Tiger Trophy

Exactly so it should be at the very lowest (fastest) end so that the Cherubim suffer, not the people racing them.

After all I don't think people race Cherubs for the handicap effect do they?

so on average cherubs are slower than 29ers?? haha thats great and everyone was going on at how much faster they were compared to the XX.

Also there may be a carbon rig 49er at the tiger.....

Who is sailing the carbon rig?

Id like to see one go

I looked at 20 handicap races with Cherubs against other boats. The Cherubs were 80% 05 rules. I discarded any race where the Cherub was outside the top 2/3 of the fleet.

so if you were capsizing everywhere you did not count

Out of the 10 boats that count towards my figures 7 have finished a race in the top 3 at the nationals in the past two years. So I was not looking at old boats.

There are quite a few light wind races in there which slow things down but is probably representitive of real racing conditions over a season.

I got an overall average of 943 which was slower than I was expecting. but there are a number of races where the cherub acheaves a handicap below 900 and one as fast as 800

Cherubs go quick in a straight line but that is rarely in the direction you want to go and not usually around a race course.

The handicap should be worked out the same as for all other classes the average performance across the season for the average of the sailors. For me to sail to a handicap of 930 consistently I would have to beat the average performance of the national champion!


Rutland have probably picked a good number with 920 considering the lack of data that they have it is hard enough that most of the time the Cherub will be towards the back of the fleet but in the right wind with a good sailor having a good race they could do well.


Remember everyone boasts about the time they were blasting past a quicker boat but you keep quiet about the time a Wayfarer sailed past you.

It's been a topic for discussion for as long as I can remember, in fact I'm sure I remember a fairly heated debate over the subject of Cherub PY's after Guy & Alex won the Bloody Mary in Flat Stanley back in 1988? (see I really am that old, not just Jim)...

The shorter and lighter the boat, the more binary it becomes (i.e. greater speed difference between displacement sailing and planing). It's much easier to get a "fair average" PY for a longer, heavier boat, as they will tend to displacement sail faster due to the longer waterline, and plane slower, due to the extra weight and greater wetted area.

I don't think any of the Cherub guys sail them to go "pot hunting" on the strength of the PY, it kinda just works in their favour sometimes, and not at other times.

Learn to live with it, there isn't a better solution.