4 Cherubs were at HISC on Sunday where the weather was lovely and there was a fairly fresh force 4 coming from the south west. We all headed out to race out in Hayling Bay for the 11am race but soon realized there was a fairly hefty swell from the previous days gales. Needless to say this made manoeuvres pretty challenging and while tacking and gybing were hard, righting from a capsize was next to impossible. Subtle Knife and Ronin were there at the start with Riot Van caught napping and Atum on her side making sure the sails didn't overheat in the sunny weather. After crossing the line, Riot Van stormed up the beat and after hoisting was in the lead as Atum was doggedly trying the make the first mark. Ronin was having difficulty after a stalled tack was undertaken by Atum who, after a bear away went for the hoist into an oncoming fleet of SoSlos and true to form they went for a swim, hoist number 2 was equally unsuccessful and the decision was made to 2 sail it to the bottom mark. In the mean time Subtle and Riot Van were on their way up the beat again but RV retired after the almighty hulk that is Eddie pulled a kite block off. Atum finally made it to the leeward buoy and fell in again trying to gybe round the mark but was soon up again and heading to windward. The second lap was better for Atum and after a good bear away swiftly hounded on by Subtle (on their 3rd lap) the kite was up and she extended a good lead (or caught up a bit depending on which way you think about it) on the Everests who I think chose not to hoist having done so on the previous lap. At some point in the fray Ronin decided that the combination of chop and swell was ridiculous and headed back for the clubhouse. After completing a second lab the Atumists too thought (well mainly Sam complaining that he was tired) that lunch was in order and that trying to do the second race was not a good plan. Subtle knife got over the line after giving us all another tough conditions master class and headed in too.
After a good lunch we decided to take advantage of the good wind and flat water in the harbour to go for a burn. Anyone who is familiar with Chichester Harbour will know that there are a number of sand banks to avoid but armed with local knowledge, the Atumists charged on down towards Ichenor kite up, control...who needs it? One good gybe and one dodgy gybe later and they were in the water while Ronin and Riot Van screamed past at warp 9 seemingly late for a date with Dell Quay. Subtle Knife soon joined in the fun in the perfect blasting conditions. As the tide turned, and the land heated up a bit, we got a sea breeze backing up the already quite significant force 5. This made for some fantastic sailing but with the extra wind came extra capsizes. Eventually we all got tired (Atumists even went for a rest on East Head) and headed back for the club house and beer. The tide had gone a fair way out by this stage and Riot Van narrowly missed being a victim of one of the sand banks thanks to a hapless Laser 4000 crew standing waist deep checking their centreboard.
In all it was a thoroughly enjoyable days sailing with 4 boats putting on a great show for the cruisers of Chichester Harbour.
I cba to read through this to make sure it makes sense so my apologies if there are any grammatical/spelling/factual errors.
