Cherub National Championships 1978 Lee-on-Solent S.C.

Transcribed by Neil C from the report in Yachts & Yachting

Lee-on-Solent SC hosted the Cherub national championship over the three days of the August Bank Holiday weekend. This year more than 40 boats were attracted to the event with one crew from Scotland.

Two races were sailed each day over Olympic-type courses and it had been expected that this would prove rather tiring, however the very light conditions made the sailing quite painless. Each morning saw the sea as calm as a millpond with only light and variable winds of Force 1 to 2. As the temperature rose during each day a sea breeze developed for the afternoon, though it was only on the Sunday and Monday that the second race was sailed in anything above a Force 3. Because of the light conditions the tidal streams probably played a more prominent role in deciding the racing than the winds.

Two of the local boats “Blitz” sailed by Chris Forman and Nick Mason and “Still Crazy” sailed by Martin Clark and Gillian Garden made the most of these conditions; “Blitz” winning the second and third races, and “Still Crazy” winning the fifth race. Two of the other races were won by David and Shiona Babcock in “Sciamachy” and the last race was won by Martin Cross and Katie Thorpe in “Peanuts”, the only boat from Scotland. The domination of the Nationals by either Dave Finch and Peter Lavender or Tony and Jill Hows over the past few years was broken this year by Cgris Forman. Dave Finch, however, was sailing a borrowed boat and the Hows did not arrive until the second day’s racing. Chris Forman and Nick Mason took advantage of the conditions and came through admirably to win the championship.

Overall results:

  • 1st “Blitz” (C.Forman and N.Mason)
  • 2nd “Still Crazy” (M.Clark and G.Garden)
  • 3rd “Sciamachy” (D.Babcock and S.Babcock)
  • 4th “Peanuts” (M.Cross and K.Thorpe)
  • 5th “Flying Saucer” (D.Finch and P.Lavender)
  • 6th “Tachyon” (J.Docker and P.White)
  • history/1978-nats.txt
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