Richard Anderton looking to defend his Datchet Flyer title

by Andy Rice, SailJuice 10 Dec 2014 17:14 GMT 13-14 December 2014

Richard Anderton is out to see if he can defend his title at this weekend's Datchet Flyer, the second event in the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series. Last year Anderton, a Fireball National Champion, crewed 470 Olympic silver medallist Luke Patience to victory in a Fireball at the inaugural event on Datchet Water.

This weekend Anderton is back with a different helm in a different boat. Another Fireball star, former World Champion Tom Gillard, is steering a 505 with Anderton on the wire. The runners-up in last year's event are also back, but Nathan Batchelor and Sam Pascoe have also swapped roles and switched boats, from last season's Fireball to a VX-One sportsboat for this weekend.

At the moment the weather forecast suggests light to medium westerlies for the Saturday and bigger breeze from the south for Sunday. Local legend Stuart Jones will certainly enjoy the stronger wind in his Contender. He was 4th last year behind Steve Bolland, who is once again racing his RS300 and showed flashes of brilliance at the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash last month, a light-airs contest which opened this season's eight-event GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series.

Other notable names include Charlie Cumbley in an OK, Series runner-up from last winter, Musto Skiff sailor Ben Schooling from the home club, and some strong Merlin Rocket talent including Ollie Turner/ Hamish Kilburn, Jasper Barnham/ Jonny Ratcliffe, and Nick Craig/ Alan Roberts.

Organised by Datchet Water in conjunction with SailRacer, this event will use GPS tracking, enabling competitors and spectators to follow the action, and replay and rewind online at a later date.

Three races are scheduled for Saturday, with first warning signal not before 1145 hours. The intention is to run all boats on the same course with, depending upon numbers and class splits, two or three starts at 3 minute intervals. The Datchet Flyer concludes on Sunday with a pursuit race, which has been configured in such a way as to give the faster boats more time on the water. The fleet will be split into two, around the same course, with the slowest class and the mid-fleet class starting at the datum time. There will be two separate sets of fleet results, each with double point scoring. Badger Ales will be providing prizes along with SailJuice.com

Online entry for the Datchet Flyer closes at 11.59pm on Thursday night, 11 December 2014.

For results of the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series after one event: events.sailracer.org/eventsites/results_viewer.asp?eventid=195890

To enter other events in the series: www.SailJuiceSeries.com

Prizes and sponsors

Thanks to generous support from Series sponsors, we have some great prizes for competitors, and also for spectators and photographers. More details to follow in the coming weeks...

In addition to title sponsor GJW Direct Insurance, the UK's largest direct boat insurer, our silver-level sponsors are: