Just waiting on photos now.
Written by Alex Harris.
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Nineteen Cherubs traveled to Torquay for their National Championships and
with breeze forecast it promised to be all very exciting.
An exceptionally strong breeze on day one deferred racing with it being
decided by the race officer that it was rather safer to stay ashore . To the
pub, then to the club as they were holding a gin evening. YUM!
When day two dawned the wind had dropped but was still pretty brisk after
missing our launching slot due to everyone talking about wether to launch or
not, ronin rigged and launched first causing mass 'lets go sailing' from
team cherub who all frantically rigged. The boats that decided to go racing
were treated to some full on conditions where boat handling would really be
tested, the Race team did well to capitalize on favorable conditions and
get in extra races to get the series on track, Race Results from day one
showed a dominant performance from Paul Croote And Ed Higham in Marmite who
strung together a perfect score of firsts to show they had plenty of boat
speed when the breeze is up. Nick Pratt in Green Bananas proved that you can
still build your own boat and perform at the front of the fleet by bringing
a string of seconds and defending Champions Andy and Gill Peters finished
the day in third. Even in the breeze there was some close racing with lots
of place changing happen behind Paul and Ed who speed on everyone. That
nights entertainment was a Caribbean themed rum evening.... I think.
Day three began with the late arrival of father son team of Clive and Alex
Everest in their foiling boat, A&E, with their previous years nationals
being plagued with light winds and a lack of sailing time over the water
would the big breeze afoot cause control issues and too much time swimming?
In short no. The dominating theme of the first days racing continued, this
time it was the flying boat (literally) that streaked ahead of the
competition and took all the race wins with only Team Marmite seemed to be
able to stay within a reasonable distance as the wind conditions continued
to play into their strengths. After the AGM, the fleet headed to a curry
house, who would survive?
Another day, another boat taking the fleet to school on how to get the best
out of the conditions, Team Peters reveled in the lighter wind that was
found on the final day to take the string of wins despite having close
challenges from Team Ronin and Simon and Dean on Eleanor as well as some of
the mid fleet boats, who were showing more pace than we had seen out of them
at any other point in the regatta. Most notably Banshee Ambulance making 4th
place in the final race with its Catamaran style Wing mast and Born Slippy
with Aussie Cherub Sailor Virginia Horn sailing Born Slippy way further up
the fleet in the lighter winds than anyone has seen in recent memory. Most
of the fleet had light winds, except a few helms, who's crews were suffering
from the night before's curry. Two crews got ribbed in, leaving born slippy
moored up for race 4.
I suppose there are many more important factors than winners and trophies
but seeing as none of them spring to mind i will crack on.
The Phoenix Trophy for best restoration went to James Miller for his
excellent job getting the newly renamed Shirley Valentine (ex bubbles) back
on the water, seeing her blasting downwind was truly a pleasure.
The Cherub pre de elegence trophy for the best looking boat was awarded to
Nick and Jo for their fantastic looking new boat Green Bananas.
The 'didgery don't' which is awarded for promising so much and delivering
so little went to Ade White for turning up without his boat and then going
sailing in another class! Team Marmite won both the Simpson trophy for first
overall as well as the Davey Trophy for best capsize for capsizing on the
start line and the finish line!
The prestigious 97rules trophy went to Greg Paton-Kerr and Zara Wakefield.
The Ashes Went to Roland for the array of breakages across his boats, Roland
also picked up the Nick Mason Trophy for climbing considerably up the leader
board compared to last years nationals.
With Nationals completed for another year i would like to thank Royal Torbay
yacht Club for hosting this years Nationals as part of their Torbay week and
providing superb hospitality and enough gin and rum to keep even the more
alcoholic end of the fleet entertained, not to mention enough Ribs and
Safety boats to taxi the fleet out of the harbor, no mean feat in the windy
days! I would also like to thank all the Organizers and race crews of the
regatta, they executed a smooth and drama free regatta allowing the sailors
to get on with enjoying time on the boats, after all Isn't that the real
point of all this!
