ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 1:

16th April 2007

Today was the first day of the ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials in Hyeres, France. The two Cherub-Daemons were joined by four other teams, The RS800, the International 14, the 29er and 29erXX and the GT60.

The 0930 briefing gave us the opportunity to meet the evaluators and the for the teams to introduce themselves. The Cherub Daemon Team is being represented by Richard Taylor, Tim Coventry, Derek Clarke, Tim Noyce, Matt Albiston, William Lee, Lucy Lee, Tom Kiddle, Stuart Hopson and Ant Chapman.

The briefing was followed by an inspection of the rigged boats by the ISAF committee, ISAF designated evaluation sailors and the other teams. This allowed the teams to compare the boats and the evaluators to see what they would be sailing.

The Cherub Daemon was able to demonstrate its unique T-foil system with a mechanism within the tiller controlled by twisting the tiller extensions.

Following the formal inspection of the boats, there was a period of hours while the breeze filled in, where there was much informal discussion and demonstration.

The format of the event over the next few days will be that five pairs of ISAF evaluation sailors will sail each boat and report their impressions. These are drawn from the very best female sailors.

Today, the sailors in the Cherub Daemon were International 470 sailors Rachel and Rebecca from the UK.

The Cherub Daemons were the first boats to launch with one evaluation sailor in each boat, paired with Tom Kiddle and Stu Hopson. The wind was initially light and patchy, so the crews were able to become familiar with the layout before the breeze filled in a little. After a short while Rebecca and Rachel swapped to sail together, getting to grips with the new techniques required in a twin-trapeze asymmetric with T-foil.

Most of the afternoon was spent sailing around a small course in company with the other trial boats.

There was no formal racing, but there was some friendly rivalry between the Cherub Daemons which kept it lively. As you can see from the GPS-track, courtesy of our Nationals Title Sponsors Velocitek, the Cherub Daemons did not hang around offwind, even in the light conditions, hitting 12 knots at times. Both Cherub Daemon crews were very pleased with the performance compared to the other boats in light airs with the T-foil rudder providing a clear performance enhancment in these conditions.

“Today was a chance to show really excellent female sailors this terrific boat.” says Lucy Lee, Cherub Class President, “I am thrilled that they found it such an enjoyable and challenging experience, and were able to see for themselves just how well it fulfills the ISAF's criteria for the proposed Women's Olympic Skiff. ”

Richard Taylor, Daemon Project Manager, added “Hartley Laminates have really pulled this off. The boats look excellent and have drawn admiring glances from everyone, including teams preparing for the regatta here next week.”

The evaluation continues tomorrow.