2024 Nationals Report
2024 UK Cherub Nationals Dale Sailing Club Dale Yacht Club welcomed the Cherubs and International Canoes to their beautiful corner of Wales. The race officer Bob ‘Archie’ Wainwright did a great job in setting up the courses to get the planned 12 races completed across the four days and listening to both fleets to improve the racing for all involved. Day 1 The first day was, generally bright sunshine and light winds, just enough to get twinning in a couple of races but generally searching for wind and searching for power. It was quite shifty and patchy so there were opportunities to gain and lose both upwind and downwind which resulted in quite a few place changes in all three of the races. Jill and Andy Peters in Usagi Yojimbo showed that they hadn't lost their good light wind performance to finish with a couple of first places despite one swim on the start line. Antidote to Panel Games the class demonstrator boat had been loaned to a couple of Aussie Cherub sailors Virginia Horn, and Jacques Audet. They showed some bursts of speed at times on the first day but were still getting used to the extra trapeze and T-foil rudder so their results didn’t reflect their potential.
The starts were all competitive and small slips cost many places today. None of the back markers started last but mistakes here and there meant that it took about a lap to get the normal crowd together. Little mistakes took one rapidly from crossing Marmite at the first tacks to last after forgetting how to hoist a kite if there is a boat near you. Snakes and Ladders is one thing, but the club also added mystery zero wind holes and snarly weed into the game as well. Probably one of the most tiring Cherub days ever. Dale yacht club/coco’s pizza was seriously good and made it worth going to the AGM.
At the end of the first day Usagi were ahead on four points with Marmite and Zero Gravitas chasing but level on 8 points each Day 2 The forecast for the second day was Windy with a Capital W, forecast for it to drop later in the day so the decision was made to postpone, however the tide was also forecast to drop later. Launching a Cherub in a gusty offshore wind and not enough depth to get the rudder or centerboard properly is quite a challenge. With the challenge of launching on a lowering tide and maybe no option to return if the conditions weren’t sailable, part of the fleet decided to forfeit sailing for the day. Even if it was the wise decision, and after all definitely the right one, it always feels a bit of shame not to get to enjoy the wind. Jamie Pearson spent his birthday first helping to launch Zero Gravitas, then Eleanor who promptly ran into a sand bank after broaching, then he went on to aid Usagi. It's a shame he didn't start his sports watch as we think he clocked up 2 or 3 miles, wading out halfway to the racecourse, but staying about waist deep in water. Those who didn't get out enjoyed a lovely view of the racing from the spit. After a little wait for the start in some non Cherub friendly waiting conditions we got race 4 off in a fruity 20kts A&E got off with a great start being chased off closely by Phil and Carol in its sister ship Zero Gravitas after a poor first tack from A&E giving the leed to Z.G. both very similar on pace and angle, after Marmite kindly decided to remove all seaweed off the foils by hand at the start, taking chase with the bit firmly between their teeth. A&E were kept honest from start to finish not being given any breathing space. Marmite came in next followed by Eleanor, and the 97 rules Slippery when wet sailed by Nick Hankins and Gavin Sims. Race 5 kicked off with marmite on the line upright and shifting just behind Z.G. and A&E chasing both closely at the windward mark Z.G got round the windward mark cleanly first with a great smooth kite hoist, marmite decided to take a slightly different approach, fully committing to the bare away bow down and crew Si getting too keen and jumping from the rack to the play pen ending up in another swim/ manual seeweed check. Letting A@E past to chase down Z.G. At the bottom mark Z.G. struggling with the kite drop and overshooting left enough room for A@E and Eleanor to slip through. Unfortunately, while going upwind in 2nd Eleanor’s rudder locked itself, dumping them in the water letting through the chasing marmite and Z.G.
With a heavy committee boat bias line, A&E got a belter of a start and got the jump on all the boats ending up at the pin end, marmite and Z.G. In a close duel all the way up to the windward mark. After a great downwind blast, and a close battle back upwind the windward mark was close to the cliffs and making the approach awkward with the large shifts and holes, caught Z.G. Out in a few flip flop swims and deciding that after 4 lap races enough was enough and headed back to dry land. With the green machine of marmite like a raging bull on the heels of A@E all the way to the finish, at the windward mark might I say to great relief. The local boys of Nick Hankins and Gavin Sims sailing Slippery when wet kept going through the conditions to finish fourth in their 97 rules boat.
