Two cherubs made it to this festive fun race; Norwegian Blue and Whaam. Whaam was on the water for the second time since her really wild refit. It was sleeting when we arrived. It then cleared up, the sun came out and we went sailing in the stiff northerly. It was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monk!
There was only a slight problem: The water in the Exe was making a bid for the freedom of the ocean. By the time the race started we felt like we were sailing in a lagoon between sand dunes, which we were. It was a persuit race, with 2637 being the last starter, and 2539 and the local population of RS200s, Comet Trios and Laser Strati getting sizeable head starts.
Things were not exactly cherub suitable: The ferocious tide was with the wind, and the course was narrow so short tacks were required. There was enough breeze to really get going at times so fun was had ... in between groundings. Norwegian Blue hit the bottom hard enough for the crew to visit the forestay, and Whaam did the same, splitting the centreboard from bottom to top. Soon even the channel marks were high and dry on the sand.
The race ended and we all went to a slap up meal at the Blights' where much cherub-chat was enjoyed over turkey curry. Thanks for having us!
Wow! What a weekend! Photos
Nine Cherubs made the trip to Carsington Reservoir near Derby this weekend to join the local boat Catananche to welcome Catananche's new owner to the class, to swap tips, to swap boats, to take potential new Cherub sailors sailing and to enjoy some good old fashioned blasting.
The Teams:
Andy and Martin from Carsington in Catananche
Gav and Simon from Neyland in Mango Jam
Lucy and Will from Datchet in Norwegian Blue
Tom and Matt from Grimsby in Kokopelli
Ben and Daryl from Stone in Loco Perro
Neil and Ken from Tynemouth in Mega Mega Light Thing
Rich from Bartley Green in 2664
Davro from Draycote (today) in Nautilus pompillius
Iain and Emma from Draycote in Suicide Blonde
Andy and Rick from Plymouth in Norfolk.
We were joined by:
Mike and Viola from Kielder
Shanky from Plymouth
Simon from Neyland
Mike and Emma from Nottingham
Stu and Jo from Grafham
Patrick from Gurnard
Smilie from Ely
Mikel from Sweden
All the boats rocked up to a beautiful bright winter's morning at Carsington. The sky was wall-to-wall blue and the sunshine had a degree or two of warmth associated with it. The breeze was gentle while rigging and greeting was going on, but soon picked up to a lively F3-4 in time for the blasting to begin. The weather on Sunday was more of the same. Who could ask for more?
Richard from Bartley hit the water first: Alone initially and then took Cherub rookie Stu out for a blast. Then everyone followed, no-one in their usual teams except for the Mango's who haven't been sailing for a while. Watching from the shore it was plain there was enough breeze to make the blasting just that!
Davro made a welcome reappearance in the class as guest skipper aboard Nautillus pompillius, which was wearing it's massive 12 foot skiff rig for the day. He took pretty much everyone for a trip around the reservoir at Mach 10, and much fun was had by all - except for the crews who realised too late that the kite has to be bagged by hand! The yellow and black striped very long fixed pole drew some anxious glances from other water users. Sailing this boat with a huge 17.5sqm of upwind sail area was useful in informing the 'more sail' debate. I think it is unanimous that this much would be too much! An offical proposal for more white sail has recently been recieved by the committee and will go to ballot in December.
The team from Plymouth thought that they would be the furthest travelled, but they were were trounced by the stirling effort of Mikel who cam all the way from Sweden for a test-sail! He did some serious hurtling in Catananche - His first time on a trapeze.
Suicide Blonde hit the water with emergency stand in crew Emma and a brand new rudder. Iain has been active on the mailing list recently asking about how to build foils, made himself a jig for routing with confidence and then built himself a great looking rudder which seems very much up to the job. He tells me the jig is available to any member who wishes to borrow it. Suicide Blonde was put through her paces and Iain reports that one of the best parts of the weekend was getting in some serious three sail reaches, and seeing Emma's face when cruising at speed.
Viola and Mike Scott came from Keilder to see if they fancied adding a cherub to their osprey and contender. After some serious blasting in Norwegian, Suicide, Mega and Mango they were grinning from ear to ear, and had plenty of food for thought. We will be visiting Keilder for their open meeting in May 2005, and who knows we may have a local entry.
Tom Kiddle is busy designing the Kiddle 1, and was provided with plenty of food for thought after sailing Mango and Loco.
Andy Easton benefited from the collection of experts who all agreed on one thing: Catananche would go even better with a touch more rig tension.
Norwegian was rigged with a Laser 4000 kite, kindly lent by Simon Turnbull who has been using it on Strangely Brown this season. It definitely wasn't slow and it was easily fitted, but it did tend to 'lead from the front' going down wind!
In the evening there was much chin wagging, and some serious head scratching with the aid of some interesting 'Sail Area vs Wind Speed' graphs courtesy of Kevin & Dave. Afterwards a party of 13 hungry sailors descended on the curry facilites in nearby Ashbourne. They coped rather better than the infamous Tiger Trophy curry establishment.
By this stage in the evening any residual enthusiasm for camping had vanished (possibly something to do with the ice forming on the cars?) and the local B&Bs had an unseasonal number of guests!
All in all a very successful weekend was had by all. It was lovely to see so many boats, some that have not been seen for years and others that rarely manage the trip to south coast events. Many thanks to Andy Easton for his organisational efforts and to the folk at Carsington Sailing Club who serve the most delicious cake...
Six Cherub teams for the Final Fling, Will and Lucy with Norwegian Blue, Alex and Jim with Halo, Andy and? with Norfolk, Tim and Una with Fizzy, Gavin and Simon with Mango and Ben and Daryl with Loco, not to mention quite a number of spectators and potential future Cherub Sailors.
