I'm convinced that Grafham is Britain's - or at least Englands - coldest sailing club. As soon as the breeze sees that dam it seems to get an extra 5 degrees of windchill! Anyway Cherub entrants for this year's Grand prix were Dave Roe and Clare Warren in Pasta Frenzy and Ben Brown and your editor in Halo Jones. It was looking just a shade light for Cherubs, and there was a vast horde of Flying 15s in our race who were obviously going to like sub-planing conditions. Dave and Clare had a late start, and the first beat was frankly dismal with the trapeze not really an option. It perked up for the first downwind a bit, which took the Cherubs through more than a few boats, and Dave and Clare especially cut through the fleet to be near the front at the end. Unfortunately they were greeted by silence at the line for what the race officer was convinced was a breach of the black flag rule. Martin Harrison in his Moth was another victim, having endured a nightmare journey to sling the boat on the water and then gain a DSQ.
The second race was slightly lighter, although we were powered up on most of the beats, if struggling on the reaches. I've seen it so many times, but I still don't know how he does it... Dave somehow picked up some wind that we never saw and just disappeared off down the reaches in that race. I guess its just talent... They were well placed at the end with a 6th, and would probably have got a top 5 position but for the DSQ. Our official result I don't want to talk about, but I might have talked some had I still been at the club and seen the placing they'd given us for race 2!
Jim C
Nine boats for the fling in the end after your editor had to drop out at the last minute.
Davro & Clare, Pasta, The Pasta Frenzy
Tim
& Una, Pasta, Fizzy Shark
Joe & Nick, Pasta,
Pistrix
Robin & Will, Slug, Green Slug
Simon & Andy, Slug, [has it got a name yet?]
Ken & Neil, Slug, Born Slippy
Mike
& Tom, Squid, Squid Pro Quo
Scott & Mike,
Pat 6a, Geriatric Gigolo
Patrick & Dominic,
Pat 7, Little Red Number
I suppose the most notable feature of the wekend has to be
the first Open win for a Paterson 7 other than with Mr Paterson
pulling the strings. It was a bit of a Paterson benefit with Scott
in the P6a also quick in front of 3 Slugs and 3 Pastas. Race one
was a multiple late for the start affair with not enough wind
to get out at a reasonable speed. The two Patersons disappeared
at the start and match raced round - Geriatric Gigolo and Little
Red Number mxing it up. Yes, this is a report of the race and
not the Plymouth night clubs... Race two was abandoned with no
wind.
Race three looked as if it was going to be
just as quiet the next morning - just as well as I understand
there were some sore heads about, both of the alcohol and boom
impact induced varieties. However when they got out there the
lightweights could get out on the wire, and the featherweight
crew of Dom and Patrick in Little Red Number were even seen flat
out at times! With a bit more breeze they could handily keep clear
of Scott and Mike. Race 4 was pretty much a repeat, and some of
the heavier crews decided enough drifting about was enough and
headed home. Predictably the wind came in. Don't you hate it when...
I understand that Simon and Andy took full advantage
of much more [or should I say less] Sluggish conditions and took
an early lead. They kept this with some bouncing and wave jumping
behind - I have reports of class pitchpoles for both Little Red
Number and Pistrix - the latter getting acclaimed at the prizegiving!
Eventually things started getting silly with boats of all classes
falling about all over the place, and Mayflower decided on an
abandon/last leg results count strategy.
Overall results:
Patrick and Dominic
1st,
Scott & Mike 2nd,
Simon
and Andy 3rd.
Both varieties of Patterson showed excellent speed in the light wind, strangely the 6a was faster in the real drifting conditions, perhaps because it was harder to keep the 7 'in the groove'. Once Patrick could power up enough to get Dom on the wire, they were significantly faster. It was a weekend for skinny boats with skinny crews and the Pattersons were dominant for the whole event.
Many thanks to Dominic for the guts of the report info, constructed with some help from others. It may well get updated a bit more as he has promised some more info. The latter will certainly appear in the newsletter if not here, so make sure you're an association member!
