Grand Prix Series

Left: General series winners: Steve Jarred, Mike Smith, Jon Simpson, Gill Callander, Rob Carver

Right: Short course winners: Tracy Haigh, Kiley Gooch, Julie Nelson, Carlie Jenkins, Oliver Keeble

GP News: October 2026

It was an absolutely thrilling finale at BSC for our Grand Prix series. Going into the final weekend Julie Nelson had already sewn up the short course trophy, with Tracy Haigh in a reasonably secure second place, but third place was still up for grabs with Oliver Keeble, Victor Iszatt and Kiley Gooch with just five points between them. In the general handicap series, Jonny Garlick was in the lead but family commitments meant he wouldn’t be taking part in the final two events. This put Jon Simpson, Gill Callandar, Rob Carver and Mike Smith all in the frame with a chance of winning.

Saturday saw the Dyer cup… and it was windy! For safety reasons Race Officer Paul decided to stick to a club line start rather than the traditional downriver send off. The main fleet were sent down river to ‘the doctor’ where they enjoyed some very lumpy waves courtesy of the wind against tide, with gusts of near 30 knots. Naturally there were a few swims. There was a well deserved victory for Maria Richards and Luca Batley in the fireball. Callum Marshall was just one second back on corrected time in an ILCA4, with Rob Carver and Ronnie Bartlett finishing third in their RS2000. In the overall series this gave Rob some crucial points as he gained on Jon (5th), Gill (6th sailing a Sprite with Steve Jarreed) and Mike (8th as a fireball crew for Richard Thomas).

The short course fleet avoided the worst of the weather with a truncated course. Oliver Keeble laid down the gauntlet for the other podium contenders with an emphatic victory in his Oppie, over 3 minutes ahead on corrected time. Carlie Jenkins was second in an ILCA4, and Julie Nelson and Kylie Gooch finished third in their mirror.

At the end of the day the numbers were crunched. Oliver was now on 245 points, 7 ahead of Kiley. With double points in the final Kiley would need to beat him by four places overall to snatch back third in the overall GP series. In the general series Jon Simpson took back the lead he has held on and off all year. But he was just nine points ahead of Gill and 16 ahead of Rob. With double points on offer Jon couldn’t relax yet.

The morning of the final dawned with lighter winds and a tense atmosphere in the boat park. A brutal format for the final awaited the main contenders – double points, two races, and no discard. Nobody could afford a disqualification, but everyone was very keen to win. Hence it was no surprise to see an individual recall in the general fleet, with nobody taking any chances and going back even if there was a hint they were over the line.

Conditions clearly suited the ILCA6, with Callum, Austin Edwards and Jess Welch taking the top three places. However with none of them in contention for the overall series it was the action behind that mattered, and they finished in their overall series order: Jon 4th, Gill and Steve Jarred 5th, and Rob and Ronnie in 6th.

Meanwhile in the short course it was another oppie victory with Jenson Edwards taking the win, followed by Howard Knott. Olivers third place kept him in contention for third.

The final race of the day was far too tense and exciting, with the general fleet very badly behaved on the start line resulting in a reluctant use of the general recall flag. When they got away cleanly it was a tight race in lighter and shifty winds. Victory went to Ben and Rob Haigh in their Wayfarer, with Jon in second and Rob and Ronnie taking third. Steve and Gill were fourth.

The short course start was less contentious, and Howard took the win. Chris Briggs was second in an ILCA6, with Julie and Kiley third. Oliver was a disappointing fifth – would this spoil his victory party?

After the computer software had done it’s work, the GP final event results were; in the short course: 1st Howard, 2nd Jenson, 3rd Chris Briggs. Oliver finished 4th, one point ahead of Julie and Kiley, securing him the final short course podium position in the overall GP series.

The general results were extremely close, with 1st and 2nd tied on points; and then just 3 points back 3rd to 6th also had to be separated on count back. Callum’s race win gave him 1st place ahead of Jon; whilst third place was taken by Rob and Ben. Rob and Ronnie were 4th, Steve and Gill were 6th, and Richard and Mike were back in 9th. This gave Jon the overall GP series win, but wasn’t quite enough for Rob to overtake Gill who finished four points ahead of him.

Everyone gathered for the prize giving to give away numerous bottles of wine, chocolates and scented candles. We also awarded two new trophies to the overall winners. Each trophy is named after a valued member of the BSC racing community who we’ve lost in the last 12 months: Brett Townsend and Phil Newman. The Townsend trophy was given to Julie Nelson for winning the short course, and the Newman trophy to Jon Simpson. The latter was particularly poignant as Jon was sailing Phil’s old Finn.

Final series results

Fleets:

Fireball 1st Richard Thomas, 2nd Mike Smith

Fast 1st Mike Iszatt, 2nd David Styles

Optimist 1st Oliver Keeble 2nd Victor Iszatt

Topper 1st Daniel Hall 2nd Amelia Gilbert

Feva 1st Esme Thomas 2nd equal Florence Fenton, Hannah Thomas, Hector Johnson, Oliver Crickmore

ILCA 1st Jonny Garlick, 2nd Tracy Haigh

Solo 1st Drac Norman, 2nd Steve Goldstone

Wayfarer 1st Rob Haigh 2nd Graham Hoy

Mirror 1st Julie Nelson 2nd Kiley Gooch

Sprite 1st Gill Callender 2nd Steve Jarred

Medium 1st Jon Simpson 2nd equal Rob Carver, Ronnie Bartlett

Short course:

Cadets: 1st Oliver Keeble, 2nd Jenson Edwards 3rd Victor Iszatt

Ladies: 1st Julie Nelson, 2nd Kiley Gooch, 3rd Carlie Jenkins

Overall: 1st Julie Nelson, 2nd Oliver Keeble, 3rd Kiley Gooch, 4th Carlie Jenkins, 5th Tracy Haigh

General handicap:

Cadets: 1st Austin Edwards, 2nd Callum Marshall, 3rd Jess Welch

Ladies: 1st Gill Callander, 2nd Ronnie Bartlett, 3rd Nikki Johnson

Overall: 1st Jon Simpson, 2nd Gill Callander, 3rd Rob Carver, 4th Mike Smith, 5th Steve Jarred

Full results for the GP series can be found here:

https://blackwatersailingclub.org.uk/resources/Documents%20Public/Sailing/Race%20Results/Race%20Results%202026/GP%20series%20public%20final.xlsx

GP Events

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.

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) - Completed
Regatta 4th July - Completed
Round the islands 5th July - Completed
Coronation Cup 18th July - Completed
Downriver cup 19th July - Completed
Dyer Cup 10th October - Completed
Grand Prix Final 11th October - Completed

GP Scoring

Revised by the Sailing Committee, 13th July 2026

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 it is a single race event.
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 (which will have a short course and a general handicap section), and the class series

In the overall series points will count irrespective of what class was sailed.
Where an explicit short course fleet is present at an event, then the points scored will automatically be allocated to the short course section of the overall series.
Where individual fleets are sailed at an event (eg Toppers, Mirrors), then points will be scored in the short course section for that fleet if most boats sailing in that fleet have a PY over 1202.
If a sailor scores points in both the general handicap and short course sections over a year, then they will be ranked only in the section where they compete in the most events.
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

Main series & Short course series: 5th to 1st place
Main series & Short course series: 3rd to 1st female
Main series & Short course 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

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Essex CM9 4SD
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