We all arrived. It was windy. In fact there were little bits of metal round the dinghy park - the remains of the chains that the dogs had been blown off some time before. Some desultory rigging went on, but basically all were waiting until Dave Curno (the Race Officer) got back from his trip out to inspect the sound. A wry grin told it all, followed by the information that he'd recorded 36-knot gusts on more than one occasion.
So pretty much all repaired up to Lucy's parents house on the edge of Dartmoor. Regular readers may remember an enthusiastic review of the delightful dwelling last year, but this year it turned out that it also possesses a loft highly suitable for sail measuring, so we passed the afternoon by catching up on those sails that haven't got the measurers initials on yet.
Later on there was a walk round the country side, a vast chip supper and an adjournment to the Leaping Salmon. And so to bed, to sleep, perchance to dream. Or in Tim's case to be woken up at 3am by a mobile phone call from a customer somewhere off Ushant with a problem, which resulted in Tim spending much of the next three hours sitting in his car in order to keep the mobile phone battery alive. Fortunately Tim's car is somewhat superior to (say) Jims or Gavs!!
So the next morning we set off, and it still looked exceeding windy. It was funneling across the dinghy park in some style, and little more rigging was going on than the day before. However this time Dave Curno arrived back with a grin and a thumbs up, and the pace of rigging increased. Well, it increased for those of us who believed him. Many didn't. Tim's disturbed night probably didn't help them, launching from Mountbatten looked impossible for Norfolk, and Ben and Daryl were unwilling to risk the still-being-sorted-out Loco.
So Mango and the two Bistros headed out, with a certain amount of trepidation on at least one. However once we were ought there it was really quite manageable, probably mid Force 5. In Race one Mango led away, with Halo second as Nblue went swimming on the beat. Halo went down the mine with an almost Cunningham quality pitchpole downwind, so Mango won easily with Halo managing to hold off Nblue with roughly equal numbers of swims each.
In Race two Mango pulled off a really classic port ender, just clearing the two Bistros coming in from the starboard end. This got them quickly to what was the right (in both senses) side of the track all day, and they were never really in danger of being caught. Halo spent one downwind leg wondering where on earth the horsepower had gone, until they realised there was not, as it appeared, a tiny strand of weed on the rudder: instead it was the tail end of a truly enormous agglomeration on the daggerboard. Norwegian managed to fall in on top of a heap of the stuff, probably because you can't steer with it round your rudder, and ended up with it all festooned round the rigging like dirty green Christmas tinsel. Photos please someone!
In Race three Halo tried the port approach, but had to duck Mango, but were still first to the right side and didn't care much! An exciting final race ensued, with the two of them swapping gybes at totally ridiculous closing speeds on the run. Mango took the race though, for a clean sweep with three bullets.
1st Mango, 2nd Halo, 3rd Norwegian Blue
Jim Champ
Two cherubs made all that way north/south to Kielder this weekend: Norwegian Blue, and Aqua Marina. When we got there on Saturday morning Aqua Marina's new crew line up of Phil Alderson and Carol Low had spent a rather windy night in a tent and had decided that the club's anemometer was definitely under-reading. This didn't seem to put off those tough northerners/southerners who climbed into their Ospreys, Flying Fifteens, Wayfarers, Drysuits, etc and launched into a stiff and stiffening breeze.
We thought we had better go too: It was as windy as it looked out there. We picked our way through the upside down Ospreys, Moths, Flying Fifteens (really!) etc to the start line and got up the first beat in one piece, getting a degree of air off the wash from an Osprey, also beating. It was windy. It was gusty. It was very shifty!
The windward mark was very cunningly placed by the race team in a windless patch beneath a woody headland. We rounded in silent open-mouthed amazement and wasted no time in getting the kite up. I promise there definitely was a time when we were able the wether the gybe mark - but then we sailed into the incredible lane of wind that turned on in the space of a boatlength like a runaway and invisible wind-tunnel on steroids. As the gybe mark zoomed off to windward (How does it do that?) it became apparent that there was no lull coming to get us out of this one, so in the spindrifty maelstrom we somehow got the kit down and two-sailed to the gybe mark. We got round there ok, and hoisted again. We shot past some stationary seeming spinnaker-carrying objects which may have been blurry Ospreys and were graced by a lull about 100m from the leeward mark. We took the opportunity to drop the kite and wobbled incredibly slowly to the mark.
Up the beat we were were a full on twin-tastic machine, with a couple of tack-related capsizes (our next boat is definitely having a self tacker). While disengaging the spinny sheets from one of the tiller extensions (new problem!) we noticed a hatch cover bobbing about in the bottom of the boat, heading towards a watery grave. I managed to grab it and stick it back in its hole, but we suspect that a certain amount of water got in.
The windward mark was more correctly named the windless mark again and off we went, three sailing again. This leg has to be a personal best for us for all out speed. We held it together for about half the leg until an unauthorized and contraversial waterskiing experiment undertaken by the crew ended in a really big windward capsize. We had to put in a tight two-sailer to avoid the gate, and the poor old crew breathed in a fair amount of brown Kielder water before managing to gasp "I'm drowning" and seeming to mean it. One tactical capsize and a long coughing fit later we were resorted to lark mode to get to the bottom. We had noticed the S flag was up on the Committee boat on our way down, so we only had to beat through the line to finish.
The beat was fine - except for two things:
1) The opposition seemed to be catching us up - Upside down was not very fast!
2) The lashing at the top of the jib took to opportunity the break so the jib slid down the forestay, flogging very noisily and making steering and pointing difficult for the last few hundred metres.
Anyway, we finished!