Your association held a committee meeting today, the 7th September 2001. Without boring you with all the tedious detail main topics included :-
There wasn't a Cherub racing in the end due to a skilful demonstration (but I promised not to mention names) of how the boatbreaker gets its name. This weeks lesson is, if the Trolly Dolly has just changed his rigging in order to suit a lighter weight crew then it may well be wise not to heave with all your might on the boat breaker, because, if the jib luff needs lengthening, you might, for example, break one of the spreaders if the rig tension gets extreme.
On the other hand, as mailing list participants will know, we did have a useful discussion with Ace Kiwi 12 sailor and mast builder Alex Vallings of C-Tech spars, who's over in the UK for a fortnight, and Clare, Rachel and Dave at least had some good blasts round on the Sunday testing out the newly repaired spreader.
Light airs for Saundersfoot regatta saw Dave Roe & Clare Warren mid fleet. However the round Caldy Race the next day was held in a very decent Force 3. In spite of a late start Pasta Frenzy hurtled round the course for a win by something like 15 minutes on corrected time. Results on Saundersfoot's web site. Unsurprisingly, in spite of the previous day's results demonstrating why the handicap is as it is, there was some complaining later. Actually when you look at the results, the RS700 and possibly Canoe handicaps look most out of place, as Gavin Sim's Cherub was mid fleet...
The America's
Cup Jubilee was a great event I recommenmd the next one to
your grandchildren! You may not think it was that much to do with
Cherubs, but I bet there were a good many Cherub graduates around
the boats. Andy Paterson was out on the Solent on the Saturday
and got a much better view of Endeavour than he expected. To quote
"We sailed towards Endeavour, then it tacked and started
turning it's very sharp bow towards us! We passed about 12 foot
away on reciprocal course. It's big.... looking up the rig is
enormous." A photo of that would be good - The J is around
130 feet long and the rig must be well over 100 feet high...
The highlight of the event for me was to see Australia
2 on the water. I suppose most of you current Australian Sailors
can have little memory of the '83 event beyond perhaps being woken
up by your parents in the middle of the night to watch, but I
suspect that few older Australians - even expatriates like me
- will forget what they were doing on the 26th September 1983.
I've put together a page of snapshots and comments on the event,
its here if you are interested.
Two Paterson 7s at Cowes Dinghy Week - Andy Paterson sailing Alex and Pat in various races, and Patrick Cunningham sailing with Mark Turner.
"Overall during the week, the conditions were f 2-4, with gusts to f5, and large courses wind with tide, and quite a bit of tight reaching. This suited the cats mostly, but the cherub(s) too. Andy could sail much deeper and faster than the other boats ( about the same as 5 tonner), and slightly better on the beats. Fast again on fast 2-sailers, but slower when 29ers could put kite up on tight reach. (Andy Paterson)"
Andy was First Overall, and joint winner of Y&Y most consistent performer cup.
The Cherubs were racing off 931. It seems pretty extreme - well it is really, but of course the tides at Gurnard are also pretty extreme. Presumably there's no sailing until there's enough wind to get a Topper or Mirror around the course in spite of the tides. These are also the conditions that Cherubs do best in, so with no very light airs sailing I guess its not unreasonable for the Club to set the handicap lower provided they are confident they are making full allowance for the leading Cherub Sailor being amongst the best in the Country...
Robin Russell & Will Lee won the best Nationals for some years. They actually managed to win with a day to spare, with Dave and Clare second and Andy & Alex 3rd. Super weather, friendly club, nice conditions. What more could you want!
Dangerous Strawberry's new owners, Mark Chamberlain & Scott Willey were fourth in the fast class at the Welsh Open Schools Championships 14th/15 July, racing mainly against 29ers. Well done guys, you must be climbing quickly up the learning curve : get in touch and tell us more!
