Scoping out next season's Sailjuice Winter Series

Sailjuice Winter Series - John Merricks Tiger Trophy © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

The Sailjuice Winter Series is going strong after 17 seasons, and last week the organisers invited a small group of sailors and stakeholders to join a roundtable discussion to scope out the future...

Last week the organisers of the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series, Simon Lovesey and Andy Rice, held a meeting with members of participating sailing clubs and classes, as well as some of the competitors. They discussed the future of the handicap racing series and the broader state of dinghy racing in the UK.

The Participation Mission

The meeting, chaired by Andy Rice and Simon Lovesey, focused on the primary goal of the SailJuice Winter Series: increasing participation. Andy noted that while the series has been running for 17 years, the post-Covid landscape has proven challenging. Events that once "maxed out" at 150 entries, such as the Oxford Blue, are now finding it harder to reach those numbers. Despite this, series is still general decline in UK open meeting participation.

Part of the success is attributed to the "Great Lakes" handicap system. By moving away from the "bandit" classes of the past through rigorous data analysis, the series has created a more level playing field where 15 or 16 different boat types can realistically compete for top spots. However, with 94 different classes taking part in last season's Series, they still had concerns about the fragmentation of the sport and the 'bottlenecks' preventing growth, such as entry fees, weather-dependent late entries, and volunteer fatigue.

One-Design or Handicap Racing or Both

A recurring theme was the tension between One-Design classes and handicap racing. Some one-design classes persist in holding summer open meetings where there are times when more people are involved in organising an event than there are competitors on the start line.

One representative from Oxford SC argued that one-design racing remains popular in the summer due to its social nature - the "same group of people meeting every month". However, he conceded that as numbers dwindle, classes must team up to make events viable. The consensus was that while handicap racing is often viewed as a compromise, for many clubs and classes it is increasingly the only sustainable model to achieve the necessary economies of scale.

The "Scottish Model" and Hybrid Regattas

Another attendee proposed adopting a 'Scottish Regatta' model to solve the participation problem. In this system, clubs run large-scale annual regattas with eight to ten different starts. Any class that brings six to eight boats receives its own start and prizes, while smaller groups are folded into fast or slow handicap fleets. This hybrid approach possibly the best of both worlds: it provides the social and competitive pull of class racing while ensuring the club has enough total participants to justify the resources.

Another participant supported this, suggesting that the focus should shift from participation to quality. By offering a better racing experience and a "blank sheet of paper" approach to handicapping, moving away from 75-year-old analogue systems into the digital and AI age, participation would naturally follow.

Social Dynamics and Modern Challenges

The "off-the-water" experience was identified as a critical factor in an event's success. A number of participants agreed that since Covid, sailors are more "time-poor" and selective. To add value, participants suggested incorporating modern technology and better hospitality. Simon Horsfield's on-and-off-the-water coaching and online briefings was mentioned as a good example of ways that the Winter Series is adding a layer of value to the amateur circuit, giving "weekend warriors" access to the kind of elite tips usually reserved for Olympic and RYA youth squads.

Where next?

The focus for the 18th edition of the SailJuice Winter Series will be building on the success of the boat type extracted rankings (fast and slow asymmetric, fast and slow symmetric) and performance comparisons of similar boat types. More broadly, small boat racing lacks a clear representative body to champion the sector - like RORC for offshore or UKWA for boards. While the RYA plays an important role, it is understandably broad in scope. SailJuice has partly filled this gap (with 94 classes represented last winter), but there's clearly more to be done. The longer-term vision is to establish a UK Small Boat Racing Association, and we'll be arranging a follow-up meeting to gauge interest and momentum.