Once ashore we discovered that Aqua Marina had broken their tiller on the way out to the start, and saw the scene of devastation from the beach and decided to wait and see!
The second race was called off by the race committee, so that was it for Saturday.
We spent an excellent evening with Phil and Carol, Andy Easton and his girlfriend, and the Newcastle chapter of Team Scotland (Neil Carndo) who had showed up to offer support. We also met Simon Robinson, a very great and prolific Cherub builder. He has given us loads of lovely old photos and told us many happy cherubbing stories.
The night passed very windily. Over breakfast Kielder water looked even whiter and more agitated than the previous day. Racing was called off, leaving us with 2nd place and a pair of fine KWSC T-shirts.
Thanks to KWSC - great organisation and very friendly and interested sailors. A great weekend was had by all. As a class we have been officially invited back next year. See you there!
Will Lee
Just one Cherub turned up for events this year, Simon and Gavin in Mango Jam. They joined around 40 other dinghies ranging from canoes to graduates on saturday afternoon for 2 races around a port hand triangle course in the bay. The wind looked light from the shore so we rigged just the one trapeze wire, however once on the water we were pleasantly surprised that it was windier than it looked and flat wiring most the way round, planing uphill and down. First race chose the wrong side of the first beat and was always chasing the very fast asymmetric canoes, eventually finishing 3rd to Robin Wood and Steve Bowen in Canoes. Race 2 and the wind was a little lighter but the first reach was very tight, too tight for the canoes but just manageable for us. The wind was lighter still by the end but still enough to be going quick, luck was on our side as the race was shortened just before we crossed the line.
Sunday dawned a bit breezier, with the forecast for it to build up throughtout the day. So breezy that it was in doubt if the Round the Island Race would go around Caldey island. If it was too rough round the back end a buoy would be dropped at the mouth of the straits between the island and the mainland and the fleet would head for home after that.
We had forgotten to bring a second trapeze harness so had to single string this one too. The start went and it was a tight 2-sailer to the end of the bay, the canoes shot ahead. Once round the headland it was hard on the wind to the island, for some reason the fleet seemed to keep on their 2-sailing angle and razzed it out to sea, we had good speed and height and kept near to the shore all the way to the island. The leading canoes where almost at the straight with no buoy in sight so assumed we would be going around, however we spotted a club safety boat anchored with a flag on it so bore off to check if it was that we where supposed to go around. After milling around for a minute or 2 trying to find out what way to round this boat we figured it out, along with a fireball, a 505 and a few ospreys. The kite went up, the main and jib went out all the way, and we planted ourselves at the back of the boat for the best reach of the year, several miles ragging on the edge, but it was just too tight for us, as we fell over just when it came time to drop. A fireball was the only boat who could hold it.
All in all at last an event with enough wind to be overpowered, hopefully more will be like that.
Gavin
Saturday was very much a blasting and giving rides today, with few boats seen with the full normal complement of sailors for very long! A feature of the day was a lot of singlehanding, with several people having there first go at 3 sails from the trapeze without assistance. In lightish winds this was great fun! Another feature was Daryl exiting Loco Perro to film video from in the water...
A barbecue started an extended evening social, of which more in the next newsletter, including some photographs of the guilty...
Sunday was on the whole lighter/very light winds, and while we did do a race it wasn't taken all that seriously (he said desperately having carefully picked out every adverse shift and hole in the entire racetrack! More boat swapping and so on ensued, with a particular bonus being several goes in Simon and Andy's 12ft skiff rigged Slug. In those conditions those serious sized rags were an appreciable grin!
New Quay held their annual regatta from the 8th to 10th of August this year with 3 Cherubs in attendance, namely Mark and Scott in Dangerous Strawberry, Rob and Simon in Strangely Brown, Mango Jam with Simon driving and Gav crewing, along with many Lasers, two Canoes, some big cats, Fireballs and many others
All 3 where a minute or two late for the 9:45 start on the first day, but the gusty offshore F3-4 was almost ideal with Mango taking the lead by the windward mark. The course was a triangle with the first reach very tight and the second rather broad. Mango extended their lead over the fleet with each lap, finishing several minutes ahead of the next boat, an Asymmetric Canoe with Strangely close behind and Strawberry behind that suffering with rope horse problems.
Race 2 and the wind was up some more and looking very good from the beach, on the water it became clear it was windier than it looked. This times all the cherubs where on the line and rounded the first mark just behind the two canoes. The course was a trapezoid with the first reach barely kiteable as the gusts bowled down from the cliff tops. Mango was just holding off Strawberry on the second reach when Strawberry got blown flat by a mean gust. Strangely managed to get in it and show how it should be done twinning at ridiculous speed giving their new home built mast a good test. At the leeward mark Mango rounded ahead of Strangely with Strawberry now upright but engulfed by Lasers. The wind gradually increased throughout the race giving spectacular downhill rides in the gusty but flat conditions. At the end it was Mango, then Strangely followed by Strawberry.
The last race of the day and the keelboats were just finishing with one or two reefs in. It was windier and with 25knots in the gusts the day was just getting better. Mango led off the line with Strawberry inches behind at the windward mark, the lightweights in Strangely close behind that. It was another triangular course with the first reach too tight for spinnakers, even Strawberry didn't try. Mango hoisted first and hooked into a big gust all the way to the leeward mark pulling out on Strawberry. Strangely fell in and discovered a spreader had parted from the mast in a wipe out so nursed the rig back to shore. Strawberry gained on the beat as it was finally windy enough for them to be overpowered too, but with all that righting moment something had to give and the car on the self tacker broke leaving them unable to sheet the jib, so into the beach they headed too. This left Mango to take line honours ahead of Colin Newman in his Canoe.
