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Cherub National Championships at Royal Torbay Yacht Club

by Alex Harris 5 Sep 2016 09:34 BST 19-24 August 2016

Nineteen Cherubs travelled to Torquay for their National Championships, which was to be held as part of Torbay Week at Royal Torbay YC, and with breeze forecast it promised to be all very exciting.

An exceptionally strong breeze on day one deferred racing with it being decided by the race officer that it was rather safer to stay ashore. To the pub, then to the club as they were holding a gin evening. YUM!

When day two dawned the wind had dropped but was still pretty brisk after missing our launching slot due to everyone talking about weather to launch or not, Ronin rigged and launched first causing mass 'lets go sailing' from team Cherub who all frantically rigged. The boats that decided to go racing were treated to some full-on conditions where boat handling would really be tested, the Race team did well to capitalise on favourable conditions and get in extra races to get the series on track.

Race results from day one showed a dominant performance from Paul Croote and Ed Higham in Marmite who strung together a perfect score of firsts to show they had plenty of boat speed when the breeze is up. Nick Pratt in Green Bananas proved that you can still build your own boat and perform at the front of the fleet by bringing a string of seconds and defending Champions Andy and Gill Peters finished the day in third. Even in the breeze there was some close racing with lots of place changing happen behind Paul and Ed who speed on everyone. That night's entertainment was a Caribbean themed rum evening... I think.

Day three began with the late arrival of father son team of Clive and Alex Everest in their foiling boat, A&E, with their previous years Nationals being plagued with light winds and a lack of sailing time over the water would the big breeze afoot cause control issues and too much time swimming? In short no. The dominating theme of the first days racing continued, this time it was the flying boat (literally) that streaked ahead of the competition and took all the race wins, and only Team Marmite seemed to be able to stay within a reasonable distance as the wind conditions continued to play into their strengths. After the AGM, the fleet headed to a curry house, who would survive?

Another day, another boat taking the fleet to school on how to get the best out of the conditions, Team Peters loved it in the lighter wind that was found on the final day to take the string of wins despite having close challenges from Team Ronin and Simon and Dean on Eleanor as well as some of the mid fleet boats, who were showing more pace than we had seen out of them at any other point in the regatta. Most notably Banshee Ambulance making 4th place in the final race with its catamaran style wing mast and Born Slippy with Aussie Cherub sailor Virginia Horn sailing way further up the fleet in the lighter winds than anyone has seen in recent memory. Most of the fleet had light winds, except a few helms, whose crews were suffering from the night before's curry. Two crews got ribbed in, leaving Born Slippy moored up for race 4.

I suppose there are many more important factors than winners and trophies but seeing as none of them spring to mind I will crack on.

The Phoenix Trophy for best restoration went to James Miller for his excellent job getting the newly renamed Shirley Valentine (ex Bubbles) back on the water, seeing her blasting downwind was truly a pleasure. The Cherub pre de elegance trophy for the best looking boat was awarded to Nick and Jo for their fantastic looking new boat Green Bananas.

The "didgery don't" which is awarded for promising so much and delivering so little went to Ade White for turning up without his boat and then going sailing in another class! Team Marmite won both the Simpson trophy for first overall as well as the Davey Trophy for best capsize for capsizing on the start line and the finish line!

The prestigious '97 Rules trophy went to Greg Paton-Kerr and Zara Wakefield. The Ashes went to Roland for the array of breakages across his boats, Roland also picked up the Nick Mason Trophy for climbing considerably up the leader board compared to last years nationals.

With Nationals completed for another year I would like to thank Royal Torbay Yacht Club for hosting this years Nationals as part of their Torbay week and providing superb hospitality and enough gin and rum to keep even the more alcoholic end of the fleet entertained, not to mention enough Ribs and Safety boats to taxi the fleet out of the harbour, no mean feat in the windy days! I would also like to thank all the organisers and race crews of the regatta, they executed a smooth and drama free regatta allowing the sailors to get on with enjoying time on the boats, after all isn't that the real point of all this!

Once again, thank you to Torbay YC and all the many helpers that made it such an enjoyable week.

Overall Results:
If you finished in the top ten at the Cherub nationals then enter your Gear Guide information here

Series PlaceSail NoBoatHelmCrewR1R2R3R4R5R6R7R8R9R10R11Pts
13212MarmitePaul CROOTEEd HIGHAM111122224202012
23202Usagi YojimboAndrew PETERSJill PETERS4333534311118
32698RoninJonny HARRISAlex HARRIS32045445422728
43217Green BananasNick PRATTJoanna HUTCHINSON22226777109634
53215A&EClive EVERESTAlex EVEREST202020201111610545
63208EleanorDean RALPHSimon JONES20202020353534245
73216Lady Virginia of Keynsham (Poppy)Roland TRIMPeter JENKINS75548886871050
82676The Shiny BeasyJamie PEARSONRosie WILLIAMSON8420207662076852
93214Cool BeansDave CHINGHayley TRIM5202062020202053382
103213EJJay WILLIAMSONRohana STILL6662020202020128987
113201Banshee AmbulanceRobin JONESJoshua HAYNES2020202020202020954118
122677Squid Pro QuoEleanor CRAIGJimmy RUDDIMAN920202020202020111111122
132646MadgeGreg PATON‑KERRZara WAKELING20202020209920202020138
142656Heart AttackPaul BERRYElliot BERRY2020202020202020132020153
152651Strangely BrownMike MANSFIELDTBC2020202020202020202020160
152654Shirley ValentineSimon FLACKJames MILLER2020202020202020202020160
152661Eva DexoffAndy HORSLEYLucy SNOWSILL2020202020202020202020160
152674Born SlippyJoseph WHITEVirginia HORN2020202020202020202020160
152675Fuzzy LogicAdrian WHITEJoseph WHITE2020202020202020202020160

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