Cherub Inlands at Corus

6 Cherubs descended on Corus for the Inlands championship. No one had actually told Corus how prestigious their annual regatta had just become. The fleet were Cheese Before Bedtime, Pocket Rocket (with Stu Hopson guest crewing), Slippery when Wet, Strangely Brown, Shiny Beast and of course Atum Bom. Lucy had found something more important to do on the Saturday and no less than Gav Sims took to the bow of Atum. All the non cherub sailors must have been quite bemused by the apparent competition to see who’s boat could take up most of the rigging area. In reality the 6 teams were now in tinkering mode, a form of meditation used by all Cherub sailors before an important event.

And now for the important bit. Sorry to say very little actually broke and Shiny Beast’s run of bad luck appeared to be over. The winds were, well not very windy and the strongest gust was still in single figures. Corus had elected to sail the Asymmetrics on a separate rectangular course, with a start line than you could only cross on port and a run for the first leg. Obviously the race officer wanted some entertainment!

Race one followed the usual game plan with Atum winning from Shiny with Cheese in third. Strangely Brown left Pocket Rocket behind when Stu Hopson’s trapeze line broke and the Rocket did a gentle stack near the leeward mark. Slippery When Wet came in last having spent some of the race struggling with the wrong sided drops and trawling the spinnaker but not catching any fish! The race officer decided to adjust the course removing the two redundant marks for the following races.

Race two saw Slippery across the line first at the pin and gybe for a right sided hoist. Shiny led at the 1st (leeward) mark with Atum in catch up mode. Slippery’s prompt start put them in 4th place at the mark although another wrong sided drop left them trawling again. The wind dropped towards the end of the race and Atum never did catch Shiny. Cheese was again third but the real battle was behind them for ‘not last’ place. The dying wind allowed Slippery to ‘slip’ through Pocket and Strangely on a few shifts to clinch 4th on the line. So after day one the there was a tie for 1st and a three way tie for 4th.

The fleet journeyed to Swansea for some evening entertainment although we did think we had lost Will and Sarah on the way. It transpired that Sarah and a map were battling with Tomasina for navigational supremacy which resulted in them getting lost in a housing estate. The fleet were later discovered in the nearest Weather-spoons by Lucy. The trip back showed that a Tom-Tom is a much better navigational aid than a Tim-Tim. The Tim-Tim decided on a route via J48 on the M4 some 20 miles longer than the most direct option.

Day two dawned and the battle recommenced. Shiny got another bullet in race 3 followed by Atum, Cheese, Pocket, Strangely and Slippery. The 4th race saw another prompt start from Slippery opting to go left with Cheese and Pocket while Shiny led Atum off to the right. A laser 400 had got in the way of Shiny and Atum’s pre start manoeuvres, resulting in Atum doing turns. Slippery spent most of the race in third watching the leaders battle but Cheese and Pocket closed them down on the last lap. Pocket found a bad shift and Cheese got becalmed a fraction too long allowing Slippery to roll tack (yes like skiff’s don’t do) inside them at the final mark.

The fleet decided that 4 races were enough to decide the championship so an impromptue presentation was held to crown Shiny Beast as 2007 Cherub Inland Champions. Since there was still one race of the regatta left Slippery and Shiny’s crew swapped boats. Phil and Sarah realized that the Patterson 7 was a bit Tippy but were determined not to capsize the championship winning boat. Dave and Lara must have found Slippery a bit tame in comparison, but they didn’t care. It was their lap of honor after-all. Everyone went home happy, dreaming up new boat modifications and looking forward to the up and coming Sticky weekend.

Overall results counting the 4 races sailed were:

Words: Phil Kirk

Pictures: Coming