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Grand Prix Series


The goal of the Grand Prix (‘GP’) series is to encourage participation in more sailing events across the year by more members. The idea is that as well as the individual event prizes, participation in the series will also attract points towards an annual series. This will give an incentive to do as many events in the series as possible.


GP News: June 2026

The GP series is well underway with five out of eleven events completed.

As the only sailor to complete all five events, Julie Nelson leads with 240 points out of a possible 250; with two wins in both the Easter series and Britannia cup. The chasing pack have all completed four events apiece. Fireball class leader Charlie Stewart is back to second place after missing the Blackwater cup and returning for the Jubilee series. With two wins, a second and a third he is certainly the most consistent sailor. Nine points behind is Laser sailor Jonny Garlick who won the Blackwater Cup, but like many cadets and cadet parents had to miss the Jubilee series which clashed with a Cadet training weekend. Lying in fourth is Mike Smith who has scored in both the medium and fireball classes; and just one point behind is another Laser sailor, Tracy Haigh.

There are also GP prizes for each individual fleet for those who prefer to stick to one boat. Whilst the class leaders are unchanged after the weekend things are hotting up in some fleets, including Sprites where just 1 point seperates Chris Nichols and Malcom Green; and in Lasers where Tracy is now just 4 points behind Jonny. Don't forget that crews also score points - the joint leaders in the Wayfarer serie sare Graham Hoy and his crew Rob Haigh.

Remember the GP series uses positive scoring with no discards, so the more events you can compete in the better you will do. The next GP weekend will be a big one, with both the Regatta day race and the Round the Islands on two consecutive days taking us beyond the halfway point for the year.

To see the full results, click here:

GP series public file.pdf

Administrative note:

If your full name does not appear in the results (eg “Will”, “Mike S”) can you please contact me (sailing-secretary@blackwatersailingclub.org.uk) so I can correct this. To prevent this happening, can you please write your full names on the sign on sheets, or it will be difficult to match up your scores across different events.



GP Events

There are eleven events in the series, over six weekends or long weekends:

  •  Easter series 3rd, 4th and 5th April - Completed
  •  Osea Cup 6th April - Completed
  •  Britannia series 2nd and 3rd May - Completed
  •  Blackwater Cup - Completed
  •  Jubilee series and Foster Bowl 13th and 14th June (and 18th June for Foster Bowl race three)
  •  Regatta 4th July
  •  Round the islands 5th July
  •  Coronation Cup 18th July
  •  Downriver cup 19th July
  •  Dyer Cup 10th October
  •  Grand Prix Final 11th October

GP Scoring

  •  Unlike normal sailing regattas, the highest number of points will win. There is no discard
  •  Points are awarded as follows: Winner of event: 50 points, 2nd 49 points, 3rd 48 points, 4th 47 points, …. 50th 1 point. If more than 50 boats participate in a given fleet then all the remaining boats that finish also get 1 point. A sailor who does not score a finish in any races in a given series, or does not finish the race in a single race event (e.g. scoring OCS, RTD, DNF or DNS) will not be awarded any points.  
  •  The final event of the year (the Grand Prix Final) will be a double point race, so points will be Winner: 100 points, 2nd 98 points, 3rd 96 points … 50th 2 points. If more than 50 boats participate then all the remaining boats that finish also get 2 points.
  •  A DSQ in a single race event will get -5 points and -10 in the Grand Prix final. 
  •  If an event is a series of multiple races then points are awarded to the winner of the series – points are not awarded for each race. Individual events of multiple races will be scored as normal as per the club SI and the RRS.
  •  Points are awarded separately to the helm, and to any crew. If an event is a series of multiple races, and the helm or crew change during the event, then the points will be awarded to the helm and to the crew that compete in the majority of races during the event, including any discards.
  •  Points are awarded within each fleet, so the helm and crew of the Sprite fleet would get 50 points each, the winning helm of the Laser fleet would get 50 points and so on.
  •  The makeup of a ‘fleet’ will depend on the event. A fleet is defined a group of boats at an event that do the same course and have the same start time for every race. For example, there might be a separate ILCA fleet in an event or they could be part of the medium handicap. For ‘all in’ races eg the Dyer Cup, there will usually only be one or two fleets (main and short course).
  • If a sailor participates in multiple fleets during a multiple race series they shall only receive a score for their highest placed finish in a given fleet in the overall series. This will not affect the scores of other sailors. For example, if a sailor comes first in fleet A (scoring 50 points) and second in fleet B (49 points) they shall receive 50 points for the event in the overall series. Sailors in fleet B are unaffected so the third place sailor(s) will still receive 48 points and so on.
  •  As allowed by the club sailing instructions allow, you can get average points if you are doing a duty at any point during a GP event, and request the Sailing Secretary to award them. This is only possible for one GP event during the year. The average will be taken across the ten GP events excluding the event in question, even if you did not compete in them. The average points will replace any points you score if you do part of a GP event with multiple races. If the event in question is the GP final, then you will receive double the average points scored across other events. If the event is not a GP final, then for the purposes of calculating the average score any points scored in the GP final will be halved. All average points requests must be made by email to the Sailing Secretary by the 1st October 2026. You will need to nominate a class for these average points (see class prizes below).
There will be two series, the overall series, and the class series
  •  In the overall series points will count irrespective of what class was sailed.
  •  In the class series points will count only if a given class was sailed (note: because many people sail different classes, we can’t just look for the highest placed Mirror sailor in the main series to award the Mirror prize). Note that these points will be awarded irrespective of the fleet that the class of boat sailed in.
  • In both series the helm and crew will score points.
  • If a sailor participates in multiple fleets and thus scores in more than one class during a multiple race series they will count their score in all relevant classes. This only applies to the class series - see the rules above for the fleet series.
Protests at any individual event will be dealt with by the Race officer at that event. Any protest regarding the rules, scoring or awarding of prizes in the GP series itself will be heard by a panel which will be nominated by the Hon. Sailing Secretary. The panel should exclude any person whose own results in the GP series would be materially affected by the results of the protest.

GP Classes:

  •  Optimist
  •  Mirror
  •  Topper or Tera
  •  RS Feva
  •  ILCA (any rig size)
  •  Solo
  •  Wayfarer
  •  Fireball
  •  Sprite
  •  Any medium handicap boat not included in above list
  •  Any fast handicap boat not included in above list


GP Prizes (provisional)

  • Main series: 10th to 1st place
  • Main series: 3rd to 1st female
  • Main series: 3rd to 1st cadet
  • Class series: 1st place and 2nd place in each class. This is so that double handers could potentially see a helm and a crew who normally sail together at the top of the series.


Robert Carver, Hon. Sailing Secretary

Amended 15th June 2026


Blackwater Sailing Club Ltd
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Essex CM9 4SD
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