Sail Sizes

Jibs are very critical for upwind performance and relatively cheap so in your place I'd get a new jib for racing and use the old one for casual sailing. The chances of getting a jib that fits a Cherub are low because the J measurement is relatively short on most boats. If SD still has the tall rig its going to be even more unlikely... Not so much getting a rag that fits the triangle as having a reasonably sheeting angle without changing the boat.

If you have a sailmakers who are good mates you could give them dimansions and ask them if they know what might fit, but personally I couldn't ring up Banks or whoever and ask thenm for a means to avoid buying a new sail. Not good manners!

I know of no common location for detail measurements: I fear you're just going to have to trawl through every class website for the rules... Rules for the International classes are readily locatable through www.sailing.org as a starting point.

I put an friends rs400 jib on at the weekend without to much of an issue (stu hopson added a snout to SD) , couldn't point as high but was going as fast as the 400s upwind by footing off and sailing further.  Unfortunatly this was a temporary loan as its his only spare and rs400 jibs are apparently very rare.

Having spoken to a few people looks like i'm going to cutdown the main and mast to make it 05 legal so i can source upgrades with time, so i'm just after something to fill in for the time being.

The jibs on my 14 range from 5.63- 5.9 something so a 5m cherub jib seems a tad excessive

Alex

Thanks for pointing me towards the article its really good.  Its nice to se that for once in sailing someone has properly worked out the effects and its not just down to speculation. 

Makes me feel more confident about chopping my mast down a bit too, being a bit on the heavy side i was a touch dubious.  I'll have a dredge through some class websites and see if i can find anything.  If anyone has any ideas please let me know.