GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series Datchet Flyer
by Andy Rice, SailJuice 15 Dec 2015 00:21 GMT
12-13 December 2015
GJW Sailjuice Winter Series Datchet Flyer © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
Enterprising Jackson shows the young guns how it's done
Ann Jackson and Alan Skeens sailed their Enterprise dinghy to victory at the Datchet Flyer, which saw 95 boats battle through both ends of the wind range. Just as in Round 1 of the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series at the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, the Saturday was ridiculously windy to the point where the planes were virtually performing a vertical take-off from nearby Heathrow Airport as they flew into the teeth of a south-westerly breeze that at times was gusting over gale Force 8.
With the wind already blowing hard as the fleet readied itself for three back-to-back handicap races around a challenging inverted-P-shaped course, 82 of the 95 ventured into the unknown. The unknown being: just when was this nice 18 knot breeze going to really kick in, up to 40 knots or more, as it had been forecast?
The answer came sooner than most expected, sooner than almost anyone would have liked. Race 1 got underway with the wind already gusting over 20 knots, and it got bigger throughout the next 40 minutes. This event was also serving as the Musto Skiff Inland Championships and it was no surprise to see multiple world champion Richard Stenhouse charge to the front of the fleet in such apocalyptic conditions. But even the mighty 'Sten' was knocked over twice by the big gusts, and it was the Contenders that came to the fore, with Dan Taylor winning ahead of Nick Noble, and the Draycote-winning 505 of Tom Gillard and Andy Couch coming in 3rd.
Other big names were struggling, such as Nick Craig and Tom Pygall in their B14. "It's been a while since we raced the B14," said Craig. "We rigged the spinnaker wrong." Undeterred, Craig started the first lap, peeled off at the bottom of the course, came ashore, re-rigged the kite, and went back out and completed the race. "Er, we were last though," he laughed. Yes, last to finish, but with the high rate of attrition, that still meant last was only 40th place.
With the wind continuing to lift the Heathrow traffic like Harrier jump-jets, unfortunately that it was it for Saturday - except for Craig and Pygall who took the opportunity to get in some high-wind practice on their now correctly-rigged B14. And yes, they did actually keep the boat in one piece.
Using SailRacer's trackers on each boat, the Musto Speed Challenge measures corrected and sustained speeds compared against the Great Lakes handicapping numbers that are used in the Series. On this basis, Ian Morgan's D-Zero was the fastest boat with 15.3 knots in Race 1, ahead of Josh Wilce and Will Hall's B14 which clocked up a corrected speed of 14.6 knots.
Sunday dawned to gloom and gentle drizzle, and only the gentlest of breezes. Just enough to get racing though and, with a curtailed schedule the previous day, the race officer decided to hold a handicap race before the double-points Pursuit Race showdown. James Wilson from Staunton Harold won the first race of the day in his Streaker ahead of Daniel Goodman and Debbie Robertshaw's RS200 from the home club. Jackson and Skeens were 3rd in their Enterprise.
After a rapid rearrangement from the inverted-P to a more complex M-shaped course for the Pursuit Race, it was time to get things going for the non-discardable, double-points finale. One of the innovations at the Datchet Flyer is to split the fleet in two, Fast and Slow, and send off the slowest of the Slow with the slowest of the Fast, until all the boats have got started. The benefit comes in allowing more race time for the faster boats, and was particularly welcome on Sunday because it reduced waiting time between the two races.
Winner of the Fast Pursuit Race was the Osprey from Weymouth, sailed by Terry Curtis and Richard Burton, and which proved a handful for the normally faster asymmetrics which on this occasion were really not much faster at all. Winner of the Slow Pursuit Race was that Enterprise again, sailed by Jackson and Skeens. Their victory was sufficient - after discarding the windy race the previous day - to give them overall victory in the Datchet Flyer ahead of the Fireball sailed by Matt Burge and Dan Schieber. Curtis and Burton's Osprey was 3rd overall.
Jackson was graceful in victory. "I think we were lucky," she said, although on further enquiry she was also counterintuitively smart with her tactics. "We started at the wrong end of the line, we often sailed the opposite side of some legs just to keep our air clear. It was all about avoiding the big wind-breaks that were sailing past us all the time!" Just short of her 60th birthday, Jackson had shown the young guns the way round the track.
However, in the battle for the Musto Skiff Inland title, the younger, lighter Ben Schooling just edged out the grand master Richard Stenhouse, with Schooling successfully defending his title from last year. In a strong D-Zero turnout, Grafham's Dave Summerville came out on top, with Barnt Green's Rob Lennox in 2nd.
After their barnstorming Saturday, the Contenders didn't compete on the lighter-wind Sunday. However there was a good spread of classes in the overall rankings, with eight different classes represented and only the Merlin Rockets and D-Zeros getting two inside the top 10.
Now for the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series there is a fortnight's break, and then a busy weekend immediately after Christmas with the Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey on 27 December and the Grafham Grand Prix on 28 December. This year's events at Draycote and Datchet have already seen record entries, and the Brass Monkey is already almost filled to capacity, so get your online entry in soon if you plan to take part.
The Datchet Flyer was the first event to be filmed by start-up sailing specialist video crew, VR Sport TV. The interviews and footage from Datchet will be coming out soon, and VR Sport TV will also be shooting at other events in the Series: the Oxford Blue and the Bloody Mary.
Results of the Datchet Flyer can be found here and you can enter other events in the Series at www.SailJuiceSeries.com
The website will tell you more about the events in the Series, and we'll keep you updated on everything else you need to know.