Flat Stanley

Interesting comments on the other thread about Flat Stanley so I thought I would start a new one. Its 30 years since this boats success in the 1980 worlds so I thought it would be good if people could post stories and old photographs about this little piece of dinghy history. This photo was taken last summer when it was in my possession:

  

Edited by rs405

its not really dying and rs405 did a huge amount to it apparently

Originally posted by Villan There are some very good ideas for what should happen to FS in this thread: TID=6537&PN=1&TPN=1"> http://yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6537& PN=1&TPN=1

Naughty naughty!

 I have a pic of Flat Stanley entering Portsmouth harbour in Jan 84, having just won the pompey Perisher (I think). If only I had a scanner of some sort....

I'm just looking at a copy of the Bloody Mary results sat 10th Jan 1987 which Guy Lewington won with Alex Winsor crewing, as they went past us, I remember looking at my helm and seeing the whole front of his suit was covered in ice and thinking "I'm going to die!" We were 67th of 118 finishers and there were 4 pages of retirements!!

Personally I'm glad to hear it's still sailing.

Originally posted by mike ellis Why is Flat Stanley such an influential design? Is it just influential to Cherubs or did it have an effect on dinghy design as a whole?

It didn't really have much influence on Cherub design, here or in Aus. ( nor in NZ where the class has been dead for many years )
The boat itself was very dominant in the Uk for several years, ( except for a while when it had a new rig + suit of UK made sails ) but the two other hulls to the less tweaked original Murray design were only average performers. Soon enough, the flatter boxy Bistro design came along and was the next dominant design,  with nearly all the boats built here to the same or similar designs.
The other boxy designs that came 2nd etc at the worlds eg Wop became the standard style down under.

And every one else is too cool to admit to anything cherub influencing their dinghy designs