How the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series came about
by Mark Jardine 7 Oct 2016 13:14 BST
7 October 2016
Andy Rice competing in the Oxford Blue © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
We spoke to Andy Rice about the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series, how he came up with the idea, why they use the Great Lakes handicap system, the number of events and who else they want to attract to take part in the events.
Mark: How did you come up with the idea of running a series over the winter?
Andy: About twenty years ago, I remember in a magazine, which I don't think lasted very long, called FastBoat, someone did an aggregate scoring of three or four of the major winter events, and it was back when Ian Walker was sailing a Mirror, and Ian had won the Bloody Mary and he had done this in the Tiger Trophy, and then the idea went away again... so I can't completely claim that it was my original idea.
I thought what the problem with the Winter events was that it was really easy to - and I know from personal experience - poke your nose out of the duvet on a cold winter's morning, have a look out at a grey sky, and maybe it's raining, and think, "You know what? I'll give the Bloody Mary a miss this year". People were turning up on the day, they were either writing out a cheque (back in the days of cheques), or handing over cash - if they were turning up at all. But the club never really knew in advance who was turning up; how many people to cater for, how many rescue boats to put on, and there wasn't really that commitment to the events.
So I thought if we actually do an aggregate of some of the really popular events, then maybe it will galvanize a bit more loyalty to the events. So seven years ago I approached five events in the first year and said, "How about I put you into an umbrella series? It's not going to cost you anything, I'm just going to organize this umbrella series based on these existing events, are you with me?" and they all said, "Well, yeah, OK, see if you can make it work."
So we launched the Series under the name of the SailJuice Global Warm-up, and it seemed to go down well with people. Simon Lovesey from SailRacer saw what was going on and he offered to get involved. He set up a website specifically for the event, and he was also able to offer advanced online entry and I thought, "That's probably quite a good idea," and actually it's been a really good idea and that has been an important bit of glue, because even though some of the entry fees are only 15 or 20 quid, once people have made that advanced entry, they make a commitment to actually show up on the day, no matter what the weather forecast. And it really impresses me how people just turn up even when it's probably not going to be enough wind or maybe too much wind to go racing.
Mark: One of the features of the series is the Great Lakes Handicap system. Why did you choose that over using standard PYs?
Andy: I remember, coming back to Ian Walker, that he used to show up at the Bloody Mary, either with the 420 or with the Mirror with two different crew, and depending on whether it was your lucky day or not, you get to sail with Ian Walker; if it was a light wind day in a Mirror or a strong wind day in a 420... and why? Because the Mirror was a bandit in light winds and the 420 was a bandit in strong winds. Also, anecdotally, we hear about people basing their buying decisions about the boat that they buy based on its handicap performance and whether they think it's going to win races at club championships, which, to me, is completely the wrong way round. People should be buying the boats that they actually actively enjoy racing, and any boat that they race should have an opportunity to win on its given day.
So we've had this data staring us in the face for years, but somehow the RYA allowed this situation to develop where these numbers that the RYA used to push out, what were the so-called Primary Numbers, were carved in tablets of stone and brought down from the mountain by Moses, and it was like the clubs were saying, "Thou shalt use these numbers". Lasers were never winning anything! So even if Paul Goodison turned up in a Laser, an Olympic champion, he wasn't going to win the Bloody Mary. Something was wrong, although I should point out that Bas Edmonds has done an excellent job in recent years of making the RYA numbers much more reflective of what's actually going on out on the water.
So we started with Andrew Craig, who was Commodore of Queen Mary Sailing Club at the time, and his great committee of the Great Lakes group. We got together and they started analyzing the data, and they moved some numbers massively in the first year. Typically the development classes, like the Cherubs and the 14s and the Merlins got hammered, because their numbers were creeping up every year as they were bringing in carbon rigs and new technology as they were allowed to, whereas the single manufacturer one-designs were being left behind because nothing changes in these classes. So, the Great Lakes numbers are much more reflective of their current performance. Quite often we're seeing nine or even ten different classes filling the top ten of some of our events.
Mark: How do you choose the number of events in the series? You started off with four or five, and then it got probably too big with eight. Do you think seven is the right number for the series?
Andy: Seven is almost too many, because expecting people to turn out for four is a bit of a stretch, so maybe five or six would be better, but we want to honour those original commitments of the clubs that first helped get the series launched. Yes, we have brought in a couple of other events and they've been successful from year one as well, but yes, sometimes I think seven is a bit of an ask and a bit of a stretch. There was a worry that introducing more events would dilute the turnout, but that hasn't proved to be the case at all, as most of them are being filled up before the day. We have also stretched out the season a little bit more, so the last event now is in mid-February; it makes sure it still finishes up just before the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show, which tends to be when the prize-giving is, but we've got less congestion around Christmas-time, which has been a bit of a problem in past years.
Mark: You've competed yourself in a lot of these events before. Will you be competing in the 2016-17 series?
Andy: I'll be competing in as many as I comfortably can. I've only got to complete four to get a series in, although the best will probably do more than that because the more events you do, the more chances you give yourself of counting a good set of four. Unfortunately with my job and the amount of overseas travel involved, I never quite know where I'm going to be. Luckily the clubs run these events very well without me having to be there, but I'm still tapping away on my computer from whichever part of the world I'm in, still writing the event reports and making sure that the news gets out there!
Mark: You're looking to encourage more catamarans this year. What do you think has been the barrier to them in the past?
Andy: I don't know, I think it's a lack of momentum, a lack of push from within the multihull fleets. There are a lot of dinghy sailors that thought, "You know what? If I know that there's at least 50 or 100 boats, in some cases 200 boats, turning up, then I'm going to turn up, too." If you're the only multihull turning up then maybe you're not going to bother. Hopefully the introduction of a multihull series might encourage more participation. Up until now, we've picked the lowest hanging fruit; we haven't particularly gone after any particular segments, we've just taken what's come our way. But the bit that's missing at the moment is multihulls.
They're not eligible for some events unfortunately because some of the events don't allow multihulls due to space reasons, but there are three events of the seven that still do allow multihulls, and we do get the odd multihull turn up and do it. I'd just like to see them have a bit more company. Also for the Great Lakes to be able to get their teeth into those numbers and actually have proper crossover handicaps between the dinghy world and the multihull world; I don't like seeing this as an 'us and them' between monohulls and multihulls. I think we're a sport that needs us all to work together, and as much as possible we should try and race together as well.
Mark: This is the fifth year that you've had GJW Direct support for the event. What does it mean to have that kind of sponsorship?
Andy: It really helps offset the enormous amount of work that Simon and I in particular put in behind the scenes. It also helps pay some costs for some of the other people that really put in a big effort, like Tim Olin, who for the last couple of seasons has driven around to every single event to take some fantastic photographs. We still don't by any means cover all his costs and we're still not making a profit out of this. It is a labour of love, but GJW Direct's input certainly makes it a lot more palatable, because at least we are earning something from it. But I didn't really realize when I took this on how much work was going to be involved. It's sort of become a monster, but it's a monster I'm very proud of!
Mark: We're very much looking forward to following all the events this year and hoping that there's great weather for the events. Thanks for your time, Andy.
Andy: Thanks, Mark.
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