Playground

3 dedicated Cherubs, E-numbers, Riot Van and Ronin turned up at Sunderland YC as an excuse for a stop on way to their Nationals at Largo Bay. On Saturday the wind was blowing around 25 knots gusting 30 knots. The 3 Cherub crews made a tactical decision to hold fire on going out for the first race. The decision was justified as the Musto Skiffs, RS300s, an RS800 and Topper went out, stuck their noses out of the harbour capsized repeatedly then nearly all returned to shore apart from 3 boats, who did a 2 lap race. Racing was then canned for the day allowing for an early start in the bar and copious amounts of food. The wind was a little more reasonable on Sunday, although still gusting up to 20 knots with some real lulls and sharp wind shifts. The asymmetric class were sailing a straight forward windward-leeward course. All 3 Cherubs were late for the first start E-numbers crossed first followed by Riot Van, who made good ground upwind, and Ronin. E-numbers lost their lead to Riot Van after a capsize on a gybe. They chased Riot Van for a lap before getting their comeuppance when Riot Van capsized on the next run. E-Numbers held her lead, Ronin caught up with Riot Van but missed an opportunity to pass them on the final beat to the line due to some simultaneous capsizing. Unfortunately this was the end to Ronin’s day as their mainsheet was becoming unsheathed and they headed for shore. In race 2 E-Numbers followed Riot Van over the line and made an early tack into clear air. Riot Van got a good lift after tacking later and got round the windward mark well ahead of E-Numbers. E-Numbers made ground on Riot Van throughout the race and were right on their tail at the last mark. Riot Van tacked early for the line and crossed E-Numbers, however they had got headed off and had to put in a second tack for the line. E-Numbers tacked later, onto a lift and crossed the line comfortably ahead of Riot Van. The start line for race 3 was very port biased and many boats struggled to cross the line, E-Numbers tried to tack onto port and cross behind the fleet but they went into the tack with little speed and went for a swim! Consequently, Riot Van stormed ahead. E-Numbers made lots of ground downwind managing to sail very low in a gust then stole the lead from Riot Van who over-stood the start/finish gate. These positions held till the end of the race. Only E-Numbers stayed out for the final race, got a good start and stayed with the Musto Skiffs up the first beat. Yet tiredness was starting to get the better of them and they capsized on the first downwind leg on a gybe then again not far up the second beat on a tack to avoid a lobster pot! They did manage to keep the boat upright from then on till the finish. E-Numbers was rewarded for her endurance and won her first bit of glassware winning the asymmetric fleet of about 6 (discounting the Musto Skiffs who’s results were separated out). Many thanks go to Sunderland YC for their friendliness and a super sail.

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For Paul

Here is Steve Irish + Paula sailing Suicide Blonde. The mainsheet starts at the end of the boom, then goes down to a block on a bridle from the transom, then back to the end of the boom, then forward to a ratchet about half way along the boom. Then it goe to the helmsmans hand (if it wasn't busy with more urgent matters)

2644-20051023b.jpg

You can see the forward bit a bit better on this one.

Backlinks

My Name

I started sailing a few years ago in a number of different boats and have

now ended up sailing a cherub after I saw one blasting about somwhere at

high speed

shadow.jpg

The picture is inserted using curly brackets with the size restricted by the number after the question mark * The people gives the folder or namespace * shadow.jpg gives the name of the file * ?350 restricts the horizontal size to 350 pixels(The whole site is 600 pixels wide) * Having a space before and after the brakcets centers the picture

I have sailed in a number of boats bulleted list of the boats

  • Wayfarer
  • Mirror
  • Int 14's http:\\www.i14.org if you write out the URL in full it will turn into a link and the small globe shows it is an external link
  • LaserII's
  • Cherubs listed bellow in a numbered list
  1. 9999 9999 This page does not exist so it is a red link
  1. 2681 AquaMarina The link is for boats:2681 the text you see is Aqua Marina
  1. 2686 Primal Scream The link is forced to display 2686

My older Cherub

My first cherub was AquaMarina and here are a number of pictures taken

automatically from the gallery of me sailing the boat in various years

2004

An automatic gallery that can be adjusted to show only one boat or only pictures taken on a certain day or any combination of the above

My newer Cherub

My current cherub is Primal Scream and below is the summary of the boat

taken from Primal's own page.

2686

2686-200606xxa.jpg

 

What this means is that I can have the same info displayed on different pages and I only have to edit the original source page to update all the other pages.

