Historic hat-trick for the winning 2000 in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series 2020-2021
by Andy Rice 15 Sep 2021 13:19 BST
Seldén SailJuice Winter Series: Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge, along with stand-in crew Natalie Johnson, have won the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series 2020-2021. This is the third consecutive victory for Horsfield & Burridge - an unprecedented achievement in the short but hard-fought history of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series.
The unstoppable team from Army Sailing Association / Thorney Island Sailing Club were pushed hard for overall victory by Luke Fisher from Emberton Park who sailed his RS Vareo singlehander impeccably. Fisher finished on 15.7 points from his best three out of four events, not quite enough to topple the 2000 which ended up with 12.4 points.
Third place on the podium goes to Patrick Overs' Solo from Paxton Lakes SC, with fourth also going to a Paxton Lakes sailor, Paul Carrington and his Streaker.
This was the strangest of Winter Series, not least because it concluded in late August with the John Merricks Tiger Trophy at Rutland Sailing Club. Along with Rutland, the other participating clubs that managed to make events happen through all the stresses and uncertainties of the Covid pandemic deserve great credit.
The only winter event that went ahead on schedule was the Datchet Flyer last December, so with the decision to extend the Series into the warm months of 2021, it was great to see the first ever Grafham Belle go ahead in May and the Medway Marathon step into the breach at late notice in June.
There were a number of sub-category competitions as part of the overall Series. Details of the winners from these categories will be announced soon.
Once again the Great Lakes Handicap numbers, a well-proven variation on the standard RYA numbers, continued to place a wide variety of classes in the top 10 of most events.
Thanks always go to the sponsors - Seldén, Trident, Craftinsure, SpeedSix and Restart Sailing - and to the organising clubs, staff and volunteers, as well as Tim Olin for his tireless work taking photos of every boat on the water. This was the toughest season yet but it got done, a credit to all involved.
During last winter when so little sailing was able to take place, Series organisers Simon Lovesey and Andy Rice helped keep the conversation and enthusiasm going by hosting some informative and entertaining Facebook Live sessions looking at the history of dinghy sailing from a number of angles.
www.facebook.com/SeldenSailJuiceWinterSeries
The full list of webinars is shown below, and still able to be viewed online.
Details of the upcoming Series for 2021 to 2022 will be announced soon.
The Events
The following events counted towards the scoring of the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2020/21:
- Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water SC, 6-7 December 2020
- Grafham Belle, Grafham Water SC, 29-30 May 2021
- Medway Marathon, Medway YC, 19 June 2021
- Tiger Trophy, Rutland Water SC, 28-29 August 2021
You can find out more about the Series at www.SailJuiceSeries.com
The Facebook Live events that took place during the 'Winter of discontent'...