Flat Stanley

That is the source of the name I believe...

Edited by JimC

olly love u r being a bit of a tit...no offense

How was that a productive comment on what has so far been an interesting argument?

From what i hear, it seems that Flat Stanley WAS once a fast, winning cherub, but its glory days are long gone. It might have been revolutionary in the cherub class but to be honest, beyond the cherub class it cant have been anything more than existing technology applied to a class that had yet to be modernised.

Surely the likes of the 14's and the 18's of the day had been built - to use ross's expression - using "exotic materials" for some time before this "revolutionary" cherub. And as for rig design, it sounds as if it was designed by north sails using their existing technology, but once again, applied to a different class.

Flat Stanley sounds to me like technology from more popular and groundbreaking classes applied to the cherubs, therefore why all the fuss? Someone had to do it eventually.

Can't make that one Roger but might look into coming to Roadford as that's only up the road. I've not sailed the boat yet so will have to see how it holds up this weekend before I start making long term plans!

Originally posted by dave.blakesley Surely the likes of the 14's and the 18's of the day had been built - to use ross's expression - using "exotic materials" for some time before this "revolutionary" cherub.

yeah well actually mate the Cherubs were decades ahead of the 14s at the time. The first foam sandwich Cherubs were built before the first foam sandwich 18s, let alone 14s...

There's a great little saying, that might be used to conclude this thread:-

"History should be a point of reference, not a place of residence"

Stanley only actually had about 3 years in the limelight, starting in 87 with the Bloddy Mary, and ending in about 1990 when the Bistros took over. It was not a "revolutionary" design, but a lightly modified Iain Murray design. There is also a clue in the dates. The UK cherubs broke away from the Aus boats in 84, and then bumped the kite size further in 87, and as we all know it takes the PY system a few years to catch up with change. Now I'm not saying that banditry was at play here, but given the right conditions, a solid boat (which Stanley was), and a good crew (which Guy & Alex were), then it was a combination that was hard to beat.