UK Cherub Inlands 2010 - Report

The weather gods certainly smiled benignly on the Cherub Inlands at Queen Mary SC with warm temperatures and an increasing breeze over the two days culminating in a couple of quite full on final races. On Saturday three races were held in a reasonably steady 8-12 knots of breeze.

In race 1 Andrew and Jill Peters in Usagi were first around the windward mark but succumbed to an early capsize letting Graham and Eddie Bridle in Riot Van lead for the majority of the race. Usagi though was slowly catching and overtook Riot Van on the last leg to win. In race 2 Usagi led from start to finish with Dean and Simon in Eleanor getting a good second, Riot Van finishing third. In race 3 a slightly increased breeze suited Stu Turner and Nick Pratt in Ronin and they took the win by a boat length from a fast finishing Usagi. Davro had finally emerged from a post Ministry of Sound sleep and posted an excellent 3rd in the Pasta Frenzy. The first 97 rules boat for the day was Phil Kirk and Tom Kiddle in Born Slippy.

On the Sunday the Cherubs had their own start on the club racing course giving QMSC members a close up view of the fantastic 05 rules cherubs complete with their masthead asymmetrics, twin trapezes and t-foils (there are a couple of great second hand boats available on the class website!) Overtaking the RS400’s who started 5 minutes ahead showed the turn of speed these 12 foot skiffs can produce given a decent breeze.

Normal service was resumed in the first two races with Usagi taking 2 firsts and the Inland Championships for the second year. Each race was hard fought with in particular Eleanor and Ronin also leading for significant periods of the racing. The increasing breeze was making for some challenging corner turning and the QMSC sailors were getting some spectacular cherub action to watch. By the final race the wind was upto a good force 4, firmly into Pasta territory. Riot Van and Ronin duelled for the lead but Dave and Maff in Pasta were never far behind. A race ending capsize by Ronin freed Riot Van for certain victory, however the thrill of riding the days biggest gust downwind meant Riot Van over stood the finish and had to drop the kite and reach across. This opened the door for The Pasta Frenzy who, showing a mean turn of speed themselves, blasted across the finish line to take the win. Adem and Chris in Monkey Magic showed some good boat handling to stay the course and claim third.

Many thanks to QMSC for arranging such superb conditions and for the excellent race management.

Results are under the sailing>results tab on the QMSC website

Sailwave Results