A Friendly Tiger?
by Andy Rice 30 Jan 23:36 NZDT
1-2 February 2025
John Merricks Tiger Trophy © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
More than 70 boats are entered for this weekend's John Merricks Tiger Trophy at Rutland Sailing Club. After a season that has dogged the events in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series with either next-to-no-wind or Storm This-That-or-the-Other, event #8 looks like it might actually get some decent breeze.
Many of the usual suspects have already signed up, including multi-champions Nick Craig in his Finn and current Series leaders, Tom Gillard and Rachael Gray in their Scorpion. As usual, Olympic medallist David Wilkins will head up a crack team of race officials and is running back-to-back handicap racing on Saturday and the Pursuit Race on Sunday morning.
After racing on Saturday, there will be a racing debrief by super-coach Simon Horsfield (see below), as well as Six Nations Rugby on the big screen in the club (Ireland v England at 1645 hours) and then the legendary Tiger Dinner (Bangers & Mash, a John Merricks favourite) in the evening.
If you fancy signing up for one of the big winter classics on one of the most beautiful stretches of water in the heart of England, sign up here for the Tiger...
Enter Here
Here's a round-up of the standings so far across the various categories in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series...
Overall Standings
There are now 320 boats with a ranking, and different winners across all six events completed so far.
After their win at Draycote Water, Tom Gillard and Rachael Gray hit the top spot in their Scorpion. In addition to Gillard & Gray, some top names and class champions are waiting to pounce from further down the rankings, with two events recorded but with the opportunity still to hit the top of the leaderboard, eg.
19 Ben Flower, RS Aero 9, Paignton SC
20 Simon Hawkes, K1 Castle Cove SC
21 Nick Craig, Finn, Burghfield SC
22 Peter Gray and Richard Pepperdine, Fireball, Staunton Harold SC
View standings here
Top Class
RS200s hold onto the top spot, but the ILCA 7s and ILCA 6s are closing the gap... View standings here
Zhik Old Boats
For boats 20 years or older. Paul Young is still at top, but Norfolk Punt catching after their Magic Marine Gallop Win and a top 20 at GJW Direct Bloody Mary... View standings here
Top Lady
The Ladies are having a good winter, particularly Jess Powell (ILCA 4), Megan Pascoe (2.4 mR) and with lady crews winning at three events - Charlie Cotter (GP14), Sophie Mackley (Merlin) and Rach Gray (Scorpion), respectively at Chase, Grafham and Draycote. Overall it's Bartley SC's Sophie Forbes (Topper) who still leads the Ladies... View standings here
Youth Rankings
Sophie Forbes (Topper) also holds a good lead in the Youth rankings... View standings here
Age Categories
19-30
Ben Flower leads in his ILCA 7... View standings here
31-60
Tom Gillard and Rachael Gray lead this category as well as overall... View standings here
Masters
Paul Young in his Enterprise again! View standings here
Fast Symmetric
Lying in 2nd overall, father and son duo, Roger and Iain Blake in their Osprey are dominating the GBSC Fast Symmetric rankings... View standings here
Fast Asymmetric
Nigel and Aaron Davis are leading in their RS500... View standings here
Slow Symmetric
With over 200 entries the biggest group by far, Gillard and Gray top the group in their Scorpion... View standings here
Slow Asymmetric
Series regular Luke Fisher (RS Vareo), keeps ahead of a big RS200 fleet... View standings here
Simon Horsfield Coaching sponsored by GJW Direct Insurance
Three-time winner of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series, Simon Horsfield is running an online briefing on Thursday, 30 January, at 21:00 hours. Simon will be looking forward to what's in store at Rutland this weekend, and will be joined by principal race officer David Wilkins.
WhatsApp Group
chat.whatsapp.com/KFlRWkTrhxpDMkqcJbanWR
GJW Direct sponsored Coaching Briefing by sailing coach and multiple champion Simon Horsfield...
www.facebook.com/SeldenSailJuiceWinterSeries/videos
Enter the Tiger
The John Merricks Tiger Trophy at Rutland Sailing Club, is taking place this weekend on 1 & 2 February 2025.
Enter at www.sailjuiceseries.com
The following events are in the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2024/25:
- Sailing Chandlery Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water Sailing Club - 7 & 8 December 2024
- Robline UK Polar Chase, Chase Sailing Club - 14 December 2024
- Magic Marine Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey, YDSC - 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 here: www.SailJuiceSeries.com