At the end of two days racing the results were incredibly tight at the top with Usagi, A&E and Marmite level on points with Zero Gravitas trailing by one point.
Day 3 Back to lighter winds today, slightly more than the first day and with the same wind direction so flying the kite down to the start line was fun even if it was further away than expected. Again there were some big shifts during the day as the wind switched from one side of the headland to the other which kept the race team busy keeping a true beat for each of the races and the racers busy trying to decide which side of the course made sense for the wind and for the tide. In Race 7 Aunty had a good first beat and was first to the windward mark, but not around it, a real issue for the other 5 boats arriving at the same time.Usagi got through the traffic well and then disappeared in the lead to take the win. Marmite finally seemed to learn how to start, and found clean air and good pressure out to the left. It seemed to work well giving them a second place. Only a little further back Zero Gravitas, Poppy and A&E were swapping places regularly both up and down wind with the three of them finishing in a line.
Race 8 saw another good start from Paul Croote and Simon Jones in Marmite; this time we went even further left and benefited from a fantastic lift in good pressure, to sail around the whole fleet. Leading to their first win of the championship ahead of Andy and Jill Peters. There was a close race for the following three with Having comfortably won the previous race Marmite attempted the same tactic in Race 9. However the wind and tide had other ideas, allowing the whole fleet to sail off into the distance. The last race of the day ended with a shortened course flag at the top mark meaning the remainder of the fleet could sail straight home. Day 4 Day 4 saw a change of wind direction from Easterly to Westerly This meant it was up wind to the race course. And the things we had figured out about tide and shifts would all change. The strength was a bit more than the previous day with enough to twin wire up wind for most of the time, so just about perfect. Another close start for race 10 with all boats getting away clear Marmite and A&E had the best of the first beat and run. On the second lap at the windward mark Marmite and A&E rounded very close together but got in each other's way which allowed Zero Gravitas to sail around the outside. A good hoist allowed ZG to pull slightly ahead of the two others and stayed just ahead through a few tight gybes with all three finishing within a few boat lengths. Poppy was just behind in fourth, full of energy after not sailing on day 2. Aunti was in the tricky position of not quite twinning due to confidence but losing out on speed for not committing fully, they were still quick and getting quicker each race. Further back Pocket Rocket had a great twin wire kite reach along the cliffs towards the finish with spray going everywhere. Just off the start line of race 11 Phil went to adjust his trapeze line on Zero Gravitas, lost grip on the tail and dropped to the knots making a big splash, it was only Carol’s heroic efforts in running to the other side of the boat that kept the sails dry. Poppy tacked off early only to see the splashes made by Phil when checking the rest of the fleet behind. Pocket rocket had to crash tack to avoid Z.G. With marmite going all the way out left this let them get to the top mark in second chasing Usagi for the rest of the race with Poppy in third.
The wind had increased a little for the final race of the series out of the start most of the fleet tacked off to the right towards with Marmite and Zero Gravitas heading out left, this seemed to pay for ZG who got to the windward mark first followed by Usagi and Poppy. For the second lap ZG again went left with the rest of the fleet going right. The last downwind leg was ZG, closely followed by Poppy, Usagi had gone left downwind which let them call Starboard on Poppy leading to a swim and dropping them down to fourth letting Usagi into second and Marmite third. Andy and Jill Peters in Usagi consolidated their lead on the last day to take the championship win with five firsts, Paul Croote and Simon Jones in Marmite were consistently close to the front through the week but hadn’t got enough race wins to catch Usagi.
