1987 U.K. Cherub National Championships

Harwich Town SC hosted the joint Cherub and International Moth Championships from July 23rd to 26th. Olympic type courses were set out in Dovercourt Bay well out to sea to minimise the fluctuations of the moderate offshore winds. The first race was held in a Force 4, and Guy Lewington and Alex Windsor, the eventual winners were quickly in the groove pulling away from the pack to notch up first place, followed by Dave Roe & Wendy Barclay, Matthew & Alistair Cope and Will Perret & Martyn Clark. On the second day there was very little wind, quite a lot of rain and poor visibility. The morning race was again won by Lewington with Kevin Ellway & Paul Gray second, Roe third and Rupert Bremer & Nick Mason 4th. The afternoon damp drifter produced a different winner, Ellway & Gray. Lewington was second, coming from nowhere on the last beat on the strength of a port tack flyer. Perrett was third and Roe 4th. Saturday produced the best wind of the Championship. The morning's race was sailed in a force 5. First to the windward mark were Simon Halliwell and Jim Champ in the over rotating mast rigged veteran Farr design, Queenie SJB, but the 16 year old boat was no match for the modern boats offwind. Will Perrett led round the rest of the first triangle only to be knocked flat towards the end of the reach. This let Lewington through to record a third win, with Roe taking Will Perret on one of the beats for second place. Ellway was fourth. In the afternoon the wind moderated slightly and it was Dave Roe's turn to win, again showing good windward boat speed. Perrett held on to second place having again led in the early stages, with Ellway third and Cope fourth. In the final race on Sunday the top positions were still in doubt and the wind was fluky and fluctuating in both strength and direction. Perret sailed the first beat correctly and held the lead throughout the race to win by a good margin. Ellway was second. Lewington's third was enough to secure first place overall. Lewington and Windsor won the trophy for the third year in succession and was a worthy winner, putting together a consistent set of results, never out of the top 5 in the competitive fleet.

Will Perret (this report first appeared in Yachts and Yachting)

A considerable amount of discord at the end of the event was caused by a race committee protest which alleged that Rupert Bremer and Nick Mason had touched a mark. In spite of evidence to the contrary from every competitor who was remotely in eyeshot the protest committee elected to DSQ them. I remember the class electing to hold the prize giving in the dinghy park as a result of the bad feeling caused.

Jim Champ (plus a couple of additions in the main text.)