Dave Roe and Clare Warren were 13th, in what sounds like less than Cherub conditions. Andy Kinchin and Simon Roberts sailed, giving their new Slug its first outing, but retired when the mast went over the side.
info from http://www.cesul.org.uk/balasc/longdist2001.htm
The country's oddest handicap race - its a distance on distance handicap with a whole series of coloured buoys on one leg - the faster your handicap, the farther away the buoy you have to sail to.
1st & trophy to Davro - Pasta Frenzy 2660
2nd Tim - Fizzy Shark 2662
Excellent conditions greeted the smaller than usual fleet (only 42 this year) at Hillhead, breeze and sunshine! (and the first outing for the shortie this year).
The two Cherubs blasted off the start line and were never challenged again throughout the rest of the race despite the presence of and RS 800, L4000 and umpteen Buzz's.
We had a great sail (and plenty of air time) but so sorry there weren't more Cherubs to play with!!!
Una
Glorious weather, great venue, where were you all? Tim and Una were the only Cherub, and overall attendance was apparently poor too. They had a most enjoyable weekend, and were second very narrowly (apparently a swim was all that kept them from winning). Hopefully you're all tuning up your boats ready for the Nationals. I believe Davro did Stokes Bay on the Sunday, but have no other info.
Jim C
Well I did it, even if no-one else did, so you can have a report. Goodness knows I don't get to sail the boat very often. Tom Gatehouse, who owns the vintage Cherub featured here recently was helming, his first go in a modern Cherub, and probably first go in anything with an asymettric. There's a nice green to rig on, and we set of on a complex course consisting of much of Chichester harbour, and a lot of runs and reaches, in bright sunshine and a nice F4. Ahead of us were a number of RSs and things which we started catching, in spite of having to reach deeper than ideal in a narrowish inlet. Things were beginning to disappear behind us until we got a gybe wrong and went for a swim, quickly followed by a second and bigger swim when we had to tip it in in a hurry when some big cruiser thing thought he could get across a Cherub's bows. He was wrong, but we swam rather than hit him... At this point this big white boat with huge sails, labelled Great Britain, and a coffin shaped hull went past as we pulled the boat up. What the f***s that? Yes, it was a Gold medal winning Star: never raced against one of them before! In fact those two swims were the only time I think anything really overtook us. So we picked the boat up, and spent a long beat overtaking Lasers and things as you do. Lost a couple of places on another reaching leg because we were having so much fun on a powered up reach it seemed a shame to take the kite down to get to the mark (you can tell we were taking this seriously can't you!) and got the places back again on the next beat. We eventually finished 18 out of 60plus, which was a pleasing performance in the circumstances... A top flight Cherub could have won this or come very near I think, and come away with prizes like electronic compasses, watches and for first place a Sunsail holiday for two... Oh Yes, an Osprey won, a Merlin second, and the Star was third. Apparently there was an IACC boat entered, but they couldn't get it to the start:-)
Jim C
Having lost my detailed Weston Report here's some notes from vague memory. There's a report on Weston's Web site too. There was a good Cherub turnout, 5 or 6 boats I think, which is encouraging. Racing wise Dave Roe/Clire Warren battled it out with Andy/Alex Paterson, with Dave and Claire finishing ahead in all but the last race, which Andy led more or less startto finish (in spite of what it says on Weston's report!". There were a couple of breakages - well quite a few, but a couple among the Cherubs, with Billy's snout being probably the most spectacular (the snout of his boat that is, we aren't talking facial injuries...). There was plenty of breeze, which suited us far better than the RS400s which were the other main contingent of our race. I understand from one of them that the amount of air time the Cherubs were gettting on the runs as they hurtled past was fairly intimidating...
"Jim, it's sleeting in Cambridge"
"Aw, no worries, its fine here. Go for it."
It wasn't sleeting in Grafham. It was a full scale blizzard with
3 or 4 inch drifts against the clubhouse wall. Goodness only knows
why we didn't all just turn round and go home again.
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| Boat rigging at Grafham - from L Clare, Dave, Una, Tim. Note snow covered hills in the background. The dinghy park had reverted to icy mud by this time. Photos - Jim Champ | |
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