Results
Rank | Boat Name | SailNo | Club | Names | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | Total | Nett |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | Usagi Yojimbo | 3202 | Castle Cove SC | Andrew Peters & Jill Peters | 1 | 2 | 1 | (8.0 DNS) | -5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 32 | 19 |
2nd | Marmite | 3212 | Chew Valley Lake SC | Paul Croote & Simon Jones | 2 | -3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 23 |
3rd | Zero Gravitas | 3218 | Largs SC | Phil Alderson & Carol Alderson | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | (8.0 RET) | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | -5 | 1 | 39 | 26 |
4th | A+E | 3215 | Dee SC | Jonny O'Connor & Alex Harris | 4 | -6 | -5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 38 | 27 |
5th | Poppy | 3216 | RYA | Jamie Pearson & Ellie Craig | 7 | 4 | 2 | (13.0 DNC) | (13.0 DNC) | 13.0 DNC | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 77 | 51 |
6th | Antidote to Panel Games (Anti) | 2699 | RYA | Virginia Horn & Jacques Audet | 5 | 5 | 10 | (13.0 DNC) | (13.0 DNC) | 13.0 DNC | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 93 | 67 |
7th | Pocket Rocket | 2683 | Roque Brune SC | Kevin French & Joe White | 8 | -10 | 8 | (13.0 DNC) | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 95 | 72 |
8th | Slippery When Wet | 2657 | Cardiff Bay YC/NYC | Nick Hankins & Gavin Sims | -9 | -9 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 94 | 76 |
9th | Eleanor | 3208 | Poole Yacht Club | Dave Ching & Oliver Morrell | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 8.0 RET | 12.0 OCS | (13.0 RET) | (13.0 DNC) | 11.0 DNS | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 111 | 85 |
10th | Rossa | 3219 | Monaco Yacht Club | Roland Trim &Marco | 10 | 8 | 11 | (13.0 DNC) | (13.0 DNC) | 13.0 DNC | 10 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 119 | 93 |
11th | Ronin | 2698 | Poole YC | Nathan McGrory & Tom Hole | (13.0 RET) | 12.0 RET | 6 | 8.0 DNS | (13.0 DNC) | 13.0 DNC | 7 | 13.0 RET | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 137 | 111 |
12th | The Badgers | 2694 | TBSC | Holly Davis & Robin Davis | (13.0 RET) | (13.0 DNC) | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 RET | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 13.0 DNC | 156 | 130 |
2024 Nationals - Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions
To all Cherub and Canoe sailors, the NoR and SI's for this years national championship at Dale YC are located here
2024 Nationals Entry Is Open
The main event for the year, the 2024 Nationals will be held at Dale Yacht Club between the 5th - 8th of July. Joined by the very lovely International Canoe fleet.
Entry forms are below
Grafham Inlands
Inlands, doesn't seem that long since the last one! With some of the fleet busy strapping planks to their feet to fall down a mountain and others in sunnier climes seemingly spending a lot of their time swimming away from the nearest bar, some hardy souls arrived at Grafham water sc.
Grafham had the honour of seeing A&E for her 1st outing in her new water hugging form after the class decided to end the foiling trial of the last 9 years. She showed good speed out of the blocks with no real issues considering her major reconfiguration, just the usual teething issue of a new boat with new rope and fittings, all races completed. The real question is; How fast will she be by the Nationals?
With the forecast looking light for the second day four races were planned. All four races were close in the shifty conditions.
Race 1: Poppy in classic style was late to the line after deciding to sail the first beat to find any snakes or ladders. They just managed to sneak behind the line and accelerate on port by the pin as the rest of the fleet left on starboard with the fleet split, Poppy tacked on to starboard and decided to be nice and take the transoms of A&E and Eleanor, which proved disastrous as she dropped from 2nd to 4th on the next tack. A&E quickly realised a few rig and control system adjustments were needed to keep pace with the top tuned boats. Marmite meanwhile was slowly extending their lead with the new light crew being ideal for the conditions.
Race 2: Eleanor started well but found that her foil system seemed to have stuck on the ‘just about on’ setting - Anyone that has sailed a modern rules cherub knows how much work the T foil actually does in making a boat go fast! A&E Marmite again executed a perfect race with Poppy just behind playing safe to get a good result. Although there were remarks about how Poppy was able to find their own personal wind to point 5 degrees higher and go just as quickly as Marmite on lap 2 and 3’s upwind legs leading to a closer finish than Marmite had hoped for.
Race 3: Usual kind of thing except the crew of A&E, Alex decided to become a fish flounder in the water. Maybe he just wanted to look at the lovely new paint job? He swam back aboard much to the amusement of Poppy and Jonny, his helm. Meanwhile marmite hit the bottom mark resulting in a 360, standards were slipping!
Race 4: A&E nearly succeeded in pushing Marmite over the line at the start. Marmite decided to play safe this time avoiding the bottom mark entirely and doing a 360 before the mark.
What did we learn? Marmite showed that Andrew is easily replaced and does little if anything to improve her speed, A&E is not far off being super fast once some small things are ironed out.
After racing we were treated to a chilli by Grafham's wonderful catering team. Next a trip to the pub was agreed upon I know I’m as shocked as you. The challenge of the night was to decide if the George Michael tribute act was hired because he looked like GM or because he sounded like GM, because he didn't really do either of those things.
