Cherub Nationals 1981

The Cherub National Championship was hosted by Worthing SC during the week August 17th to August 21st and was run jointly with the Seafly National Championship [now that must have been one of the more bizarre combinations in the class history - transcriber]. The Race office was John Widdicombe and Olympic [triangle/sausage] courses wee set on each of the five Championship race days.

The Sunday practice race was sailed in a fluky, light northerly wind with a flat sea and Guy Lewington in “Flat Stanley”, last years World championship winning boat, was soon in the lead and held on to take line honours. Second was Martyn Clark in “Nice Legs” and third Bill Deeley sailing “Tramps Like Us”.

For the first championship race the wind had moved round to the south- west and strengthened on cue just before the start to a good Force 3/4. The sparkling conditions produced some excellent racing and Lewington again worked his way to the front steadily increasing his lead to win from Clark with Deeley third, the order following the pattern of the practice race.

The second was sailed in similar conditions but the wind had increased to force 4 /5 giving the occasional short sea to add interest to the beats. Racing was again close and several crews capsized in the lively conditions. On of the casualties was Lewington who had worked himself into the lead but lost it when a faulty spinnaker hoist at the beginning of the third race put him temporarily into the water. Bill Deeley sailed through to finish first with Lewington not far behind. Third home was “Eric Bloodaxe” sailed by husband and wife Andy and Pat Paterson.

On Wednesday the wind blew strongly almost dues west but moved abruptly southwest just before the start and increased as the race went on. The port biased line caused problems for some crews but those who had started cleanly had a fetch to the first mark. The boisterous wind and occasional large waves made for very high boat speeds and few crews escaped at least one capsize. Lewington once more got to the head of the fleet only to be forced to retire when his rudder broke while bearing away round the windward mark. This gave Deeley a chance to open up a big lead but he capsized on the last run with the spinnaker up. The Patersons sailed a well-judged race, decided not to fly the kite on the last run, and sailed on to first place. Kevin and Brett Ellway in “Back Seat Diver” were second with Deeley third.

The big blow threatened for Thursday did not materialise and the northwesterly wind blew intermittently from force 1 to 4 during the race. Lewington sailed well in the difficult conditions to finish 1st with the Ellways 2nd and Patersons third. This left Lewington favourite for the Championship but with one retirement on his scorecard he needed to finish well.

The final race produced excellent sailing conditions with a long beat to the windward mark in a gusty Force 5 southwesterly. The race was shortened to finish at the end of the fourth beat and Lewington took the first gun to clinch the series and the Championship Second home were the Ellways followed by Will Perret and John Green in “Edna Average”

G. Slack

This report first appeared in “Yachts and Yachting”

Transcribed by Jim Champ