Cherub Open at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Latest Cherub Green Bananas launching ceremony © Simon Jones

A 3 day Cherub extravaganza was held over the late May Bank Holiday kindly hosted by Queen Mary SC. Saturday was for blasting, boat swapping and general bimbling whilst Sunday and Monday were for serious racing.

Saturday saw the first launch of the latest Cherub - Green Bananas by the proud owners Nick and Jo keen to take advantage of an ideal first sail wind of force 2-3. Not quite enough to excite everyone else however all boats went for a sail before retiring to Lower Sunbury for a curry and some alcoholic tall tale telling.

Sunday dawned colder but with more wind. From the North it varied greatly in both direction and strength leading to some ladders for some (yes you Dean and Simon) and snakes for others. 3 races were held with Jonny and Alex Harris in Ronin making the best of the conditions to lead overnight with a 1,2,3 scoreline. Hard on their heels were Dean and Simon in Eleanor who won the 2nd and 3rd races with stunning last beats to lift themselves into the lead at the most important point of the race - the finish. Others had a mixed day with the normally consistent Andy and Jill Peters in Usagi dropping a race due partly to gear failure and partly to a bit of lazer lovin', Jamie and Rosie in Shinny had probably the best of the rest with 3 good finishes. Despite winds of upto 20knts there were few retirements and only one breakage due to teething issues with Green Bananas. Sharing the racing with the club fleets was generally successful - if you count success as scaring the hiking shorts off lazer sailors (which we do).

With only one race on the Sunday, participating in the club's 2 hour pursuit race, Roinin only had to beat Usagi to win as Eleanor couldn't sail Monday. Despite port tacking the start Usagi had to double tack at the windward mark handing Ronin a lead they defended ably until the end, just missing out on winning the pursuit race by a matter of inches. Usagi kept them honest to finish 2nd Cherub and 4th in the pursuit and Jay and Joe sEARd through the fleet into 3rd.

The Cherubs are back at QMSC in early October for their Inlands and given the autumnal weather over the Bank Holiday this was a good warm up for the more serious business later in the year. Will Usagi be able to defend their title or will it be taken away by Ronin, Eleanor or another challenger.

Overall Results: