Benjamin and Sam Pascoe in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series 2025-26
by Sam Pascoe 1 Mar 21:51 PST
Sailing Chandlery Datchet Flyer in the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
Hopefully this article doesn't cause me and Benjamin as much hassle as my last one. For the moment we will stick to adult racing together and I will leave him to follow the RYA Pathway at the correct ages.
The Datchet Flyer was our first time in the 2000 for a few months. We had great fun on the Saturday but unfortunately had a few swims in gybes due to being out of practice in the 2000. The rudder is big on the 2000 and Benjamin was spinning the boat too fast. I love flying downwind with Benjamin steering. He has learnt how to properly send it.
This was the last day of more than 12 knots in the Sailjuice events we did. The Sunday at Datchet was blowing all of 5 knots and Benjamin was not interested. On the way to the start he was desperately trying to get the boat up and planing. It was great to see him working the boat properly but there was not enough wind. It took a lot of work from me to keep him motivated and see the fun in light wind. Thankfully we go well on handicap, so the chance of a trophy helped. By the end of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series he had seen the fun side to light winds.
The light wind on Sunday dropped the fast boats down the order, which were in front of us overnight, so we made it up to equal second overall.
In the Bloody Mary I made a right mess of the start and we hit the pin end buoy. We had a great fightback against the other six 2000s and had a nice lead half way through the race. Unfortunately a mix of a bad tactical call downwind and our attention span not being long enough for the race meant we let Simon and Katie back through. It used to be the top 6 that got prizes and we were having such a great battle with Simon and Katie that I was worried we wouldn't get through the Fireflys. Thankfully we did and now the prizes go down to 10th. By the end of the race we were up to 5th. We were close to the lead, but the faster boats were even closer behind us, so it was definitely time for the race to finish.
The Tiger Trophy was a great showing by the 2000 fleet with nine boats. The fleet split was a bit higher than normal, so we didn't have the luxury of being the fast boat in our fleet. We really struggled to put a good first beat together, but I think it was more trying to avoid dirty air of the faster boats rather than being slow. We had fun on one bottom reach when we luffed a boat who started having a moan at us saying that we didn't know how to do well in handicap racing and lead big fleets. Benjamin innocently started saying to me "You do know how to as you won two years ago". The other boat then went around a random leeward mark instead of the correct mark, giving us a chuckle after we had told him where he was meant to go. The speed of the 2000 on a reach, especially a deep reach, definitely gets us out of trouble regularly. One reach we were behind Simon and Katie who were stuck behind an ILCA 7. The ILCA wouldn't let them pass above but we managed to go very high and jump them both. Never a dull moment in handicap racing.
Day 2 and I made another mess of the pursuit race start and first beat as we got becalmed on the start. Cue another fight back to be proud of, Just as we passed the Firefly and 2.4 to take the lead, Tom and Rachel passed us in the Merlin. They were on another level this winter so we were very happy to be best of the rest. Rather entertaining having passed the Firefly, the wind then dropped and they passed us and disappeared into the distance. Thankfully the wind picked up just enough for us to pass them 2 minutes before the end in exactly the same place where we passed them a lap before to take second in the race and second overall.
Next up was the Grafham Grand Prix. I never feel I can link the puffs and shifts up wind at Grafham and that Sunday was no different, although we came second overall. I still have no idea how they merged a square course results with those from a windward leeward course. We had a bit of a nightmare with the three 2000s starting in different fleets on different Notice of Races. They kindly agreed to put our results in the slow fleet where we had raced, but it still took a while to sort laps and start time out. At one point we were in 9th and I said to Benjamin I would like to start the trip home. Benjamin then asked who would collect our prize. After I said we wouldn't get a prize for 9th, I realised he is to used to getting a prize each time he races.
The Oxford Blue was very light. Lady Luck was definitely on our side as we kept getting becalmed and new lines of pressure would come in as we started the run or half way through our second lap. We have been working hard on roll tacks and gybes over the last 8 months and they really came together that day. Benjamin is also getting strong enough to do the mainsheet in the light winds. It was great to win the Oxford Blue as it's the one I didn't win two years ago in the Musto Skiff!
One of the great parts of the series has been lots of big fleet racing situations to talk Benjamin through. I never know how much is going in with him and then he amazes me by doing something that proves he was actually listening.
Benjamin made a fun in-car game out of the numbers on the sat nav. You have to find boat types on it. For example 2.4 or 49er. We also listened to a fair few Shirley Robertson podcasts which created many questions from Benjamin, but he clearly enjoyed them.
This has been the first winter I have sailed through with Benjamin and it's been great to see how he has improved. Thankfully it's been mild for most of it. Benjamin has asked to do next year's winter series in something faster - probably my fault for letting him try a massive range of boats last year. For now the 2000 is perfect for us as it's competitive on handicap across the range of conditions and we can handle as much wind as they are likely to race in. We are now looking forward to the open meeting season starting.