Draycote, with at least four handicap races on Saturday and another race on Sunday morning followed by a concluding pursuit race.
Of the maximum 120 places available, as of Thursday morning more than 70 boats had already entered in advance. To enter the Draycote Dash, click on the link below:
http://www.sailracer.org/events/event-v2.asp?eventid=86703
To see Overall Standings in the SailJuice Global Warm-Up 2012, click here: http://www.sailracer.us/eventsites/content.asp?eventid=51516&id=9648
N.B. Please check your race scores on the provisional overall results. Consolidating results from different events with different scoring systems is not straightforward, so if you think you've spotted an error, please let us know as soon as possible. Contact us here: http://www.sailracer.us/eventsites/content.asp?id=9648&eventid=51516
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.
Datchet Water’s Ben Schooling raced his Musto Skiff to victory in the 2013 Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, the first event of the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series. On being asked the secret to his success at Draycote, Ben Schooling offered five observations about his performance....
The GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series gets under way on the weekend of 23rd and 24th November at the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, the first of eight major winter handicap events in this tough Series. Last year at Draycote, Pete Nelson’s RS600 prevailed over the Merlin Rocket sailed by Dave Hayes and Jonny Ratcliffe, with Andy Couch’s Phantom singlehander in 3rd overall. Who will win this time?
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....
Musto Skiff sailor Andy Peake has found himself as the new, unexpected and somewhat reluctant champion of the SailJuice Global Warm-Up 2011. Almost a fortnight since the final event of the UK dinghy winter travellers’ series concluded at a windy John Merricks Tiger Trophy at Rutland Water, controversial debate about the legality of their experimental sails has forced the winners, Merlin Rocket sailors Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis, to relinquish the title.
The SailJuice Global Warm-Up 2011 concluded in dramatic fashion at a very windy John Merricks Tiger Trophy last weekend. While the 505 of Andy Smith and Tim Needham swept all before them to win all three races on Saturday and a £1,000 cheque for their hat trick, the Merlin Rocket of Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis quietly went about its business to finish 3rd overall at Rutland Water.
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. 
Andrew Peake has closed the gap on series leaders in the SailJuice Global Warm-Up 2011, the Merlin Rocket of Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis. Peake scored two bullets in the asymmetric division at the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy at Northampton Sailing Club last Saturday. Two 3rd places gave Biggs and Hollis 4th overall in the doublehanders fleet, to add to their other consistent scores from the Grafham Grand Prix and Bloody Mary.
Last year Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis won the Doublehanded division at the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy, and this year the Merlin Rocket sailors also find themselves at the top of the series leaderboard at the half way stage of the SailJuice Global Warm-Up. 