Day 2 dawned sunny, but with a distinct lack of wind. Mango was the only Cherub to go out for race one as the other two were fixing after the first day. Well they didn't miss much as the wind shifter all round the compass and was zero for much of the race. The other races that day were much of the same, with Strawberry joining in the afternoon to try and beat the Lasers across the line.
Day 3 dawned with the sun burning brighter than the previous day but with somehow even less wind. At least the direction was from the open sea so it was constant: constantly zero. Mango and Strawberry made it for the first start with Strangely opting to tune the fixed mast on the beach. Mango and Strawberry traded places on the run to the first mark with Mango just beating them to the buoy. The ensuing beat saw the 2 Cherubs creep forward and into the pack of Lasers with Mango still just holding off Strawberry at the windward mark. Thankfully the race was shortened after one lap with Strawberry making a late slow speed charge for the line, but too late as Mango just pipped them.
Race 2 of the final day and the wind was up a little, to about 3-4 knots at the start. All 3 cherubs were on the line with Strangely taking the lead from the windward end with Mango second and Strawberry 3rd. On the reach to the second mark on the figure-of-8 course Strangely and Mango sailed to near the front of the fleet, with only the Asymmetric Canoe and a Scorpion ahead. Strawberry however was engulfed by Lasers and slipped back a little. At the leeward mark Mango ran into the back of Strangely on the drop so did a few turns. When the spinning had stopped Mango noticed some breeze out to sea so headed that way, overtaking Strangely and moving up to second on the water. Strawberry followed and progressed through the fleet at a rapid snails pace. The wind then went to zero, completely flat calm, not a sausage. Mango drifted well to the next mark, holding it's place on the water, gaining a little on the Canoe, whereas Strawberry had found the go button and progressed through the fleet at a fraction of a knot.
The final race was more of the same, Strangely and Strawberry opted for the beach with Mango drifting along with the much smaller fleet for the final race. There was still no wind so another race for the crew to lie on the foredeck for all of it.
So overall light winds but day one more than made up for it, lots of ice-cream, lots of chips, lots of sun, bucket loads of sand and the dolphins were out in force too.
1st Mango Jam
2nd Dangerous Strawberry
See you all at New Quay next year for the nationals
Gavin - 2682
According to the Yachts and Yachting Report, Andy and Pat Paterson were runners up in the Fast Handicap Class at Cowes Dinghy Week. Andy tells me the series tended towards lengthy beats against the tide followed by short runs back which really made him think good thoughts about Portland!
Only Simon and Andy with Nautilus Pompilius present at Bala (as far as I know). Starting in 1 F4, building on to F7, they were leading after the first lap. Leading on the water that is, ahead of FDs and things! Obviously way in the lead after three hours sailing they were 300 yards of starting another lap, totally knackered, and when they capsized decided enough was enough and packed it in. Later to find out that there hadn't been another lap, and they were 300 yards short of the finish. Oh well... Well done guys.
Four Cherubs were ready and raring to go at the annual Stokes Bay Round the Forts Race which was held on Sunday 20th June 2004.There was sun. There was wind. There were cherubs. There was a one hour postponement due to the wind changing direction!
We all finally got underway with this course: A beat to Motherbank (vaguely near Fishbourne), a close reach to No Man's Land Fort, a gybe and reach to Sand Spit Fort, a beat to Gilkicker point off Portsmouth and a fetch to the finish by the club.
The Cherubs all set off beating into the 6-8 knot SWly wind. Little Red Number and Mango Jam silently crept ahead, LRN pointing noticeably higher than us. Half way up the beat there was about 200m between us in Norwegian Blue and the other two boats. The first Catamaran was storming up from behind. We tacked and crossed behind him to clear our air.
Then the wind got up. Probably to about 15 knots initially. Now the boot was on the other foot. The Dart 18 that had looked so fast suddenly was going slower. We crossed in front of them before the windward mark, twinning and feeling good.
At the top there was LRN upside down having had what looked like a nasty pitchpole. Patrick said something. The tone was good humoured but I have no idea what the words were! Mango was about 100m ahead, kite up and flying!
We rounded between LRN and the buoy, and bore away to a gentle and controlled hoist. So gentle (not to say genteel) was it, that that cat blasted over the top of us. There was a ferry ahead and to leeward, going for Fishbourne and pointing pretty much straight into the wind. The cat shot across the bows, which looked very nasty and approaching fast. We soaked off behind it. The wash at the back of the ferry was that big that we had serious 'how big was that?!' air, resulting in a quick spar and people check aboard Norwegian Blue. It went like this: 'That noise was so big, something must have broken!'. Anyway the mast was still up, the board was still down, the rudder was still attached to the back, and we were both hooked on. We went on. More air, more controlled, over the ferry wash that was going the same way as us. Tactical single wiring because the wind-over-tide Solent was that much of a mess, ensued.
Next blob on the horizon soon became a yacht going parallel with us. We couldn't gybe and stand a hope of getting to the fort with the kite up, and we had no hope of getting to windward. By the time I realised we should really do something we had warp-driven right into their windshadow and stopped. It felt like we needed seat-belts so great was the deceleration. We were preparing to gybe when the rib came out of nowhere and sat between us and the yacht. The lads aboard the rib asked the yacht to luff a little. They kindly did and we were back on course and back at near-light speed in an instant - Hazaaa!
Now the breeze really was up, and a 505 had appeared during our pit stop behind the yacht. He was soon history. The lads in the rib later said 'I thought you couldn't possibly go any faster, then a gust came and you were off. Again!'
We saw Mango at this point. Miles to leeward and level with us (the result of a swim). We didn't see them again after this. We had to drop to get up the fort anyway.
