Daemon

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So here it is! The Cherub Dæmon, a stripped down and pumped up production skiff designed specifically to target ALL the ISAF requirements for the proposed Women’s Olympic Skiff.

rich_taylor us to show your support for the project.

You are probably asking yourself why?

Well the short answer to this is necessity. Quite simply, there are production skiffs on the market and they do fit the ISAF requirement to a degree. However, some of these classes are restrictive and boats depreciate rapidly as there is no alternitive class to sail them competitively in.

For this reason a few like-minded members decided to galvanise and execute a project that would bring a viable alternative for the ISAF committees to consider.

The Daemon is our proposal, it is a strict Olympic One-Design and conforms to the Cherub class rules, this will automatically give all Daemon equipment a second lease of life inside the Cherub Development class rules and an alternitive fleet for owners to sail or “cut their teeth” in . Our proposal and design has a solid commercial plan and financial backing in the form of Hartley Laminates who have worked closely with the class and ISAF to ensure all product & commercial targets are met.

Now you are asking yourself how?

Creating the theoretical plan is relatively easy; executing and delivering it to market as a production boat is the hard part. Turning the Daemon into reality has been achieved by a hardcore of dedicated Cherub sailors with the collaboration of an exceptional production builder, Hartley Laminates.

In early 2006 the Dæmon project was conceived, by August the plans & tooling forms had been constructed on CAD with the help of Simon Roberts. Early September saw the creation of tooling patterns and in October the first complete hull emerged form the Aardvark workshop.

Gradually, as the ISAF specification became more detailed, we realised that the Cherub design & ethos fitted the criteria exceptionally well and we learned that a serious submission would be welcomed by ISAF.

In February we made our submission with supporting documentation at the ISAF office in Southampton. It was a truly important day as the previous year’s activities had successfully be kept secret but in a few short days time the applications would be made public and our commitment known.

Testing the water

The first Dæmon “The Subtle Knife” was already public, it had been pictured on Cherub web site and also the ISAF release. What the competition did not know was that there was a second boat and a production builder that were waiting to launch.

Hartley Laminates unveiled their Cherub Dæmon to an unsuspecting audience at the RYA Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace. The boat created a real buzz and many serious enquiries.

It was now clear to all, the Cherub entrant for the Women’s Olympic Skiff was a very serious proposal with the backing of a large production manufacturer as well as widespread support of the public. <html><center>

Where to now?

The Hyeres trials in April are the next step in the ISAF process. Two Cherub Dæmons will be there together with crews and support team. We are there to present a serious alternative to the currently prevalent single-manufacturer system as we believe that it is important to support regional sailing industries around the world to broaden the appeal of sailing and to bring women's Olympic sailing into the 21st century.

ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 4:

Thursday 19th April 2007

There was much talk of more wind for this, the last day of these interesting and enjoyable equipment trials. All of the 'main business' of each of the nominated sailors having a sail in all of the boats and later filling in a questionnaire had been completed, so people chose which boat to sail.

Finding some rational method to choose a pair of teams to sail the Cherub Daemons from the moderately orderly queue of keen elite female sailors was a challenge, and in the end it was decided to offer sails to those who asked the earliest: This meant it was Lina Stroemquist and Tina Nilsson, two 470 sailors from Norway who had asked to have a go before the event even started in Badgers, and the Danish nominees Helle Orum-Nielsen and Maria Gade in Subtle Knife.

The wind was slightly fresher: It may have even had exceeded ten knots at times, and it was cloudy which gave the day a very different feel. After some sailing around a gate-start was arranged and the boats headed upwind on a short beat to a buoy. The RS800s and to a lesser extent the i14s got clean away, the extra rag, weight and length keeping them moving through the chop. Once the Cherub Dameon 'Subtle Knife' was clear to tack, that's just what the Danes did, and then they were able to put the nose down, get back and use the T-foil properly. Watching from the RIB the speed difference was immediately apparent and at the windward mark the Cherub Daemon was comfortably ahead of both RS800s, which were followed by both i14's. There followed a neat hoist and then they were away: Locked in on their way downhill: Unstoppable! They were persued by the evaluators RIBs: All eyes were on the Cherub Daemon! (See the pics taken by pro photographer Andrew Filipinski on www.digigraphics.co.uk - page 6 of the album has the sequence. Videos and GPS track coming soon.)

After this the breeze went down and there were some boat-on-boat rabbit-start exercises. Then, all too soon, it was all over. People were getting on planes, boats were having their masts taken down and being lifted onto trailers. It was sad to see that our experiences in Hyeres were coming to an end so suddenly: The chance to show elite female sailors, and the administrators of our great sport, what we have to offer - and for them to all absolutely love it - was really special.

The Cherub Daemon team at Hyeres was Richard Taylor, Tim Coventry, Derek Clarke, Matt Albiston, Tim Noyce, Ant Chapman, Will Lee, Lucy Lee, Tom Kiddle, Stuart Hopson.

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