Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey - Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series Round 3
by Andy Rice 28 Dec 2019 22:55 PST
27 December 2019
Colin and Oli Murray successfully defended their grip on the Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey after sailing their Norfolk Punt to victory in the third event of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series.
It was a sold-out, hundred-boat entry for the Brass Monkey with lots of quality in the fleet, but the light airs and drizzly overcast conditions played to the strengths of the Murrays' Norfolk Punt.
Principal race officer Phil Whitehead made the best of the difficult southerly breeze and set a long, 1.7 mile course that made the best of Grimwith Reservoir, with lots of offwind sailing legs. Unfortunately the fickle breeze meant only one race could take place.
On Great Lakes corrected time, the team from Invergordon Boating Club won by 61 seconds ahead of Wimbleball's Simon Hawkes who had travelled all the way from the west country to compete in his K1 singlehanded keelboat, with Arran Holman's D-Zero coming in third place. Hayling Island's Jack Hopkins raced his Solo to fourth place, just ahead of Burghfield's Nick Craig who yet again proves his multi-class versatility by sailing his Hadron H2 to fifth overall.
There were nine different classes in the top 10 overall, with the D-Zeros occupying 3rd and 10th spots. The Norfolk Punt aside, the only other trapeze boat to make the top 10 was Josh Moran's Musto Skiff from Ullswater.
After three of the eight events of this year's Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series, Laser sailor Olton Mere's George Sunderland is not only top Youth but top dog in the overall rankings. Moving up to second overall are the defending champions from last season, Simon Horsfield and Katie Burridge's 2000 representing the Army Sailing Association. Burton on Trent's Andrew Spencer, sailing a D-Zero, is in third overall.
The next event takes place tomorrow (Sunday, 29 December), with the 200-entry limit for the Grafham Grand Prix already reached. The RS Aero 5 has the most entries with 17 boats, followed by the D-Zero with 12 on the start line.
If you missed out on the entry for these last two events, make sure you don't miss out on the fifth event of the Series, the legendary GJW Direct Bloody Mary at Queen Mary Sailing Club on Saturday 11 January, with 120 boats already signed up. Get your entry in ASAP at www.sailjuiceseries.com
Run your Class Championship as part of one of the events
In case you hadn't already thought of it, why go to the hassle of organising your own class event when you can run it within one of the events in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series or the Great British Sailing Challenge during the summer months? Here's a few examples of classes that have already taken advantage of this season:
- Hadron H2 - Inlands (Dash)
- Blaze - Fire Cup (Datchet Flyer)
- RS Aero - Winter Championships (Oxford)
- OK - Winter Championships (Oxford)
Contact Simon Lovesey if interested in discussing using a SailJuice Winter Series event for a class championship and/or class winter series:
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