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.

Roland causing a splash during the Cherub Nationals in Torbay - photo © Jean Border / www.borderphotos2010.com 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.

Farther son team Alex and Clive in hover mode during the Cherub Nationals in Torbay - photo © Jean Border / www.borderphotos2010.com

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.

The bridesmaid no more! Paul Croote and Ed Higham powering on to win the Cherub Nationals in Torbay - photo © David Hand

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: