Chapman and Warner Dominate Round One of the NSW Cherub States

by Rolf Lunsmann on 22 Oct 2012 Alison Chapman and Kurt Warner from Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff Club dominated the first Round of racing at the NSW Cherub State Championships. Sailing Black Caviar, the boat that Warner had refurbished and re-rigged over the winter, they won all three races of the Round and several of those races by big margins.

Saturday’s racing began at Abbotsford Sailing Club with two short races sailed in a southerly that gusted up to 25kts plus. With flat water and big gusts the whole Cherub fleet experienced warp speed rides, some spectacular capsizes and a few groundings in the shallow water.

While mayhem was taking place behind them, Chapman and Warner sailed away from the fleet with impressive early season speed upwind and downwind. They took Race 1 from Belmont crew Ashlee Holford and Matt Hall in The French Tickler with last season’s national champions, Kris Fay and Morgan Frew sailing Wally, in third.

The rest of the fleet were awarded average points for the race due to a confusing set of marks having been laid near the bottom mark resulting in the majority of the fleet sailing the wrong course.

While the fleet managed to find the correct course for Race 2 the chaos continued as the gusty southerly continued. Chapman and Warner were unperturbed as they again sailed away from the fleet for a big win. Belmont brothers Brett and Ryan Lancaster sailing Causin’ Haavik edged out the rest of the fleet for a strong second place in front of Fay and Frew and Lawrence Wakefield and Oliver Jones from Drummoyne in The Black Pearl.

After quite a deal of boat rebuilding and some social fun and games overnight, racing resumed at Drummoyne Sailing Club on the Sunday. The Race Committee waited patiently through a calm period in the morning before getting the fleet away in a fresh but gusty westerly late in the afternoon.

Again it was Chapman and Warner who showed their dominance from the start reaching the top mark first and then never being headed. Behind them, Ryan Clifton-Smith and Tom Drury in Remember the Tight Ends eventually won a race long duel with the Lancaster brothers with Felicity Welman and James Warner from Lane Cove in Almost Famous taking out fourth place.

Chapman and Warner will now take a big points lead into the second round of the Championships which are due to be sailed at Belmont on the weekend of 24-25 November.