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Entry down on what it could have been, with Pasta Frenzy and Squid pro Quo having to drop out in the last couple of days. But we still had a respectable turnout of 6 boats, with star marks going to Murray and Bruce down from Scotland with Geriatric Gigolo. From Wales we had Gavin and Simon with Mango Jam, Gary and Robert with Strangely Brown, and Nick and Nigel with Cheese Before Bedtime. The South East was represented by Robin and Will in Green Slug and Alex and Jim in Halo Jones.
Day 1 saw lots of sunshine, a pleasant but could be stronger breeze, and a big swell. The races seemed to divide into two groups, with the two 97 rules boats fighting out a battle at the front and the rest doing as much place changing a little further back. Gavin and Simon scored 1,2,1 and Robin and Will 2,1,2. Murray and Bruce 6,3,3, Gary and Robert 3,5,4 , Nick and Nigel 4,4,5,and Alex and Jim 5, DNC 6 with spinnaker problems. The third race was called off during lap 1 due to a major windshift.
The next day dawned exceeding wet. It was also looking pretty breezy and building. How breezy was discovered by the RIB Mayflower sent out in the sound which found itself doing 6 knots with the engine off! So, like the Round Alone competitors down the coast at Torbay, racing was called off, leaving Mango Jam winners from Green Slug, and Geriatric Gigolo taking 3rd place from Strangely Brown on tiebreak.
Courtesy of Dave Curno, Commodore of Mayflower SC, here's a picture gallery from the Final Fling.
The Nationals were won by Andy Paterson and Ross Clark in the Paterson 7 Shiny Beast. Second by the narrowest of margins (equal points and a tiebreak) were Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin in Mango Jam.
The Handicap competition was won by Mark Chamberlain and Scott Willey in Dangerous Strawberry, and the team competition went to Dangerous Strawberry and Mango Jam.
NationalsPhotos (and orders page)
Courtesy of Castle Photography, here are photos of just about all competitors plus some thoughts on how their event went.
Phil Alderson & Malcolm, sailing Aqua Marina, took 3rd in a reasonable sized asymettric fleet at the Cumbraes regatta(on the coast vaguely near Glasgow for the Southerners). Your Editor & Alex Adams sailed the newly C-Tech/Fyfe Sails rigged Halo Jones to 2nd place in a rather lower quality fleet at Island Barn, in spite of having to endure quite dreadful conditions on the Sunday with flat calm at times. Roll on Milford Haven![Note - me and my big mouth - too many races at the Nationals were't much better!]
Saturday was Saundersfoot Regatta with 3 short races. There
were 3 Cherubs there: Dave and Clare with Pasta Frenzy, Patrick
and Dom with Little Red Number and Gavin and Simon in Mango Jam.
Pasta missed the first race (surprise surprise). Marginal conditions,
and I think Mango beat Red Number although not sure about exact
positions.
2nd race: Red 1st overall, Mango 2nd, Pasta 4th. Planing conditions
3rd race: Pasta 1st, Mango 3rd, Red 4th. Planing conditions
So overall, including discard, 1st Little Red Number, 2nd Pasta
Frenzy, 3rd Mango Jam and 4th a Moth.
Lots of mutterings from the bar about development class handicaps...
Sunday was the Round Caldy Race, a good Force 3 to start, dropping
to marginal conditions later. Beautiful run down to Caldey Island
with all 3 Cherubs very close together. There was another Welsh
Cherub out (blue) (Nick somebody???) but they weren't up with
us. Positions kept changing as people caught the best/worst of
the tide and wind. LRN was well ahead and lost it behind the island.
Mango Jam and Pasta were battling it out, but once past the island
Mango pulled into a clear lead. Marginal conditions meant that
we lost out to the 700s and 49er and a couple of Redwings were
incredibly quick too. Overall Round the Island results were Mango
3rd (after a 49er and 700), Pasta 8th and LRN 10th. Don't know
where Nick finished. What was great was the closeness of the racing
between us 3. It's going to be an interesting nationals!!
Report from Clare Warren - many thanks.
Well quick note really, I'm being dragged away for a week.
Five boats along, Daryl and Ben with Little Fluffy Clouds, myself with Halo Jones and brand new never been used rig, Dave with Pasta Frenzy, Patrick and Dom with Little Red Number, and Mike with the Squid. Will Lee and Lucy Lee were also along, but boatless. Clare Warren was running things on the water from a club rescue boat (many loud cheers) and we also picked up a few locals at various times. Particular thanks goes to the lad from Exeter Uni, whose name I'm afraid I've forgotten, who after a busy morning teaching sailing sat in at the back of 2641 for me.
Farmoor Reservoir (Oxford SC) is an excellent venue for Cherubs as inland clubs go, there's a nice grassy lawn to rig boats on and a smooth concrete beach to launch off. There was also bright sunshine and enough breeze to be powered uphill and down, and the club were universally friendly and helpful, and kept very cold beers in the freezer! Good lunch too: perfect day!
