Cherub Class at the Weston Grand Slam

Will & Lucy sailing their Cherub 'Norwegian Blue' at the Weston Grand Slam © Cherub Class

Six Cherubs arrived at Weston; Mango, Little Red Number, Norwegian Blue, Little Fluffy Clouds with new owners, Halo and Fizzy Shark. The 3rd numerous Asymmetric class there.

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 RS400 barging in. Halo slipped round the mark in the clear a few seconds later, around the logjam of RS800s. 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, Nor Blue 4th with Halo last Cherub.

Saturday

After a good nights Mexican entertainment the morning race completely eluded the race reports authors memory. So moving on swiftly.

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 spiraling 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 cancelled due to light airs, which left both LRN and Fizzy with a full series.

Alternate Report from Jim Champ:

Cherubs constituted the third largest grouping within the Asymmetric Class at the Weston Grand Slam, and fought out an even battle between themselves, which in truth was just as well because neither the light conditions nor the newly lowered RYA PY number was conducive to overall series success. On Day one Patrick Cunningham and Janet Sayers were top Cherub, first in the Cherubs in both races, albeit by the narrowest of margins, just winning a roll tacking duel to the line against Alex Adams and Jim Champ in the first race.

On day two Cunningham kept the lead, but Tim Dean and Una Mary Colclough established a safe second place. The afternoon race was particularly close, with the top 5 Cherubs finishing within a minute or so. The winners on the water were Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin, who overtook Will and Lucy Lee (who had led from the start) in the dying seconds. Sims was however demoted to 5th by the rather excessive 80 point handicap he was carrying for his experimental twin trapeze setup.

There was even less wind for the last day, and only Adams and Lee bothered to finish the only race, which was mainly a rather boring drift in conditions often too light to set a spinnaker. It was enlivened in the last few minutes when firstly a sudden puff of wind brought both boats roaring into the mark fully powered up with trapezes and kites, then suddenly shifted 120 degrees throwing both into chaos and Adams in the water, and then dropped and shifted to turn the last fetch to the finish into a short but exceeding dramatic roll tacking match, in which the lead changed three times and Adams eventually just slid in to be third Cherub overall.

Thanks to all at Weston for normal efficient organisation and most especially bacon rolls and hot chocolate with whipped cream for breakfast!

Cherub Class Placings:

8th Little Red Number, Patrick Cunningham and Janet Sayers/Adrian Murphy (Sunday)
11th Fizzy Shark, Tim Deam and Una-Mary Colclough, 11th
16th Halo Jones, Alex Adams and Jim Champ, 16th
17th Norwegian Blue, Will Lee and Lucy Lee, 17th
26th Mango Jam, Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin, 26th