Gillard & Gray enjoy birthday victory in their Scorpion at the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash
by Andy Rice 8 Jan 06:52 NZDT
4-5 January 2025
Even in a drift-off, the dynamic duo of Tom Gillard and Rachael Gray proved unstoppable in a single-race, super-light Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash.
After a perfect winter 12 months ago, when all events and all races were successfully completed, this season's Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series has been dogged by poor conditions. With Storm Bertie causing the postponement of the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash from its original weekend in late November, the hope was for something better on the first weekend of 2025. Instead, this time it was an almost complete lack of breeze that was the problem for the ever-willing team at Draycote Water Sailing Club.
Class Act in next to no wind
A lack of breeze on Saturday pushed back the schedule for four back-to-back handicap races on Sunday. Even then the wind barely showed up but somehow the race team managed to get a drifter of a race away. If anyone wanted to argue that the single race was a lottery, the results suggest otherwise. Behind the ever-winning team of Gillard and Gray was Megan Pascoe, a world-class talent (and sister of last year's Series winner, Musto Skiff sailor Sam Pascoe) in the 2.4mR who helmed her mini-keelboat to second overall.
In third was former Series winner Peter Gray and Richard Pepperdine who won the Fireball battle against daughter/ father combo Imogen and Dave Wade who finished fourth.
First event win in a Scorp
Rachael Gray was over the moon to win on her big birthday. "We have won events in the Merlin and National 18 and even though we won the Series (2011/12) in the Scorpion, we never won an event!"
The original plan for this season had been for Gillard and Gray to prioritise the 470, which tends to prefer the breezier stuff. But the windier conditions they had been hoping for have yet to materialise - other than at a very windy Sailing Chandlery Datchet Flyer last month. "We can only do the Bloody Mary and the Tiger Trophy now, so will go for the Series unless it's really windy and the 470 will come out," she said.
Further down the top 10 was a smattering of other diverse classes, showing the Great Lakes handicap numbers are delivering fair racing even at the bottom end of the wind range. Sam McKay and James Vyse sailed a Kestrel to fifth, Sam Barker took his Musto Skiff to sixth, Simon Hawkes's K1 keelboat in seventh and Matthew Wolstenholme and James Alexander's Snipe in eighth.
Top 3 and other results from Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash:
1st Scorpion, Tom Gillard & Rachael Gray
2nd 2.4mR, Megan Pascoe
3rd Fireball, Imogen and Dave Wade
Full results of combined overall rankings from Draycote Water here.
CFbyLandL Youth Rankings £75 voucher
Byte CII, George Jacobs in 18th place
Zhik Old Boats
RS400, Jonathan and Nicola Willars
Simon Horsfield Coaching sponsored by GJW Direct Insurance
Three-time winner of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series, Simon Horsfield is running a debrief of Draycote tonight, Tuesday, 7 January, at 20:00 hours. Simon will be looking back at the winning moves from last weekend and previewing the coming weekend's action at Queen Mary Sailing Club. He'll also be joined by special guest, Draycote winner Rachael Gray.
WhatsApp Group
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GJW Direct sponsored Coaching Debrief by sailing coach and multiple champion Simon Horsfield
www.facebook.com/SeldenSailJuiceWinterSeries/videos
Zhik Old Boats
Thanks to the Zhik 'Old Boats' scheme, there's a growing number of old boats competing in this year's Series, some of them scoring in the top 20 overall. So you don't need a new boat to succeed. There will be prizes across each event and an overall rankings presented at the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show. If your boat is 20 years or older you are eligible. Please email with your boat details and you can get on the list.
Get your entry in for the GJW Direct 49th Bloody Mary
Next up is the GJW Direct 49th Bloody Mary on Saturday, 11 January.
The Bloody Mary is open to non-foiling dinghy classes with PY numbers ranging from the International Topper to the 49er and to selected keelboat classes. The first start is scheduled for 12 noon with the slowest boats starting first and the faster boats starting progressively later. The race lasts 150 minutes.
Online Entry will close: Midnight, Thursday, January 9, 2025.
ENTER HERE
The Events
The following events are in the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2024/25:
- Sailing Chandlery Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club - 7 & 8 December 2024
- Polar Chase, Chase Sailing Club - 14 December 2024
- Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club - 27 December 2024
- Gill Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club - 29 December 2024
- Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club - 4-5 January 2025 [re-scheduled from November 2024]
- GJW Direct Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club - 11 January 2025
- King George Gallop, King George Sailing Club - 18 January 2025
- John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club - 1 & 2 February 2025
- Zhik Oxford Blue, Oxford Sailing Club - 15 February 2025
- Prizegiving at RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show, Farnborough - 22 February 2025
You can find out more about the Series at www.sailjuiceseries.com