In other news, Paul Croote came to the pub! He did a social! Something about not having a nagging voice of his crew going on about wanting an early night. Jamie also demonstrated to all of us, especially the catering staff why he is still single, but not boring.
Great Northern Asymmetric Challenge 'The Inlands'
Lake Bassenthwaite
The Cherub Inland Championships (held amid the Great North Asymmetric Challenge) were hotly contested by a whole two cherub teams at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club last weekend: Jamie Pearson and Martin Denchfield in Poppy, and a thrown together team of Alex Harris and Rosie Williamson in A&E. The long trip north meant an early arrival on the Friday night was in order, along with pizza, drinks, and a battle with the tent in the rain for Alex and Rosie.
A leisurely start on the Saturday morning left plenty of time to rig and get through an excellent breakfast bun. After the obligatory “Are they meant to be rigged on their side?”, “Why doesn’t it have a halyard?” and “Do all Cherubs foil?” (upon which we had to regretfully tell them that the hacksaw was coming for A&E), the 70-odd boats set sail for the first race. Jamie and Martin must have had too much time to think over how to rig a kite, as they promptly realised that they’d set it up completely wrong and decided to sit out the first race. Rosie, having never stepped in any kind of foiling boat before, took to it like a duck to water in its literal sense, that is, A&E went swimming more than once per lap and so didn’t fare much better. The wind over the trees and hills and across the width of the lake meant for more, short laps, and the shifty and gusty conditions meant that they never got up on the foils upwind. Jamie and Martin came back into race 2 but struggled to break free of the 400s and ended up mid-fleet, still doing much better than Team A&E who had reduced their capsize average, only capsizing twice in 3 laps.
Race 3 saw Jamie and Martin kick into gear with a radical decision to duck the fleet on port at the start, but it paid off as they found themselves in 4th and in much clearer wind behind the VX1s and the 59er. In the final race of the day, Team Poppy took a similar decision but were forced to tack earlier than they wanted. It worked out in the end though as they were lifted straight to the top mark at full power. They very kindly let VX1 be their snow plough through the slow fleet for the downwind leg and then overtook for the gate mark, only to find that a number of general recalls for the second flight meant that they were all stacked up for their final minute on the start line – which the fast flight needed to go through! Considerately, instead of skewering a bunch of 200s and Fevas, Team Poppy dumped it in and called it a day. Throughout all this, Team A&E were steadily improving, but still not getting going upwind. Between that and fact that there were two crews in the boat (leading to a number of overstood laylines), they consistently sat between 30-40th. At the end of day one, it was fair to say that Jamie and Martin had a comfortable lead.
BSC put on a fantastic evening of pies, drink, and music that night, which was much appreciated. In true Cherub style Jamie, Rosie and Martin took to the dancefloor and showed the rest of the competitors how it was done. Rumour has it that Jamie danced the night away until 2am, which couldn’t possibly have been why he was slightly less than enthusiastic for sailing the next day. Sunday dawned a much better day for the Cherubs, with the wind from the ESE and funnelling down the length of the lake, making the course much longer and the wind far more stable. Team A&E got straight up on the foils upwind, which was a new learning curve for Rosie. Between that and the tendency to tack onto every header, they never managed to escape the 400s and plonked for another mid-fleet result. The groggy start from Team Poppy seemed to be deceptive as they steamed ahead for another 4th. In the second race, the training wheels came off; Team A&E sailed cleanly through to a 2nd overall despite the wind dropping in the final lap. Jamie and Martin struggled with the 400s this time, and somewhat overstood the top mark leading to a dubious two-sail reach and tack under scenario. After that they canned it in and went for a nice warm shower and to shelter from the incoming rain. Still riding high, Alex and Rosie managed to bag a 3rd overall in the third race which they were pretty chuffed with. With the wind beginning to drop and Rosie’s energy flagging, they also decided to call off the last race and get a headstart on the journey home. Having pulled a couple of good results (finally!) and having stayed out for a couple more races, Alex and Rosie managed to take the lead (ranking 34th overall) from Jamie and Martin (who came in at 46th).
Conditions were tricky on the Saturday but the great weather on the Sunday showed a foiling A&E at its best – a perfect swan song. The event was really well run, so our many thanks to the club and all who made it possible.