Cherub celebrate their 50

Still going strong in the UK the always colourful Cherub class were out in force at Sailboat

The UK Cherub class celebrated their 50th anniversary at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this year. And as is to be expected of the "off the wall class" they had an extreme looking brand new boat at the show, nicely contrasting with the restored 1971 Bruce Farr design.

Thanks to SP Systems coming up with some cash the class had a decent stand for their birthday and a bonus was the attendance of skiff guru Frank Bethwaite, who was in town for the launch of his new 59er design on the nearby Ovington Boats stand.

Frank goes way back to the early days of the class when John Spencer was designing and building the first boats at his Browns Bay yard in New Zealand and the story goes that Frank took the first Cherub to Sydney in his Flyingboat when they moved there. Later Nicola and Julian Bethwaite were Cherub World Champions in the seventies and Julian went on to be 18ft Skiff Champion and produce a string of skiff based designs - Ron Holland was another youngster around the yard at that time.


Mango Jam - GBR2682 with ultimate rudder gantry

The new boat at the show was Gavin Sims brand-new all carbon beastie. It's his first design to be built and first new Cherub, although he has been very competitive in his previous boat, an Italian Bistro Cherub. The shape is optimised for the flatter water conditions he predominantly sails in, and for a slightly greater than average crew weight. It is slightly wider on the waterline than some of the other recent designs, the bow sections are U-shaped to maximise buoyancy in moderate conditions, and aft rocker is kept low for offwind speed.

The hull is to his own design, and is constructed of a single skin of 200gsm carbon plain weave cloth, with an extra layer of 200gsm 2-2 twill glass cloth on the decks and the hull beneath the chines for dent resistance. The decks and floor are 8mm foam, and the topsides 5mm foam. There's also 300gsm unidirectional carbon for local reinforcement in high load areas.

The mast is stepped on a post to gooseneck height, which has integral solid "lower shrouds".

Because this structure is thoroughly integrated with the rest of the load bearing space frame it significantly increases the stiffness of the hull.

The post is of carbon with a solid foam core for ease of construction.

With no need to handle kickingstrap loads the mast can be made lighter than normal. The rig design is a progression from the high aspect ratio rig Gavin developed in his previous boat, Dangerous Strawberry, which was noted for exceptional upwind speed in moderate conditions.

There is appreciable top mast prebend in order to provide easy control of twist in the rig, and it can of course be bladed out and twisted off to depower as is conventional with this style of twin spreader sail. The luff is slightly shorter than was used in the previous rig which permits a greater chord and thus more power and control in the mainsail offwind.

Elsewhere in the fleet there are persistent rumours about some people possibly sourcing rigs from the Kiwi C-spar/Fyfe Sails combination. These people, dominant in the 12foot and R class in New Zealand, produce what are among the most forward looking and innovative skiff type rigs in the world, so there could be something to look for there in the future.

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1971 vintage Cherub KZ1982