Weston Grand Slam [UK Cherub]

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===== Weston Grand Slam =====

Well the stage was set for another incredible weekends sailing. 6 Cherubs were expected at Weston for the full 4 days of racing.

Atom Bom - Will and Lucy,
Norwegian Blue - Dave and Lara,
Aqua Marina - Andy and Tom,
Little Fluffy Clouds - Neil and Rachel Thomas,
Sweet Dreams - Stu Hopson and Tris/Tim Unerman,
Dangerous Strawberry - Stu Tinner and Tim Noyce

**Friday**

7am. Noyce receieves phone call from Tinny, 'got a bit of a problem mate, just pulled the Strawb out of the garage and the wheel fell off the trailer... Bugger' 7 hours into friday and already a cherub down, not the best start!

Luckily the other cherubbers had started the day a little better. On arrival at weston there was a hive of activity with Aqua, Sweet Dreams and the Norg already on their way to being fully rigged. (2 of the crews had already gone to extreme efforts to even get this far! Stu had driven 5 hours from North Wales and managed 2 hours sleep in the car whereas Dave and Lara had done the round trip to draycote just to pick the boat up from Iains after car issues the previous week! Andy and Tom had a monster trip down from Southampton. All 20 mins of it!


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Race 1

The first race of the day saw Atom Bom go out, raise the kite, and then head for shore. In this short time Will and Lucy had managed to break just about anything that could be broken (top effort in such a short time!) Fluffy were still rigging so it was a race between Sweet Dreams, Norg and Aqua. After some intense battling on the water and some expert crewing from Tris aboard SD. Aqua was leading the first lap until a 10min kite drop at the bottom letting Norg through, got going again just infront of SD & slowly crawled back to Norg but finishing just behind them over the line. The result was Norg, Aqua, SD. 

Race 2

Fluffy was rigged and ready for action in time for race 2 so we were back to 4 cherubs on the water. (A Bom was back in the field being repaired, all hands on deck!) This race was fiercely contested with SD and Norg changing places at the front a few times on each beat (photo shows one of the times when they were comparitively far apart when crossing tacks!)
Final Results were Norg, SD, FLUFFY and Aqua (yes, thats right... 97 rules Fluffy without kite in front of 2005 kited Aqua!!) 

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Cherubbers split and went their seperate ways on Friday night. Dave, Lara, Will and Lucy went for a posh Italian in Christchurch... Tim, Hoppy and Tinny went into downtown Portsmouth to drink like only students know how!

**Saturday**

Saturday morning dawned to more wind than Friday, but still incredibly gusty and patchy. Excellent Viewing from the shore. 

Race 3

Race 3 saw many cherubbers taking a dip with twinnability at times up and downwind. Atom Bom were back on the water after having made the necessary repairs from Friday. With some rigging issues it was decided to play it safe, blistering speed upwind, painfully slow downwind. At the finish it ended up with Atom Bom taking the win even without kite at any point! Aqua tested out the 12ft rig - Tom browned himself so came in and set up normal rig.

Race 4

More wind, more 400's OCS... The start saw all the cherubs heading up the beat in formation, all a similar pace to start with untill Will got in the groove, suddenly A Bom reached escape velocity, pointed higher, and left the other cherubs for dead. (worryingly fast considering they were without T-Foil!) Some capsizage all round at windward mark and it was time for the fun downwind stuff. Having only one pair of binoculars and the boats on the other side of southampton water this is how the events were viewed from the shore... 

'A Bom have popped the kite, wow they are shifting... yep that is definitely dagger board, are sailing boats supposed to go that fast?! Big air! WIPEOUT!'

'Aqua have got their kite up, just went past a spice as if it were stopped, i think tom has made his wetsuit brown, looks remarkably like dagger board once again... WOW! Significant mining, good job they're near the channel or they'd have stuffed the pole into the sea bed!'

Boats returned to the shore to survey the damage. Atom Bom returned minus a wing (ouch), Aqua returned having almost completely removed a shroud point from the boat and later discovered they'd caused some severe damage to the mast. Sweet Dreams retired. Win to Norg.

Noyce and Hoppy went blasting, good speeds achieved... smiles all round. After the de-rig the majority of the cherubbers went back to Dave and Laras for Fish and Chips and beer (thanks again!) Will and Lucy decided to cut their losses and take the boat away for a proper fix rather than a 'boatpark bodge' & Aqua went home for a quick repair.

**Sunday**

Have few memories of this day apart from managing the drive from Christchurch to Weston in record breaking pace. Aqua decided that if they couldn't win fairly then to resort to plan B... Cheat. New rules 14 main was the order of the day, impressive looking to say the least.

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Race 5

Less than inspiring wind. Very patchy, gusty, flukey and generally not good for cherubs! Not sure of the placings but either Norg or SD followed by aqua. (should be noted that aqua were giving the real 14 a run for their money upwind)

Race 6

Bit of twinning achieved but nothing to really get people talking. Similar results to race 5.

Post racing blast for Noyce and Tinny in the Norg. Twinning achieved upwind and smiles downwind. Happy Days. Mrs Noyce was keeping up the Easter Spirit and organised a full roast for Noycey, Hoppy and Tom (thanks mum!) General pub banter followed before retiring to bed. 

**Monday**

Tired faces were greeted with the most wind that was seen all weekend. Lara decided to sit out the race to allow Mark (befriended contender sailor) to have a sail in the Norg. Hoppy and Tim Unerman out in SD, Andy and Tom were on rig selection 4 or 5 with the RMW sails on the HUGE mast. Noycey stupidly agreed to crew a 49er.

Race 7

Start one was a general recall (to make a change.. bloody 400 sailors!) Start two saw some immense twinability upwind. Norg was fighting her way to the windward mark amongst a pack of 800s in a very good position untill their rudder gave way (very sad as they would have made lots of SMOD sailors look very silly in their 17 year old boat had they been allowed to continue!) SD were on the pace untill some unfortunate swimming. Aqua sneaked the victory, (well done chaps). Noycey on the other hand was being tortured on a 49er, not a good boat to sail when suffering from draycote induced illness and lack of strength! Incredible upwind speeds were achieved overtaking 400s, 29ers, spice's as if they were stopped! if only it were that easy in a cherub!

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Race 8

SD and Norg were beginning to pack up so Aqua went out for the glory! Good solid win there boys! :-D

Big thanks need to go out to the crew at Weston for organising such a good event. Special thanks to the ladies in the galley (if you could make the recipe available for the chocolate caramel squares that would be super!). Thanks to Dave and Lara for the floorspace. Excellent event, roll on the inlands and the official weston event!

More event pictures at: http://www.eddiemays.com/2006%20Photography/060415_WSC_Easter/index.htm 

Report by Tim Noyce (Noycey)




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