Guaranteed to get a reaction

Has the Cherub lost its way. (a point that’s kinda implied in a post by Gybeset on the sailing anarchy forum)

 

With the I14’s apparently still going well, Australian 12ft skiffs now appearing and the development of the 29erXX for example has the recent change of the UK Cherub rules to twin wire, bigger rigs, left it out in the cold.

 

After all the potential market, and therefore available pool of sailors for a single wire performance skiff is a reasonable size, but how big is the pool of sailors for an all out matcho twin wire boat. And how many of them can be tempted away from any of the above or other established boats.

 

I’m sure there will always be some that will, but is it a case of the rules being changed to suit a few without the long term consideration of the class in mind.

 

Ok that should rattle a few cages… Ill go and hide in a corner now and prepare for the onslaught!

 

Ian

Originally posted by ifoxwell has the recent change of the UK Cherub rules to twin wire, bigger rigs, left it out in the cold.

I dont think its left itself out in the cold, its a development boat for the lightweights.  What other lightweight Development boats around are there??  Both the national 12 and moth are completely different boats so cherub does have a gap to fill.  Possibly the bigger problem is the lack of advertising, and i dont mean media type advertising.  The big winter events are the perfect time to showcase boats, yet ive rarely seen more than one or 2 at these big events.  The bloody mary, Tiger Trophy, Hoo Freezer.  You get a FLEET of cherubs turning up to these events and if the good wind blows, i think a lot more interest will get generated.  And make that heart as big as possible on the sail just so people know what flew past them!

Edited by Doug.H

The cherub class seems to contually gaining new youngish sailors where as the n12 sailor are currently discussing weather they are a aging/dieing fleet.(Personaly not sure this is case as I think that the n12 as boat is more likly to appeal to a slighty older demographic.) I am certainly selling mine so that hopefuly via another class (because i am not sure that a cherub is the best boat to teach my girl friend to sail) I can start to sail cherubs.

In my very limited experence it seems unfair to compair cherubs to 29er as they feel quite different to sail. There is also the point that the cherubs have a heathly socal seen, unlike the a certain youth class, I think this was disscussed on another thread.

A class like the cherub is always going to have a turn over people as it is a relitivly physicaly demanding boat to sail.

Possibly its very appleal is that its not a WF

  

Foam sandwich - The Tasar was'nt it from the mid 70's onwards - now fairly standard of course.  (that was 30+ years ago as well)  Was the Cherub even earlier ?  Surely not ...

Blaze 720

The Cherub has never been a huge class in the UK and it probably never will, however it still has a place for lighter and mixed crews wanting an individual high performance boat.

There has always been innovation in construction methods with foam sandwich construction and carbon masts common well before many other classes. Most of them built in peoples garages.

Home build is also a neich, what if you do not want to sail exactly the same boat as everyone else.

The first foam cherub was apparently 1970 (link to article) there is also a good article on early foam sandwich construction in Australia from about the same time (Link) the tasar was about 1975

PS My Wife(and crew) does not think they are that Macho

Edited by Granite