Tag: Draycote Dash

D-Zero Winter Series Round 1 and 2 roundup

Nigel Austin and Andrew Spencer in close proximity. Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

With 2 rounds of the Winter Series already completed it seems the year is drawing to a close at breakneck speed. So a short roundup of both events and some results seem to be in order.

3 D-Zeros travelled to Draycote in November for the Dash, class poster boy Tom Southwell, ever present Nigel Austin and class newcomer Andrew Spencer. The weekend promised an easterly wind which is never a good direction for Draycote Water. this meant it was variable in both strength and direction. Tom had a superb 5th in race 4 on the Saturday which put some distance between himself and the rest. he duly held it together on Sunday in slightly stronger conditions to take class honours and record 38th overall. Andrew came home 77th overall just pipping Nigel in 82nd out of the 103 boats that took to the water over the weekend.

Tom Southweell on his way to Class honours. Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

Moving on to the Datchet Flyer. With the wind gods promising a good blow it was with some trepidation that the sailors rigged on the Saturday morning. For this event 5 D-Zeros came to play with Seb Prowse and James Gerwat joining the 3 who had contested round 1. The forecast was definitely correct and even said to be on the conservative side.

Tom enjoying the breeze at the Flyer. Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

With class stalwart Nigel reporting the conditionals as ‘brutal’ the D-Zeros stuck t out despite the conditions and had fun despite a couple of people being ejected during the huge squalls. Unfortunately for Seb his day was cut short when he was ejected out the boat in a squall which caused some minor damage to his mast.

Sunday dawned and the conditions had moderated somewhat. Seb and James decided to call it a weekend after their adventures the previous day leaving Tom, Nigel and Andrew to battle it out for class honours. tom duly prevailed again posting a 15th in the double points pursuit race to take class honours and 31st overall with Andrew sneaking  ahead of Nigel in the pursuit with them taking 40th and 41st overall with Andrew being a single point ahead of Nigel.

It never looks at windy in a photo… Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

So overall Tom is leading the series with 2 firsts, Andrew second with 2 seconds, Nigel 3rd with 2 thirds followed by James and Seb.

In the Selden Sailjuice.com Winter Series Tom Southwell is flying the class flag in 18th overall after 2 round. More details and full results for this series can be found by clicking here.

From here we move on to the Brass Monkey up at Yorkshire Dales on the 27th December where entry is currently full but they have a waiting list if you are wanting to go. This is followed by the Grafham Grand Prix on the 30th December where we are hoping for a decent turnout given the large home fleet that is there.

More information on the D-Zero Winter Series can be found by clicking here.

D-Zero Winter Series 2018/2019

Photo Copyright Tim Olin

People have asked if we will be running the D-Zero Winter Series again this year. The answer is YES. The overall winner of the series gets to carry ‘W’ on their sail to denote that they are the Winter series champion (if they wish). The series this year will encompass all the events on the Selden SailJuice.com Winter Series along with the Steve Nicholson Trophy at Northampton SC.

The series will consist of a total of 8 events with your 4 best scores to count.

Entry for the Selden SailJuice events can be done online by clicking here.

Entry for the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy will be available by clicking here (when they open it).

The full list of events:

17th/18th November 2018 – Draycote Dash, Draycote Water SC
8th/9th December 2018 – Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water SC
27th December 2018 – Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales SC
30th December 2018 – Grafham grand Prix, Grafham Water SC
12th January 2019 – The Bloody Mary, Queen Mary SC
26th January 2019 – Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy, Northampton SC
2nd/3rd February 2019 – Tiger Trophy, Rutland Water SC
16th February 2019 – Oxford Blue, Oxford SC

D-Zero Winter Series 2017/2018 Round 1 – Draycote Dash

Video highlights courtesy of Ian Morgan


Ian Morgan showing off his light wind skills. Photo Copyright Tim Olin

Firstly apologies for the delay in getting this done. Your results collator and roving reporter has had a thing called life get in the way. Hopefully that is all now sorted and normal service will be resumed….

On the 17th and 18th November the hardy D-Zero fleet travelled to Draycote Water for round 1 of their winter series. This was also round 1 of the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series.

Nigel Austin leads Rob Lennox. Photo Copyright Tim Olin

In predominantly light winds on the Saturday current Inland Champion Ian Morgan took fleet honours in all 4 races leaving him placed 13th overnight ahead of the non-discardable pursuit race on the Sunday. Behind him Tom Southwell and Rob Lennox were having a battle for the rest of the podium spots with Rob just edging Tom out in the overnight standings with Nigel Austin in him now (in)famous ‘Southwell Beater’ bringing up the rear.

Ian held a fairly comfortable lead in the fleet and, barring a disaster, looked good to take round 1 of the series. All was to play for between Tom and Rob with only a few points between them.


All together (briefly) Photo Copyright Tim Olin

Sunday dawned and the pursuit race was a very light affair. Ian managed to stay ahead of Tom and take 24th in the race giving him 12th overall for the event. Tom managed to finish a couple of places behind Ian in 26th and had done just enough to get back ahead of Rob in the overall standings the pair of them finishing 27th and 30th overall respectively. Nigel posted a 38th to finish 45th overall, a solid result that he was happy with in the fleet of over 90 boats.


