U.K. Cherub Nationals 1999

Lobster for supper anyone?

There was an above average turnout even though a couple of likely contenders, Graham Dickenson and Mike Chalmers, were sidelined, one with family commitments and the other with an injured crew. Amongst the obvious favourites were Dave Roe and Andy Paterson, although Dave had a new never-been sailed double spreader mast, and Andy had a brand new boat that had only been launched once.

Day 1

Race 1.

Sunny, reasonably warm and a roughly Northerly wind around the bottom end of Force 4, and some serious waves. Yes, decent sailing conditions for the first time since the 95 Nationals! Everyone bounced out onto the course, and Dave Roe celebrated his early arrival (actually got there the night before) by going for a serious warm up blast. Serious enough to be late for the start. The more things change.. the more they remain the same! The course was a windward leeward plus gate, with lots of place changing and even the occasional swim. By the finish Robin Russell & Matt Searle were leading, Andrew Kinchin & Simon Roberts second, and Andy & Alex Paterson 3rd, with Dave & Claire Spens having worked their way up to 4th. All this was to change however, as virtually no-one had read the race instructions properly, and lots of people had managed to sail between the gate buoy and the outer distance instead of gate and committee boat. Amongst them, to his shame, was your editor, who having prepared the race instructions for the web had no excuse!

Race 2

A little more wind for this one at times, maybe middle of F4, plenty of waves and Dolphins! The tide was also pretty significant in this race, with some sort of tidal eddy favouring the left, but more wind on the right. Robin Russell took an early lead, followed by the Patersons, Dave Roe & Claire Spens, and then for a while, much to his surprise, your editor. Robin broke a tiller extension and sailed back to the beach, giving the lead to Andy, with Andrew K.& Simon R. coming up fast through the fleet. Andy P. capsized on the last kite hoist, letting Andrew K. inherit the lead, which he kept to the finish, with Dave Roe second and the Patersons recovering to 3rd. Best incident of the race happened to Gavin Sims & Gareth Turnbull in Dangerous Strawberry. There were a fair few lobster pots round the course, and they came to a crashing halt on one of them. Lifted the daggerboard - no change. Lifted the rudder - no change. They looked forward and saw a couple of little buoys, one each side of the stem, and they didn't want to drift free. On further investigation it turned out they'd hit the rope so hard that it had cut straight through the laminate on Gavin's bow extension and sawn a slot right back to the true stem. It was so firmly stuck that one of them had to get to the front of the boat and heave the ropes out with a foot.. At the prizegiving they were presented with the Lobster trophy for this achievement.

Race 3

The wind dropped off quite a lot for this one, dropping down to Force 2-3. Gavin & Gareth made an excellent Port tack start and took an early lead, which they held until nearly at the leeward mark, where Andy P. & Alex were able to slip through sailing much lower on the gybes. They kept this lead through to the finish, with Dave & Claire second, and Robin & Matt 3rd, Robin scoring a reasonable result at last after spending most of the day round the front of the fleet.

Day 2

Race 4

An easterly wind off the land, and Force 3 going out to the start. Basically pretty flat water although there was a long shallow swell coming down from the north. A typical Cherub early morning start, with more than a few people late for the start gun. There was a massive rain squall on the first run/second beat, which laid many of the fleet flat, and was probably nearer 30 knots than 25, but thereafter it reverted to force 3/4. Simon & Maddy were going very well, but went the wrong way round a leeward mark and lost a lot of places re-rounding. The wind, coming off the land, was very gusty and very shifty, with no apparent pattern. After a lot of place changing Gavin & Gareth were first, whilst Robin & Matt just pipped Andrew K. & Simon R. for second.

Race 5

Gavin & Gareth pulled off another of their hot starts/first beats, judging the starboard end nicely and catching the shifts just right to lead round the windward mark. However later on they were unlucky enough to find a particularly big hole in the wind. There was a lot of place changing in very shifty conditions

Race 6

The wind went round to the South over lunchtime. The forecast was for it to build, but this didn't happen. This time the big gust timed itself for just as a number of boats were leaving the harbour. Rather embarrassingly Andy Paterson's new super lightweight rudder gave up the struggle in the gust, sending them into a spectacular semi-pitchpole right in front of the tourists on the end of the breakwater. Much oohs and aahs followed as recovery took some time due to the need to adjust the rudder so that the good part of the foil was in the stock. Thank goodness for daggerboard rudders!
At the start Tim & Una and Gavin & Gareth showed first, but Dave Roe came up very fast at the end of the leg to take the lead round the windward mark. Robin & Matt came storming down the right hand side of the run, and took the lead temporarily at the beat. Dave & Claire took the lead just before the next windward, with 3 boats overlapped for second place. At the end of the run Robin broke his daggerboard, which ended his series. The weather then dropped to about Force 2, which suited Andy P. & Alex, sailing with about 60% of normal rudder area, because they were just able to keep the boat under control thanks to the flat water.
It was notable, from the end of the breakwater, that quite a number of the general public were taking a lot of notice of the racing, with people actually picking out and following individual boats. Of course the spectacular colour schemes favoured by Cherubs helps considerably with this, as does our preference for holding races close to the shore.

