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GJW Direct 2024 Dinghy

A breezy Bloody Mary in store for Saturday

by Andy Rice 7 Jan 2020 20:45 GMT 27 & 30 December 2019
The GJW Direct 46th Bloody Mary © www.Sportography.tv

It's set to be a breezy south-westerly for this Saturday's GJW Direct Bloody Mary, the legendary single-race pursuit race near Heathrow which is also the fifth leg of this season's Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series.

With almost 250 boats already entered, it's going to be a tough contest with a lot of the big names and usual suspects vying to get their hands on the coveted trophy. Queen Mary Sailing Club has turned this mammoth event into a smoothly oiled machine, thanks to a legion of club volunteers.

The largest entry is the RS Aero 5 class with more than 30 boats, followed by RS Aero 7 with 24 and the Topper with 21. Overall there are more than 50 different classes signed up. Make sure your class is there too!

Online entry will close at midnight Wednesday 8th January. Get your entry in ASAP at www.sailjuiceseries.com

Entries will be accepted on the day until the entry limit is reached. The Entry desk will open at 8:00am on Saturday 11th and close at 12:00pm, please arrive early and head to the clubhouse to complete the forms.

To save you time and hassle on the day, you can watch the online briefing video here:

New for 2020 - GPS Boat Tracking

As with all events in this season's Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series, boats will be provided with SailRacer's GPS tracker units with the action streamed live via the internet and available to analyse after racing. On the day head to Training Room 5 to collect and return your trackers, this is the big room on the ground floor.

The Series story at the half-way stage

Results after four events at selden.sailracer.org/eventsites/content.asp?id=47648&eventid=215241&templ=

Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series overall rankings

As we reach the half way stage, the various overall rankings are still wide open, with four events to count and four events to go.

Defending series champions, Simon Horsfield and Katie Burridge (2000), jump one place to take top spot for the fist time this Winter, looking to make history to be the first sailors to win more than once, since the inception of the Winter Series 11 years ago.

Sailing Chandlery Top Class

The GP14 class continue to hold onto top spot, but are being pushed hard by defending champions the Laser class, who are closing the gap and jumping up to second place. The RS Aero 7s are in third position. Rankings are based on the best three results for each class across every race.

Trident Top Club

Burton Sailing Club, jump one place to knock Draycote Water SC off top spot, with Staunton Harold SC completing the podium. Based on the best three results for each club across every race.

SpeedSix Challenge

Not surprisingly the cats recorded the highest top speeds on the SailRacer GPS trackers at Grafham, with the big Nacra 20 of John Tuckwell at the top of the SpeedSix Speed Wall, with over 15 kts. On adjusted speeds, Greg Bartlett (RS Aero 9) recorded the best sustained speed.

Great British Sailing Challenge

With all races being tracked by SailRacer, all events will be 2020 Great British Sailing Challenge qualifiers, which are based on various group rankings across all extracted results for each race, with an additional discard at every third race.

GBSC Overall
1 Peter GRAY GP14
2 Simon HORSFIELD 2000
3 Steve COCKERILL RS400

GBSC Youth
1 George SUNDERLAND Laser
2 Dylan MCPHERSON 420
3 Tim HIRE RS Aero 7

GBSC Junior
1 Dylan MCPHERSON 420
2 James CROSSLEY Topper
3 Abigail LARR RS Aero 5

GBSC 19-30
1 Dan JOHNSON Fireball
2 Alex HORLOCK Comet Trio MK2
3 Ellie CRAIG RS Aero 7

GBSC 31-60
1 Peter GRAY GP14
2 Steve COCKERILL RS400
3 Simon HORSFIELD 2000

GBSC Masters
1 Philip MEAKINS Osprey
2 Val MILLWARD Challenger
3 Roger BLAKE Osprey

GBSC Ladies
1 Val MILLWARD Challenger
2 Ellie CRAIG RS Aero 7
3 Emma PEARSON Europe

GBSC Fast Asymmetric
1 Steve COCKERILL RS400
2 Mark BARNES B14
3 Robert GULLAN RS800

GBSC Fast Symmetric
1 Philip MEAKINS Osprey
2 Richard SMITH RS600
3 Dan JOHNSON Fireball

GBSC Slow Asymmetric
1 Simon HORSFIELD 2000
2 Luke FISHER RS Vareo
3 Alex HORLOCK Comet Trio MK2

GBSC Slow Symmetric
1 Peter GRAY GP14
2 George SUNDERLAND Laser
3 Andrew SPENCER D-Zero

Extracted class results

For classes fielding 10 or more boats across the Series we will be proving class prizes, based on extracted results. Currently there are 17 classes eligible:

420, 29er, Contender, D-Zero, Fireball, GP14, Laser, Laser Radial, Musto Skiff, Phantom, RS Aero 5, RS Aero 7, RS200, RS400, RS600, Solo, Topper

The Events:

The following events constitute the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2018/19:

  • Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club
    17 & 18 November 2018

  • Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club
    8 & 9 December 2018

  • Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club
    27 December 2018

  • Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club
    30 December 2018

  • Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club
    12 January 2019

  • John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club
    2 & 3 February 2019

  • Oxford Blue, Oxford Sailing Club
    16 February 2019

  • Prize-giving, RYA Dinghy Show, Alexandra Palace
    10:15am Saturday 29 February 2020

You can find out more about the Series at www.SailJuiceSeries.com

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