At the fort I saw what I thought was the next fort, and the thing to do seemed to be to keep going and then gybe. After a minute or two of this Lucy pointed me at the correct fort, which was now miles up the windward! We gybed and wiped out (at this point the 505 was doing the same, but right by the fort - sailing the rhumb line - sensible fellows!), and two sailed it to the fort.
The the rain started. Then the wind really came down like a hammer. The Solent looked a really unpleasant place to be. I confess at this point just getting home was on our minds so we eased off quite a lot. At the bottom fort we rounded (leaving a good gap to get wind and not get swept onto the fort by the tide), and started a very memorable beat. Twinning flat out, dodging yachts under power, hovercraft, ferries, and Hampshire, all the way home. The sea was all over the place, we were knackered, and the rib showed up again shouting support from time to time.
We got in and were stoked indeed. There were 5 finishers from 25 starters - the rescue boats had been busy! Mango had broken their mast (They had ground off the carbon track and stuck on a plastic one, and the spectra D2s had been a bit too stretchy to support the now bendier mast), Little Red Number got back in with minor damage, and the Blue Slug watched it all from the bar.
See you all at the Nationals.
Will
Thursday: Will gets a call from a flu ridden and jet-lagged Aussie Cherub sailor named Trevor Fay, "Hi Mate, Can I kip over at your place tonight?". Trevor is a very accomplished builder of things in composite, including no less than eight cherubs. He now makes beautiful carbon tillers for lasers. He has one with him which has a real 'porn star' finish.
Friday: Lucy goes to work. Will and Trevor go to Stokes to sail Kevin and Jo's Slug with the experimental 15 sqm white sail and more than 20 sqm spinny. We have fun in the 8-12 knot winds. We are twinning upwind and down, and pleased with the gust response of the rig. We return at 2 am.
Saturday: Lucy, Will and Trevor set off to Wales at 9am. All goes well until we start seeing many limo's with football scarves hanging out of them on the M4. The traffic gets slower and slower and finally stops. We are in bank holiday/half term/london playoff in Cardiff carmageddon. Radio Oxford says, "The M40 is b******d, the M4 is f****d, the M3 is s*****d, and the A303 is closed." We resign ourselves for a long wait. We arrive in Neyland at 7pm after a stop over in Cirencester to admire a friend's new baby and having abandoned the aussie in Neath.
Sunday:
The one with the vicious lulls.
Muppet of the day = Everyone.
Wind Rating = Alternately The Right Stuff and total vacuum!
The morning was beautiful, the sun was out, the cherubs were there.
The course was right under the cliffs. As we launched it went
like this: 'Where has this loose shackle that is rolling about
in the bottom of the boat come from?', to which I replied, 'It
can't be that important because the mast is still up.'. Before
too long it becomes apparent that the shackle pin has come off
the block inside the pole. We do a quick pit stop and leave the
beach as the start gun goes. We hoist at the start line (the first
leg being a beamish reach), and are soon flying after the whole
fleet who are nearly a leg ahead. We are twinning and it is looking
like they are within reach when the most vicious lull tips us
in to windward. This sets the scene for the whole race for us.
We are basically last to finish, and by the end we are lapped
by Mango. We later find out that Mango did not finish due to the
World's most bizarre shortened course rules, where you have to
change the direction you round a mark depending on whether the
shortened course has been fired yet, which understandably confused
them. We find Little Red Number's crew in the bar, saying that
they were beaten round the course by a laser radial!
Monday:
The one when probably it really was too windy.
Muppet of the day = Norwegian Blue.
Wind Rating: The White Stuff.
It was quite windy onto the beach so they called off the racing.
Undeterred Mango Jam went sailing and blasted about with their
Turbo Tango 22.5 sqm spinnaker. They described 12 foot skiff style
soft landings after getting serious airtime, "Our parachute
was already set, dude!" They said afterwards. Lucy and Will
rigged and stuck the boat in the water but after two attempts
were quite unable to get through the surf! LRN wisely retired
to a cafe.
Tuesday:
The one where it really wasn't that windy.
Muppet of the day = Race Officer.
Wind Rating: The Right Stuff
It was sunny. It was moderately breezy. The sea was flat. The
racing was abandoned! Mango and Norwegian went blasting, twinning
upwind and down. Oh Yeah!
Wednesday:
The one with a comedy routine.
Muppet of the Day = Little Red Number.
Wind Rating = The Light Stuff.
Everyone becalmed on the startline. LRN and NB had a tussle at
the leeward mark resulting in LRN swimtime. They caught us up
over the next beat and enjoyed a team-racing style take-out -
pushing us far beyond the layline. That's NB dealt with. Unfortunately
that was enough to Mango Jam to sail past from a terrible start
to an unassailable lead!
Thursday Race One:
The one where LRN went lower and almost the same speed.
Muppet of the Race = MJ
Wind Rating = Light/Right Stuff
Patrick got clean away and we hardly saw him thereafter. NB and
MJ had an excellent blast down one of the gustier reaches, but
a small disagreement aboard MJ about exactly who stands right
at the back downwind resulted in a spectacular wipe out!
Thursday Race Two:
The one with the toestrap, tiller extension and swimming lessons.
Muppet of the Race = LRN
Wind Rating = Light/Right Stuff
LRN came a bit of a cropper when executing team racing style activities
at the start: The leeward tiller extension became caught under
the gunwhale extension and locked up solid. It was messy, it was
wet, but it was all ok. Up the beat a toe strap parted company
from the boat so they went in. The rest of the race was sewn up
by Mango.
Thursday Race Three:
The Welsh Heart.
Muppet of the Race = That bloody Topper!
