Booth using a Code Zero

Originally posted by alstorer

   Now I didn't claim the Cherubs invented it, all I said was antipodean and *used* on Cherubs. 

The vast majority of serious innovation through the 60s to 80s was happening in Australasia, so its inevitable that the Cherubs would have seen and used things long before other classes in the UK (apart from the Moths, which is quite another thread of development). You only have to compare the names on the Cherub Worlds trophy through that period with those on the I14 trophy to realise which class was involved in the leading edge...

I don't sail Cherubs any more (apart from an annual outing in a vintage one), and I'm not known to be a particular fan of recent developments in the class, so hopefully I now have a degree of perspective, but it was funny, when I researched Cherub history was staggered by just how key the Cherub was to the development of dinghy sailing right through that period. I was expecting it to be somewhat tangential, but in fact it seems to have been one of the key classes, right up there with the 18s. Of course the UK fleet tended to reflect this rather than lead, but if you're 2 years behind the guys who are 10 years ahead of the rest of the world you're still 8 years ahead of everyone else around you...

A lot of it comes down to the class founder and designer of the original Cherub, John Spencer, who has an excellent claim to have been the most influential designer in sailing in the second half of the twentieth century. Criminally under recognised in my opinion. I really ought to write a piece on him for the print mag now I think about it...

Edited by JimC