We spent the morning in a leisurely rigging session, with plenty of wandering round, comparing notes and ideas and so on. I was a bit preoccupied getting Halo's rig up, so aren't that up on what others were doing, but it all seemed positive and useful. After lunch we hit the water, and ran a whole series of 10 minute races - 1 beat, one run. Some highly aggressive starting techniques were in use too - Davro seemed to be particularly frequently on the receiving end! After that the ever "popular" tack/gybe on the whistle sessions were run, which really sharpens you up... A good session!
Jim C
Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin won Bala. Well done Guys. Gavin Reports...
" Flat calm when we arrived, was about a F2-3 at the start,
a SW so blowing straight up the lake. There was a triangle about
half way up the beat which was good from our point of view because
it stopped the FD's from disappearing completely from view on
the first lap when it was marginal wiring. Was with some RS400's
and a Hornet at the end of the first beat and caught up with the
Moth and the tail end of the FD's at the run. More wind for the
second beat, now holding our own, a good F3, the second half of
the run saw it increase to a 4 which seperated the leaders from
the chasers more, managed to get to the tail end of the leading
bunch, a 49er, RS800 and 3 FD's. Final beat was a 3-4, with a
few shifts, same VMG as the FD's which was quite fun. Front four
boats pulled further away on the final run, the 49er, an FD, RS
800 then us. I think a fireball appeared from nowhere not far
behind as well.
After we finished the wind picked up even more for a bit, a 6
for half an hour or so, only a few RS200's.
Andy and Simon where there in their slug, but had forgotten to bring any rope. They managed to get out but missed the race by a lap so where just going to test the repaired mast to see if it stayed up. They now have a gooseneck height kingpost type thingy like my boat, boat with no form of lower shrouds.
Daryl and Ben weren't on the front row at the start, which
as I have learnt from sailing at Bala before means you will always
be in dirty air upwind which lengthens your race considerably.
In the end we won (by 14 minutes sailing off 982) with a Fireball
second, Moth third, Rs400 fourth, then another FD, then a Tasar
I think.
All in all a good race, sailing with FD's upwind speeded us up
I think, always trying to keep up with them."
Some Weston Grand Slam photos available from Aquarius Media here. Several of Pasta Frenzy, a few of Green Slug and one of Mango Jam.
Overall Dave Roe and Rachael White won the Asymmettric Class, with Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin 3rd - an excellent start for the new boat. Andy Paterson & Una Mary Colclough were 6th, mainly due to a change in the series from what was announced in the Notice of Race - they added a second race on the Monday and made it part of the series. They'd missed a race on the Sunday, and couldn't sail on Monday - hence 3 DNCs.
Further down Patrick and Dominic would also have been much higher if they too had not had to miss Monday... Robin and Will were 20th with two firsts and a 3rd but no other finishes - they couldn't make Friday and Saturday
Weather was been pretty mixed. with some light races suiting RS400s and 200s and things, and some decent breeze suiting the Cherubs, if always up and down a bit. The thin boats are looking to have quite an advantage in these conditions - I shan't quote who it was who said about one race "we all had a turn in the lead except Dave!" Andy been the most consistent, but the first few places in the slow asymmettric fleet have been predominantly Cherubs in most races, just not always the same ones!
Interesting to note that Dave and Rachael were never better than second Cherub in any race, but nothing broke and they did every race... Amongst the others Gavin had some teething problems, notably the rudder stock, and more suprisingly the jib track breaking, while of all the peculiar failures Robin's mainsheet disintegrated - the cleat had worn through the outer cover of the rope!.
| Place | Boat | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Points |
| 1 | 2660 | David Roe | Rachael White | Lee-on-Solent | 2 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| 3 | 2682 | Gavin Simms | Simon Goodwin | Neyland YC | 27 | 47 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 37 |
| 6 | 2676 | A Patterson | U M Collough | Gurnard | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 47 | 1 | 47 | 47 | 60 |
| 11 | 2678 | P Cunningham | Dominic Baker | GSC | 27 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 25 | 8 | 47 | 47 | 80 |
| 20 | 2673 | Robin Russell | Will Lee | Hill Head | 47 | 47 | 47 | 47 | 3 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 122 |
After working until 1am Saturday morning we decided to drive to Grafham and sleep when we got there. So after just 2 hours of kip and then 4 hours of butchering an already very sick daggerboard held together with car body filler, some old sail battens and crossed fingers, it still wouldn't go in. We then resorted to a 6 foot long piece of timber using it to hammer it into position, behold, THE DAGGERBOARD INSTALLATION TOOL (patent pending) [this sounds a lot like the system used by Phil Alderson at the 2001 Nats - Jim]. The first 2 races were missed, as I managed to whack the daggerboard into Simon's eye and cut his nose (shouldn't look up daggerboard case when I'm about to hit it in). Meanwhile Smilie finished with a 23rd in the first race, and 32nd in the second race which was a real drifter.