Wind Rating = Light/Right Stuff
Two of the three Coppet cherubs packed themselves up and drove
to Neyland for the evening race to join the local fleet there.
On the start line there were four cherubs: a butt plug, two bistros
and a dog.There is also another one (Excaliber) undergoing extensive
renovation, that should be ready for the Nationals. The start
line was spoilt by a rather absent minded Topper, who managed
to crash straight into the side of Strangely Brown. The race was
a long beat up against the tide and a conveyor assisted run back
down, repeatec three or four times. Dangerous Strawberry elected
to cross the foul tide in the channel early, but Strangely Brown,
Mango & NB went for a late cross. At the top it was Mango,
Norwiegan, Dangerous then Strangely (who was already starting
to feel the extra water on board). Positions didn't change much
after that, but some great blasting & boat swapping went on
after the race till the fog ended play.
Friday:
Muppet of the day: NB
Wind: Light Stuff (with a comedy 45 degree shift just after the
start, resulting in two tight reaches and one broad one)
After a lucky start in ghosting conditions for NB things just
went steadily downhill. LRN cruised straight past on the first
beat, and were next seen on the beach some hours later. NB were
battling with a stroppy spinnaker at the 'leeward' mark when Mango
appeared, and then disappeared up the next leg. All in all, a
race of very little merit bar one tight reach with enough breeze
to get both parroteers on the wire.
But that's only half the story...
Many thanks to Simon for putting us all up, letting us sand a
centreboard int he bathroom, feeding us (including two BBQs, neither
of which resulted in food poisoning) and taking us go-karting!
Thanks to Pickle for occasional use of the bed and Gav for the
carbon & epoxy for the running repairs.
Thanks also to Neyland Yacht Club who had a slighty less well stocked bar by the end of the week, and who have offered us a couple of dates over the summer for open meetings. Any takers? We'll be there.
Six Cherubs showed up: Mango Jam (2682), Little Red Number (2678), Halo Jones (2641), Norweigan Blue (2637), Team Ecocats (2539) and Kokopelli (2622).
The sun was shining, but the wind looked decidedly feeble as we were rigging. After some consultation with the Moths it was decided to try a start at 12pm, but within seconds of the first boat getting on the water the race was postponed! Never to be put off by such trifles Norweigan Blue stuck a kite up and the wind promptly filled in, at least enough to start the race.
Race 1: The one where LRN broke a boom
After a close start the fleet spread out up the beat. LRN was leading to the top mark, but snapped his ultra-light boom in the process (maybe 900g is a bit on the light side!). Norweigan took the lead in LRNs absence, followed by Mango & Halo. The positions stayed about the same, with everyone hunting for elusive gusts until Mango caught one on the final run to plane away into the lead.
1st Mango Jam, 2nd N Blue, 3rd Halo Jones
Race 2: The one where Mango had their own private wind
After a pit-stop that would have done McLaren proud LRN was back for the second start with boom fit for a Mumm 30 ;-) They went on to claim pole position on the line and, apart from a brief spell when Halo got ahead at the windward mark then parked up, never looked back. According to shore based pundits they just never slowed down as much as the rest of us when the wind stopped. From on the water they also had more speed upwind and lower angles downwind. As for the rest of us, N Blue & Halo kept Mango in check until the final run, when the boys from Wales ordered wind-to-go on the right hand side and got into the apparent. With the two Bistros sitting on a millpond Mango sailed right round in their own private wind window.
1st LRN, 2nd Mango Jam, 3rd Halo Jones, 4th N Blue
Race 3: The one where it paid to go left up the beat (at least it did from our very biased point of view) After a nice close start Mango played the shifts right to get to the top of the first beat ahead of LRN. Halo showed better judgment and pointing ability than N Blue who rounded last. At some point Mango mangled a gybe and took a dip, letting LRN slip through. Up the second beat N Blue went for extreme leftness and pulled into 2nd from Halo & Mango. Mango pulled back on the run, and nothing much changed after that. 1st LRN, 2nd N Blue, 3rd Mango Jam, 4th Halo Jones
On the way in from the last race the wind piped up so Ecocats & N Blue headed out for some blasting. Simon took Matthew Kiddle (sharp end of Kokopelli) for a ride in Mango with the Turbo Tango Kite, and Gav & Tom took Kokopelli out for her first sail since being restored. The Kiddle's (Tony, Tom & Matthew) have managed the most spectacular re-build, all done in six weeks including false floor, decks and a bowsprit that worked first time, having been finished at 5am on Saturday morning.
After a top BBQ with the Moths it was time for some fun of a different kind. After not much real thought about the logistics, a total of nine Cherubim drove in convoy across London to Will & Lucy's one bed flat where rather a lot pizza and a awful lot of booze where consumed by some of the party. Having worked out that there was going to be enough floor space for everyone, a hard core of three revelers set out on a tour of Wapping, armed with a couple of bottles. Ian (Team Ecocats) will take up the story in the newsletter only!
The next day was warm and sunny, with no wind whatever. Then at 1.30 it filled in from the east and the entire fleet threw themselves onto the water with great enthusiasm. As the six boats arrived at the start, the wind dropped to nothing. Where it stayed. Until exactly 30s after the racing was officially abandoned. When it picked up to a gentle F2, and just kept building as we packed away. Luckily Ian and Cath got a quick ride in Halo Jones, in conditions that were just enough to get twin-wiring on very tight reaches for us in N Blue.
All in all, a top weekend with some great action on and off the water. Many thanks to QMSC for great organisation, very Cherub friendly courses and excellent ice-creams.
