Flat Stanley

See you just can't trust advertising. I should have looked at a bit harder,
of course you are right Phil.

Originally posted by Rob.e ... I realised we were covered in ice and had another 100 minutes of sailing to do

I think that was probably the worst of all the Bloody Marys weather wise...

ISTR that Alex Windsor's speech at the prizegiving was on the lines of
"Bloody Mary, bloody cold, bloody weather, bloody race team, bloody sponsors, bloody thank you!"

Edited by JimC

Back to the request for pics and stories, in the 87 Bloody Mary we were sailing a National 12, handicap 120, so we knew we'd be on the water for 2 hours. We'd only been going about 20 mins I think and we heard a hum, looked behind and saw Flat Stanley going past quicker than anything I'd ever seen- it was the first time I'd ever seen an air gap between the daggerboard and transom on any boat. That was when I realised we were covered in ice and had another 100 minutes of sailing to do and the way they went past I thought we'd be swamped by "proper" fast boats in no time. Actually it was probably another hour before the quick guys started getting up to us and we finally realised how fast a cherub could be! It was so cold that if you capsized, they would just pick you up and abandon the boat, and as we drove out there was still a heap of boats at the leeward end of the reservoir, gradually being sorted out by the rescue boats. I dread to think how much damage was done!

I think the thing about Stanley in those days was that they did all the high profile events, and won quite a lot, plus the Cherub was one of the few radical designs bringing ideas like the long spinnaker poles into the country, so they attracted a lot of interest. My main memory of the class before that time was that they were quick and exciting but there was carnage in a blow as lightly built amatuer constructed boats broke themselves. By the Time Stanley came through, construcion methods had moved on, and she held together.

It should be no surprise that there is a certain amount of similarity between 14 designs and Cherub designs as they are trying to do more or less the same thing, within two quite a loose frameworks of restrictions.


One thing that shapes many 14 designs is the distortions in the shape to meet the rise of floor mesurement near the bow, this is not present in the Cherubs as they have a different method of controling hull  width that is not at a fixed point on the hull. Although the distortions in Cherub hulls to meet the various rules are also quite noticable.

Ronin was designed by Paul Bieker, designer of quite a few 14's and at least one of the builders was an ex 14 sailor, so again a certain ammount of ideas crossover is to be expected.

Originally posted by I luv Wight must resist the temptation to not feed the Troll

Agreed. Clue absent... I remember being told by some ignoramus at Sailboat about 20 years ago how much better Cherubs would be if they looked like 14s, but since the "amalgamation" 14s look like Cherubs... Stanley was probably the ultimate expression of one line of design, since then things have gone other ways.


Edited by JimC