Race 3, F1 to F3, quite shifty. Had to launch the boat on its side due to the daggerboard being permanently stuck down. There were about 20 29ers in our class, with Fuzzy Logic and some RS400s, Buzzes, 405's and ISO what nots. Little Fluffy Clouds turned up but suffered a few problems from not being used to the boat yet. Mango Jam seemed alright, well balanced and light. She displays some Moth characteristics but to a much lesser extent, it's not a boat for sitting still in light- ish winds (but what is?). The main sail is too full at the top, so if less than 5-6 knots of wind I can't pop the upper battens, even with a bit of wind it was very difficult, so we spent some of the time with the main inside out. We were pointing quite high, and didn't stick as much as I had expected in the light stuff, we could wire at about the same wind speed as my last boat. When the wind gets up to about 8 knots it suddenly points about 5 degrees higher and goes about a knot faster, so we were keeping up with the back end of the 29ers at that point. It's very stiff and loud in the 1 inch chop it juddered all over the shop, way cool. It was alright downwind as well but it will be interesting in some real wind and waves (being truthful stained wetsuits will be the order of the day probably). The bow goes down quite easily but doesn't slow down and only goes as far as about the first inch or two of the snout, then pops up as several gallons of water get shot up and into the cockpit. We finished 3rd on handicap with Smilie (Fuzzy Logic) 11th I think.
Sunday morning was lighter, we kept up the Cherub tradition of arriving at the club when everyone else was launching. So a minute or two late for the start, we had some good downwind burns (made the committee boat stare at us and Fuzzy as we did synchronised gybing right in front of them, in full afterburner mode). Finished 7th. Next race the wind was up to wiring all the way round, but with some big holes. Finished second on handicap, Smilie 14th. Last race had even more wind, with main depowered and flat wiring continuously, we were about 29er speed upwind, slower but pointing higher, Mango J definitely felt better the windier it got (is that good or bad?), half way down one of the runs ­ and going the fastest in a boat I've been in for a while ­ the bottom gudgeon on the rudder stock enlarged a bit making steering rather vague so we headed in, but I reckon a first was in the bag. Oh, and it seemed quick on a two sailer on the dog leg from the top mark.
Big thanks to Jonathon for a nice bed for the night and to his parents for cooking a splendid breakfast.
Gavin Sims [chopped from mailing list report]
Here's a photo gallery. More contributions welcome!
The show was pretty good on the whole. As you probably know we ran two boats for the first time in many years, my 70s veteran Queenie SJB alongside Gavin Sim's brand new Mango Jam. The contrast created quite a bit of interest - indeed it was almost worth it just for the interviewette on the front page of the MadforSailing Sailboat Report when their Gerald New happened to meet Frank Bethwaite on our stand reminiscing about the Cherub Championships in the 70s. Rather more than rumour has it that the next Bethwaite boat is likely to hit a slot between the 29er and the 49er... A Bethwaite Design singlehander seems to be a bit less likely in the near future from what I gather though.
Less successful was the Smart Coach Tour thing. This was supposed to be a talk by "experts" from various classes about some relevant topic. In practice few other than Cherub people turned up, and what I had to say on design was hopelessly trivial for you all. Sorry.
The cake cut was fun. A bunch of old champions and others turned up, from a slightly heavier Guy Lewington to 70s stars Tony and Jill Hows. There seemed to be quite a few old hands about all weekend though. My unofficial list of veteran Cherubs increased a bit, with at least two Gregs from the late 60s making themseves know, and most spectacularly of all some photos of an immaculately restored Spencer mk2, UK no 22. Hopefully we should have some photos of this available in the future. Thanks to John Sharp I also have quite a few late 60s/early 70s mags, and now know there were always arguments with the Australians about whether or not the rules should be tighter or looser... Some more Nationals reports and maybe some photos will emerge from that too...
Finally very many thanks to SP Systems for making the large stand and two boats possible:-). Also thanks to all those who spent many hours on the stand, bound to miss some names out, sorry, but AndyP, Davro, Debi, Dom, Gavin, Kerri and Smilie were amongst those there both days...
Very few people there this year, presumably due to lousy forecast. (Even less at the resailed Pompey Perisher). Dave won the first race, but didn't do the second. Nice pics on Madforsailing and Y&Y websites.
Is that a mark I see before me? Who can tell in this bl***y mist? Yes, it was pretty much a drifter for the Bloody Mary, with 2.4m and Thames A Raters taking top spots. (The 2.4 is a sort of baby keel boat with one person sitting in the middle steering and the A Rater is a victorian survivor used on the River Thames with a vast rig over a flattish (but very rockery) hull. In the circumstances Patrick and Dominic put up a very creditable performance to be 63rd out of 295 starters, ahead of most other performance boats... Mailing list particpants will have received a more detailed report - is it really true about two GP sailors having a fist fight at one mark?
The Aus Nationals were won by "In God's Hands (Ashwood/Longwood) scoring 1,1,2,2,1,1. See here for more details. Good work from Craig and Dunc on the updates, you've no idea how much hassle it is to do the news and compete - and they're involved in the organisation too I believe. Respect! They also got themselves featured on Mad for Sailing, which featured their boat burning/marshmallow toasting session...
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