Final Results:
1st: Little Red Number: Patrick Cunningham & Adrian Murphy
2nd: Mango Jam: Gavin Sims & Simon Goodwin
3rd: Norwiegan Blue: Will Lee & Lucy Lee
4th: Halo Jones: Alex Adams & Jim Champ
5th: Kokopelli: Tom Kiddle & Matthew Kiddle
5th: Team Ecocats: Ian Christie & Cath Christie (soon to be)
Six Cherubs turned up at Weston, Mango, Little Red Number, Norwegian Blue, LFC with new owners the Thomas's, Halo and Fizzy Shark. To be quite honest the main drama of the day was for poor Neil and Rachel Thomas. Their mast quite bizarrely snapped while they were putting the rig tension on. Very strange - never seen that happen before, and rotten luck for what would only have been their second outing. They went home to fill in insurance forms, we hope to see you resticked at Queen Mary.
Handicap wise we discovered that the RYA have reduced the Cherub PY to 980 this year! When NB, LFC and Halo were built it was 1055! To make things even more challenging the club had decided on 900 for boats with two strings, but only Mango was thus equipped.
Starting in light airs for what was really a short fetch to the windward mark there was an almighty pileup at the mark. LRN got stuffed by a 400 who thought it was far too far round the outside so barged in (literally hitting about six boats on the way!) On the other hand Halo slipped round the mark in the clear a few seconds later, Team racer Alex having noted that while we had no rights whatsoever on the logjam of RS800s, the log jam also had no chance of getting close enough to the mark against the tide to enforce said lack of rights!
Once the 400 had peeled off to do his turns Patrick got well clear on the run to be leading Cherub by a huge margin with Halo, Mango and Fizzy doing some place swapping behind. Halo pulled up to second after finding the right way up the ensuing beat - the wind had enough shifts and holes for any inland club to be proud of! Next (and final for us) lap Halo again missed the holes and actually got all the ground back up to overtake Patrick about 400 yards up from the line, but then lost the lead again in a tide bound crawl up the last 100 yards. Fizzy pulled up dramatically at the end of this leg and took third Cherub, with N Blue 4th and Mango 5th.
The second race was somewhat less exciting - although it looked as if the breeze would might steady up it never really did, and on the whole was even lighter than Race 1. Unfortunately a wind shift rendered the course almost completely processional, this being the main disadvantage of a windward leeward in light airs. If it shifts and turns into a fetch/broad reach tactical options are somewhat limited… Patrick again took an early and kept it - enough so that he was scheduled to do a lap more than the rest of us! Mango took second, Fizzy third, NorBlue 4th with Halo last Cherub.
In the evening we all went for a Mexican meal, then scattered to various places to stay. Teams Halo and Mango stayed in Alex' student accomodation, very familiar to Gav and Simon who are Southampton Uni Alumni. In fact the nostalgia fest continued in the morning when Gav revisited certain other student traditions in Alex' front garden, of which the least said the better!
Saturday
The breeze looked rather less than special when we got to the club.
The morning race has completely eluded Jim's memory. I think we may have been 5th Cherub which probably explains it. All that has been dragged from the collective memory is that when Will and Lucy went for a blast after the race in a rare patch of wind the Weston Rib had some difficulty keeping up. I talked to one of the RIB crew later and he was very considerably impressed!
The afternoon race saw Will and Lucy take an early lead, and maintain it as the wind built through the race. Indeed at the end it was very pleasant at times, with Halo at least getting some significant airtime off big ship wakes. We also established that we were quicker than a Spitfire cat flat out reaching in those conditions… On the last lap Gav and Simon found the afterburner button on Mango, and hurtled up to Will and Lucy, and just got through towards the finish with Will and Lucy second, and the rest of the Cherub class following through in a matter of about a minute. Patrick lost some time with a major kite twist - the old thing about twist in the rope getting into the sail as it goes through the block on the mast.
Sunday.
Well it didn't look especially inviting. In fact Tim and Una and Gavin and Simon didn't bother to go out! Halo (after being clipped by an 800 who attempted to remove their rudder stock with his bowsprit) took an early lead on the first lap in "crew sitting in the middle" conditions, then lost to the other two at the mark as some wind came in from the left, and got stuck behind a queue of 800s and things. Patrick hoisted his kite, only to find it spiralling into a maypole twist again, in spite of his efforts and retired. Halo overtook NB at the top of the run as they drifted across with minimal apparent, then took their kite down and went straight to the mark on a dead run - yes it was that light. Norwegian Blue , with much less weight on board, seemed to manage a similar VMG gybing down with the kite. The next leg was a short reach, and Norwegian Blue, still with kite up, had enough apparent to sail above everyone, and get rights on a pile of Solos and Europes luffing themselves above the mark. Halo situated below, sans kite, was perfectly placed to call whether or not NB had established an overlap in time. The Solo didn't agree with us about overlaps, but we had a better view than him! We weren't that worried about NBs overlap, because we were sure they would lose all the ground they'd gained as they had to drop and run down to the mark, and so it proved… Halo therefore kept the lead up the next beat, with a loose cover, and then had a quandary at the windward. With our extra weight and Halo's kite not setting very well in the light stuff we were sure NB could run us down in a gybing match, so we went straight for the mark with no kite again. This was looking like a winning strategy until a sudden big patch of wind came in from way over left, where NB was, and they were roaring in when they suddenly seemed to lose control and spin round a bit. We had our kite up ready for when the gust arrived, powered up the boat, got on the wire and sped away, when suddenly the wind shifted 120 degrees and threw us straight in the water! Obviously this was what had discombobulated NB 30 seconds earlier. So we got back in the boat and got round just behind and a bit to windward of NB, who had had to gybe past other boats onto what was now a 100 yard beat to the finish. There then ensued a short but vicious roll tacking/covering battle, with first Halo getting past NB, then vice versa, and then Halo just getting an advantage on the last shift of the race to cross the line inches ahead.