D-Zero poster boy Tom Southwell posing for the camera. Photo Copyright Tim Olin

So after round 1 Ian leads the way from Tom, Rob and Nigel. the next event is the Datchet Flyer that is this coming weekend. there is still just about time to get your entry in with discounted entry available until midnight on the 4th and entry closing on the 7th. Online entry can be done by clicking here.

Draycote Dash 2015 – Report and Result

The weekend of the 21st and 22nd November saw round 1 of the D-Zero Winter Series 2015/2016 and round 1 of the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series 2015/2016 take place. It was a weekend of contrasts with Saturday being very windy to the point of survival conditions and Sunday starting very light and then filling in to a steady F3 for the non-discardable double points pursuit race.

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Ian Morgan leads the D-Zero fleet at the Draycote Dash. Photo © Tim Olin

Overall it was a very successful weekend for the D-Zero fleet with 8 of the 10 entries making it on to the water at some point over the weekend. In the final results the class was 1 of only 2 classes to have 2 boats in the top 10 with Ian Morgan and Neil Crossouard in 8th and 9th overall respectively. Then a group of D-Zeros 20th to 22nd with Russ Hopkins, Tom Southwell and Nigel Austin. Full results are here. Tom is also the leading Harken Youth sailor in the GJW Direct Sailjuice series after the first event (full standings click here). For the standings after round 1 in the D-Zero Winter Series 2015/2016 click here.

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Tom Southwell leads the Harken Youth Award in the GJW Sailjuice Winter Series 2015/2106. Photo © Tim Olin

Russ Hopkins – GBR119 reports on his weekend:

10 Hardy, excited and Devoti’d sailors signed up for this year’s Draycote Dash. An event that signifies the start of the GJW Sailjuice Winter Series. More importantly for the D-Zero fleet it was the first of a series of 9 winter events chosen as part of their Winter Series.

The D-Zero has led the way with the largest (still is at time of print) entry within the global series. This was reflected with the largest single class entry for the Dash. A club with no home fleet! Testament to the speed at which the class has grown over its first 12 months and the dedication and personality of its fleet.

The forecast ahead of the event was not so appealing. When you hear your next-door neighbour trying to rescue their fence at midnight you know, as a sailor, you may be in for a torrid time!
Thankfully for the travellers the well organised race committee from Draycote Water managed to get the racing ahead in conditions fruitier than the man from Delmonte’s underpants. Given the severity of the wind several boats missed the start gun (half the total fleet we struggling to launch) With only 2 boats actually on the race track at this point Ian Morgan sailed a controlled race to finish ahead of Gordon Stewart
The remainder of the day saw Neil Crossouard and Ian Morgan tussle for first place, with Russ Hopkins only slightly troubling them.
Special mention to Gordon Stewart (my Sandiline clad buddy) who managed to complete ALL the Saturday races! That deserves a prize in itself!
At the end of day one the results stacked as follows:

1st Ian Morgan 1,1,2, DNC
2nd Neil Crossouard DNC, 2,1,1
3rd Russ Hopkins DNC, 3, 4, 2
4th Nigel Austin DNC, 4, 3, 3
5th Gordon Stewart 2,6,6, 4
6th Tom Southwell DNF, 5,5, DNF

As Sunday dawned it became apparent that it was the polar opposite of the previous days sailing. The lake was like a mirror, the racing was wisely delayed. Sadly the wind never really arrived and the fleet launched in a very dull drifter. Made even harder to swallow was it was a double point’s non discardable pursuit race. The fleet start was number 37 (IIRC) Ian Morgan led around the windward mark closely followed by Hopkins. Both of which pulled a commanding lead. Before Hopkins lost complete interest and ability and engulfed in a fit of his own loathing and rage managed to sail himself to the very back of the fleet. Giving him a very big job to try and rescue any kind of result. Sadly it was a bit of a dull race, so I won’t bore you avid readers any further! It was however a great show for the Zero’s with Ian and Neil recording a 16th and 17th overall respectfully!

Other selected quotes from the D-Zero fleet:

Ian Morgan – GBR156:

Just want to say thanks to all the D-Zero sailors who turned up for the Draycote dash. Brilliant fun but the results don’t quite reflect the closeness of the races or quite how windy Saturday was! Such a great laugh, can’t wait for Grafham next weekend.

Kevin Moll – GBR193 (a newcomer to the fleet and his first sail in his new boat):

Legs are a bit heavy today!

Having gone out on Sunday I was pleased I didn’t go out on Saturday. When the wind picked up I was struggling a bit to get the balance right and just general boat handling was poor. Whilst it remained light airs I did alright and was alongside Russ, Nigel and a couple of other D-Zero’s for about 5 marks, then the wind picked up and I went the wrong way on one leg and at one mark got myself in a muddle under a pack of boats and went backwards fairly rapidly after that.

Loved it though, but a lot to learn! Already looking forward to this weekend.

Whilst I didn’t race on Saturday, I picked up a lot of useful regatta knowledge, which hopefully, will save me time and mistakes in future regatta’s!

From here the D-Zero fleet moved on to Grafham on the 28th/29th November 2015 for their Training, class AGM and Open Meeting which was scheduled to be  round 2 of the D-Zero Winter Series 2015/2016 for a report of that event click here.

The next event in the GJW Direct Sailjuice Winter Series is the Datchet Flyer. At the time of writing the D-Zero class has 11 boats entered for this event which is also round 3 of the D-Zero Winter Series.

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