Now in its fourth season, this Winter Dinghy Handicap Championship will test sailing skill and sheer persistence across six of the biggest events of the chilly season.... The GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series kicks off with the Draycote Dash on the weekend of 24/25 November 2012.
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....
Sunny skies, mild temperatures and moderate winds attracted the best turnout in years to the Grafham Grand Prix on 2 January. With 166 boats spread across four dinghy fleets and a small entry of catamarans, a number of high profile sailors turned out for the 31st edition of the regatta, which is also the opener for the five-regatta SailJuice Global Warm-Up 2012.
The second edition of the SailJuice Global Warm-up brings together 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 the brutal cold of a British winter. Earlier this year competitors battled their way through the first ever Global Warm-up, and this winter's early snow hints at another tough challenge ahead....
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....