The last race was thankfully cancelled, which left both LRN and Fizzy with a full series.
Ocerall results? Well it just wasn't Cherub weather on handicap, so overall places were nothing special. The fact that two of the top three were RS400s tells you what you need to know about the weather. The second race on Sunday was quite entertaining, but apart from that it was a bit boring in Cherub terms. On the other hand we had good close racing with plenty of place changing, good company, and there are very many worse ways to spend a weekend! In fact thinking about it all five of us spent some time in the lead in one race or another, which is a pretty good indication of a hard fought series.
Asymmetric Class Cherub placings were:-
Little Red Number, Patrick Cunningham and Janet Sayers/Adrian Murphy(Sunday), 8thCherub Class results will follow, I need to get the elapsed times from Weston so I can dehandicap Mango's results, and sort out Cherub only placings.
Jim C
A great turn out of around 20 current or potential Cherub sailors made the journey down to Stokes Bay sailing club at the weekend for the first training, tuning and gear swap of the season. The 30 knots of wind didn't dampen enthusiasm, but did limit the number of people getting afloat.
Gavin and Simon in the show-stopping orange and blue stripy Mango Jam (2682) put on 'in club-house entertainment' by blasting around the Solent sometimes followed by Daryl and Ben in Daryl's 'Bucky Dute' a blow up 25hp rib. The latter couldn't keep up at times! Rich and Tris in Death by Chocolate looked like launching but eventually thought better of it. Conditions on the beach were not easy but the sun did come out for a short while - or was that when Gav got his new orange kite out of its bag?
The 'Auntie Davro' session of boat tuning tips went ahead as planned, made a little more challenging by the boats' desire to fly away in the bigger gusts.
Top prize for motorway mile crunching and boat surveying commitment goes to Tom Kiddle and Dad Tony who left Grimsby at 4am in search of a cherub to buy and after viewing three in one day settled on Kokopelli (2622), a Foreman 8 from Bough Beech - Congratulations and welcome. Pictures of Tom and his new boat to come.
Little Fluffy Clouds (2642) made a welcome reappearance on the Cherub scene in the hands of new owners Neil Thomas and daughter Rachel who will be sailing at Poole. Despite not getting afloat they managed to have a successful day by acquiring a new carbon boom and pole in the form of a broken carbon mast they found in a skip. Obviously Neil has quickly picked up the Cherub philosophy of extreme recycling! We look forward to seeing them at Weston.
The oldest boat there was Andy Lang's, Team Ecocats (2539), a modified Hot Dog. This boat has had a very professional refit and is looking the mutz. Don't be misled by its early number!
Rob Brown brought along some photos of his restoration of Old Peculiar (2612), and went away with some sails from the gear swap/life laundry! He also met Kevin Ellway, designer of Old Pec who now has a very well sorted out Slug (2673).
In the evening, Stokes put on a fantastic curry and a quiz. The less said about the cherub class performance in the quiz the better, but we would have won on handicap! It was so unfair: There were two questions to which the answer was Helen Mirren (whoever she is)!
Sunday morning dawned still blowing the dogs of chains / proper windi boyo! Gav and Si mounted their Mango and put everyone to shame giving yet another demo of big wind sailing! Tom rigged his new boat and got lots of tuning tips in the lee of the clubhouse.
Thanks to Will and Lucy who did a fantastic job coordinating everyone and still found time to modify Norwegian Blue to Norwegian Red! Thanks also should go to Ben for the report and Daryl for bringing Bucky and to Imperial Leather for supplying the talc!!
Basically it was barking windy. A very respectable turnout, I think five Cherubs is the most that have been seen at Rutland in many a long year. An especial welcome to Rich and John with Sweet Dreams, at their first Cherub event, joining Mango Jam, Halo Jones, Little Red Number and Norwegian Blue. Unfortunately the conditions were such that we didn't do a lot of racing, Sweet Dreams sailed out and decided racing was inadvisable while they're still new to the boat: LRN had a jib seam fail and Norwegian Blue lost a lower shroud. Halo and Mango started, and swapped places some round a pretty dramatic first round (plenty of air down the reaches), until the race was abandoned due to a starting problem. Shortly after the restart Halo's boom split along the gooseneck fitting, putting them out too.
We spent the evening in a Curry House in Oakham, which, fortunately for them, I can't remember the name of, waiting hours to be fed lukewarm food with only a passing resemblance to what was actually ordered. The moral of this story is that restaurants shouldn't be greedy and take orders for loads of takeaways when they already have as many covers on the tables as the kitchen can cope with. Will 'negotiated' a considerably reduced bill!
The next day racing was cancelled, but Mango was predictably the first performance boat out on the water for a blast, but had to come in after hitting some spectacular speeds with broken sailbattens. Oh well. I must say I feel a lot happier for seeing a few more boats turn out!
Not a Cherub day for the Bloody Mary. Halo was the only Cherub present, and with
a 10 knot breeze and not much in the way of gusts we could never really get into the
pack. Beats were especially tedious slapping through the chopped up water and chopped
up air. Being clobbered a couple of times didn't help either. Oh well, it all helps
keep the handicap reasonable:-). QM had decided that an
appropriate start time for a two string Cherub would be level with the I14s, which could
be regarded as a bit harsh... fortunately we just have the one. The Moths weren't over
impressed with starting level with
RS400s either. It was won by an I14, who looked to be doing very well when we saw him...
As for our finishing place - well we avoided DFL, but that was about it. I'm not sure I want to
know the ugly details!
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