Early entries rolling in for the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series 2017/18

Brass Monkey start during the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series action © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

It's still more than a month away to the first event of this winter's big handicap racing series, but advance online entry is open and sailors are signing up early to guarantee their place on the water...

Entry is open for the ninth edition of the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series, and already sailors are signing up to the seven events, many of which have sold out well in advance in recent years.

The first event is the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash on the weekend of 18/19 November 2017. Draycote has seen all kinds of weather, and sometimes the whole range from 5 to 35 knots in the space of the weekend. Saturday is all about a series of back-to-back handicap races and the Sunday finale is a pursuit race around this beautiful reservoir not far from Rugby.

As ever, there are lots of different categories, races within the race, and many prizes to reward performance and tenacity on the water...

Free SpeedSix HydroPro

Enter two or more of the SpeedSix Challenge events (Draycote, Datchet and Oxford) and you will receive a sling-shot can of SpeedSix HydroPro to help you go even faster.

Youth support - discounted entries As part of GJW Direct's drive to encourage more Youth Sailors (18 and under during 2018) to compete in the Series, these sailors will be eligible for a third off their entry fees when entering four or more events at the same time. There will be specific extracted rankings and prizes, for both Junior and Youth aged sailors.

In addition to the main overall prizes, there will again be a number of special category awards and rankings, including:

• Allen Best Progression
• Dinghy Rope Top Class
• Gul Top Lady
• Youth and Junior
• Trident Top Club
• SpeedSix GPS challenge
• Class specific (15+ boats)
• Boat type (Fast Symmetric, Fast Asymmetric, Slow Symmetric, Slow Asymmetric)

Here are some more facts on the Series:

Big Numbers
Last year's GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series saw over 1,000 competitors from 278 sailing clubs taking part in 89 different racing classes. The Series has a massive online following each winter, with a big growth in mobile access. Last year attracted more than 36,000 unique users who totalled more than 107,000 visits to the Series website, www.SailJuiceSeries.com

Make it your Class Winter Series
Last year a number of classes scheduled the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series as a key part of their calendars, with SailRacer producing class specific extracted results. Any class interested in their own Winter Series as part of the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series, please contact Simon Lovesey @ SailRacer, with class prizes for any achieving 15+ entries. Last season saw 14 classes with entries over 15 boats.

Four out of Seven
The same seven events are back from last year's Series. Once again, you must count your best four results from these seven events. Of course, you're welcome to enter and compete in as many events as you like - all seven if you're big enough to take on the challenge. This will give you more shots at getting a set of four good scores to put on the board.

The Events

The following regattas constitute the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series 2017/18):

• Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club (18 & 19 November 2017)
• Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club (9 & 10 December 2017)
• Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club (27 December 2017)
• Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club (30 December 2017)
• Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club (6 January 2018)
• John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club (3 & 4 February 2018)
• Oxford Blue, Oxford Sailing Club (17 February 2018)

Find out more about the Series here at www.SailJuiceSeries.com

The website will tell you more about the events in the Series, more about the Great Lakes handicapping process, and we'll keep you updated on everything else you need to know.