Contact Info

You can use Phil Alderson to get in contact

it lets people contact you without having to reveal your email address. just replace my name with yours

backlinks

generates a list of pages that link to this one, helps with navigation.

Include a picture from facebook

n508856240_123004_7775.jpg

Stu's Bit

Whilst visiting his grandparents in Cornwall this weekend, Stu Hopson was surprised to find out about a poem, his grandad wrote about a race in the mid to late 1960’s on the river Crouch, featuring a cherub (The Wizard of Oz). After much digging through the many poems which he has written over the years, the poem ‘The Jinx and the Wizard of Oz’ was found, and Jack Hopson (Stu’s grandad) has very kindly given permission for the class to read and enjoy this poem.

THE JINX AND THE WIZARD OF OZ

Regatta day, and lots of boats

Trevor Austin was doing well . . .

But then the wind got up a bit

(In fact it blew like Merry Hell)

Whilst leading on the final leg

His Cherub on a flat out plane

Quite unprovoked his well-known Jinx

Did raise its shaggy head again

The nearest rival, not in sight—

(But many boats were moored about)

While planing for the final mark

A puff did lift the Cherub’s snout—

With extra speed she shot ahead

But there was no real space in view

There did not seem to be a hole

Quite wide enough for boat and crew

“Our Hero” looked with urgent haste

To try and find some sort of space

(Apart from lots of moored up craft,

He’d caught up with another race)

The reaching spinny flew well out

Mounted on extending boom

A Cherub in a wind like this

Really needs a lot of room!

Just then appeared a slender chance

Not much, but then was ‘twas all he’d got

Two moored up boats lay “end-to-end”

Between the two our helmsman shot

He had to luff up quick and hard

A tricky move, as all could see

His crew made comments rather like:

“There are places I would rather be.”

A loop-the-loop, or similar

Quite a feat at such a speed

Assisted p’raps by desperate strength

That sometimes comes in times of need.

Then a rush to get the spinny down

The turning mark is quite close by

But in their haste, a minor slip—

And whoops, the halyard was let fly.

The sail went flying out in front

The boat still holding on a plane

The famous Jinx did raise its head

And problems reared up strong again.

A cruising craft on engine slow

Had not been noticed up ‘til now

Until it loomed up strong in view—

A stainless pulpit on its bow.

Too late poor Trevor spotted this

And all could see, he was aghast

A violent swerve just got him by

But the flapping sail could not get past.

It caught the pulpit fair and square

And then it wrapped so well around

It brought the Cherub to a halt

As if he’d run the thing aground.

With instant action Trevor leaped

Upon the deck where sail was caught

With fevered haste the lad did work

As with the straining cloth he fought

The owner of the boarded craft

Did watch the while and quietly curse

And all could see he was incensed

For now his craft moved in reverse.

With wind behind the Cherub’s main

The forces pushing her were strong

Despite the cruiser’s powered strain

She by her stern was forced along . . .

At last the clinging sail was freed

But still it seemed the Jinx would win . . .

The boat pulled off—left helm behind

His only option . . . jump and swim

He caught and held the Cherub’s bow

Crew still aboard—the boat pressed on

Ahead, a tender tied to buoy,

The Jinx’s work was not yet done . . .

A spinnaker halyard dragging out

Did catch around the mooring chain

Helm in water—crew in boat

The Cherub snagged up fast again.

They tugged and heaved to no avail

’Til in the row-boat climbed the crew

From vantage point, he now enjoyed

He soon could see just what to do—

The Cherub freed, and moved away

And quite unmanned, before our eyes

She slewed around with force of wind

Her boom went down, the boat capsized

The helmsman still held on the bow

To right the boat he set his mind

Then clambered in prepared to sail

And found he’d left his crew behind

Still standing he, in dinghy tied

(And hadn’t even wet his feet)

So back he sailed to get his lad

Single-handed on a beat

Meanwhile a cruiser had arrived

To collect their tender left afloat

The crew on board was much surprised

At this intruder in their boat

Their mooring picked up nice and neat

They helped this fella in their craft

And standing there with still dry feet

He must have felt a little daft.

The Cherub (not a stable beast)

In such a wind could not close in

But sailing near as he could get—

This time the crew must jump and swim . . .

Now re-united—crew of two

Continued on and finished race

And such a lead they had before

That still they finished in first place!

WRITTEN BY JACK HOPSON (MID TO LATE 1960s)

The poem just goes to show that Cherubs have always been entertaining to watch and race against!

the sunis a mass of incandescant gas

2547

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  • Last modified: 2020/12/09 19:21
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