Are you ready for the Tiger?

We look at preparations for this weekend's dinghy classic, the Tiger Trophy

Held in early February each year the Tiger Trophy is one of the traditional seasonal openers for the UK dinghy sailor. It has for numerous years been held for the benefit of the John Merricks Sailing Trust - the talented Atlanta Olympic 470 silver medallist was brought up close to Rutland Water in Leicestershire.

Attracting a big turn out of 420 and 470 sailors, youth sailors and those who knew Merricks the weekend is known not only for its racing but also for its great social atmosphere and the Tiger Dinner on the Saturday night.

We spoke to Richard Sanders, one of the organisers of the event, to see how this year’s preparations have been going. Sanders is confident about turnout - currently there are around 150 boats pre-entered but this figure will always rise dramatically on the day as the less organised enter on their arrival. This time last year had seen close to the same number of pre entries and the event ended up with 230 boats. He adds that although it is a lot of boats to organise the team have all done it before and are very organised.

“As of this moment – Thursday morning – there have been no issues and everything is running smoothly, touch wood,” Sanders comments.

The event is open to all centreboard dinghies with a PY under 1160 - if you own a boat that is slower than this you are still able to enter but you will have to sail to the 1160 PY limit. The first race will be at midday on Saturday for fast and slow handicap starts with timed laps. There will also be a non-discardable pursuit race on Sunday starting at 11am.

Each race is scored as one fleet, however the boats are split into two groups (fast and slow) that start five minutes apart. At the conclusion of the race the finishing times are corrected. Coming downwind in your 49er can be an exhilarating experience with over 200 boats heading towards you...

As ever there is the £1000 cash prize up for grabs for the first boat to win all the races over the weekend. In addition to this there is the Tiger Trophy itself for first place overall, the Lady Tiger for highest place girls, the Shere Khan Trophy for the first veteran, The Pursuit Trophy for the winner of Sunday’s pursuit race, the Merricks Memorial Trophy for the highest placed 470 and prizes for the top three boats in every fleet of six boats or more.

The Tiger Dinner, which is now sold out, will be held at the Victoria Hall in Oakham at 7:30pm with Jim Saltonstal as this year’s guest speaker. There will be the usual live band and Tiger bitter at £1 a pint.

Sponsors of the weekend include Rutland Sailing Club themsleves, Everards - the brewer of Tiger Bitter, and Purple Marine.

The programme of events for the weekend is as follows:

Saturday 4th Feb

Registration from 8am
Briefing 11am
Race 1 12-noon
Race 2 As soon as possible after race 1
Race 3 As soon as possible after race 2

Sunday 5th Feb

Race 4 (Non discardable pursuit race)
11am first start.

Don't forget to pack your DailySail venue guide to Rutland Water click here .