Editorial from 1987

Note: The last paragraph is about the 1987 America's Cup

1987 was not a spectacular year for the Cherubs, with numbers much the same as last year, a few new faces and one or two old faces reappearing. Since the rule changes a couple of years ago the main development has been in rigs. The new rules permit you to distribute 125 sqft of actual sail area between main and jib, subject to a max mainsail luff of 18ft and max foot of 6ft9in. Almost everyone now has a mainsail of 90-95 sq ft on a 6ft6in foot, giving a much larger roach than before, and with jibs overlapping the mast by about 2in. This rig, although little different in area, has proved appreciably faster, the PY number (which represents the average boat in the fleet) having dropped a point already and with probably another one or maybe two to come. The large roach/small overlap rig points dramatically better and is also quicker on a 3 sail reach, presumably because the small jib restricts the slot beytween spinnaker and mainsail less. Jibs are sheeted about 13-14 degrees and geneally sheeted fairly gently with appreciable twist. Most masts are Superspar and Caws is now the favourite sailmaker. Many of the top boats are using Mylar mainsails. These are more stable, but a bit fragile. Mylar jibs fall apart in about 3/10 of a second and have been largely abandoned.

No-one fast had a new boat this year, and the ageing Flat Stanley was definitely top boat. This NZ built boat is now over 7 years old, but still as fast as ever. The biggest effect f the new rules has been in handicap racing - it is now possible to get placings related to your ability in wind as low as 3-4 instead of F5. So far this year Cherubs have been 2nd at Bewl Valley, 1,2,3 at the Grafham Grand Prix (slow division) and won the Bloody Mary.

Its been a reasonable year for designers who started off designing Cherubs though… The names Farr, Davidson (KZ7) and Murray (Kookaburra) spring to mind… In view of the performance of the Howlett Cherub maybe Messrs Forman, Ellway etc should be commissioned to design for the UK Challenger?

Thanks to Jim Champ who contributed this in October 2007