Race 7

Continuing with a rather Doggy Force 2 to 3, still gusty and still very shifty. Dave & Claire led from start to finish - however it was no means as simple as that, with enormous changes as gusts and shifts came through - for instance on one leg Dave rounded the windward mark 200yards ahead and caught a superb gust that saw him practically to the leeward mark as the next few struggled in a hole at the top mark. Then up the next beat Andy P. & Alex got the shifts exactly right and gained all that and more as he closed up to within 20 yards of Dave. At that point, however, their spinnaker gained a giant rip and had to be kept in the bag for the remaining two laps. This saw Andrew K. & Simon R. overtake them for second, but they did succeed in holding off Simon & Maddy and Tim & Una, who were hurtling up. That must have been a very welcome shorten course signal!

Day 3

Racing Abandoned - 40 knot winds.

Day 4

Race 8

Ah, sunshine! Not especially windy in fact, but nice and warm. A good Force 3 for the start, with the wind from the east off the land. Not much in the way of waves, but with a low but very long swell coming in from the west that was especially helpful on starboard tack up the beats. Today was the peak day for dolphins - I saw 6 or 8 I think, often very close to the boats. The wind wasn't as shifty and gusty as it had been on Friday. Dave & Claire took an early lead, with Andrew Paterson stuck in the pack thanks partly to Dave's start line tactics. Andrew K. & Simon R. took the lead on the second lap, but then struck a particularly long and wayward lobster pot line going at full speed down the reach and came to a shattering halt. They dropped down to third, behind both Dave & Claire and Tim & Una, but managed to get one place back at the finish.

Race 9

A little quieter than race 6, with some trapezing upwind. Dave & Claire led at the start, with Andrew K. & Simon R. taking the lead on lap two as Dave succeeded in finding all the holes in the wind down the runs and dropped several places. The wind dropped slightly during this race, and as it stopped the Patersons seemed to be able to sail lower and faster (or at least less slowly) than everyone else on the runs. They were about to take the lead on the last run when a snaggle taking the kite down lost them the win. This left Dave & Claire secure for first place with more wins than Andy P. & Alex.

Race 10

The wind had continued to get lighter for the final race. Andy P. & Alex led the race from start to finish, with a ferocious battle going on behind between Dave & Claire, Andrew & Simon, Simon & Maddy and Tim & Una. They were swapping places all the way round, and on the last run Simon & Maddy went left away from the others, and found a nice little gust which had them storming up to the line.. until it died about 50yards short. Dave & Claire took second and the Championship.

Nationals Summary

A good Nationals, best for a few years. Many thanks to the club for hospitality, friendliness, getting all the racing running smoothly and a great supper on Friday Night!
An especial thank you goes to the Race Officer, George Legg, and his good lady, for not only respectively organising the racing and results respectively, but also for allowing the webmaster to trample into their house first thing every morning bearing a floppy disk with the latest updates.
Another win for Dave Roe, but not an easy one. Its always easy to come up with "what-ifs", but one suspects if Andy Paterson had had a couple less teething troubles with the new boat, or three or four weeks to sail it beforehand then it would have been right down to the wire on the last race.
The Patersons seem to have very good moderate wind speed, especially downwind, but there's no doubt that Dave has an ability to put in a blistering lap or two when it really counts. Andrew & Simon were always thereabouts, but not quite consistently up with the other two. Robin was fast, but desperately needs to sort out reliability.
The second group consisted of Tim & Una, Simon & Maddy and Gavin & Gareth. All of them seem to have good speed and had all improved considerably from last year, had a great week of not only battling amongst themselves, but also challenging the leaders from time to time. They should be going home well satisfied with their Nationals.

Final Results

Note - Simon and Maddy's DSQ in Race 6 is something of a mystery, because they are sure they sailed the correct course, and the race officer couldn't recall what the problem might have been. Fortunately it wouldn't have affected the final results. Jim Champ