ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 3

18th April 2007

Today began with more light southeasterly winds and sunshine. There was a full house of ISAF nominated sailors in the Cherub Daemons to begin with: Hela and Marie from Denmark in one and Elizabeth and Caroline from the USA in the other. These two evenly matched pairs match raced as they put the boats through their paces. The Hartley Laminates RIB followed at a safe distance, taking photos and videos, answering occasional questions about T-foil use, but mostly looking at the incredibly high quality sailors and picking up tips on how to improve our own sailing.

The course was set as a windward-leeward with a leeward gate just to keep everyone together in the same place as the ISAF raters visited each boat to watch. The building breeze allowed for the boats to be used in every 'gear' by the teams. Hela asked for a Cherub-Daemon team member to swap in to demonstrate T-foil use, so she and Lucy Lee did a couple of laps, visited for a time by Team GBR Tornado Coach (and friend of the Cherub Daemon project) Derek Clarke in his RIB. He came to see how his rig alterations were getting on before going to continue with his team preparing for the Hyeres Regatta next week.

The Austrian team Sylvie and Sonia asked for a second shot in the Cherub Daemon and swapped to replace the Americans. They really enjoyed the extra speed available offwind when using the T-foil - especially as they had made full use of an of-the-water masterclass the previous evening in the boatpark, turning the extension and watching the foil change angle in a fully controlled environment.

After a lunch spent basking in fabulous sunshine and chatting with members of other teams, it was back on the water with the Swedish ISAF nominees, this time divided between the two boats with Cherub Daemon team members Ant Chapman and Lucy Lee filling in. These two Swedes soon asked to be together and spent the rest of the afternoon showing off the Cherub Daemons absurd pace upwind and down, with many spectacular gybes, hoists and drops thrown in.

The Japanese team of Mitsui and Maki also asked for another turn in a Cherub Daemon so it was a full house of nominees again.

All of a sudden at half past four, nearly at the end of the afternoon, an unsettling bank of sea fog rolled in from the southeast on the breeze. As the landmarks, yachts, RIBs, and other close-by boats disappeared around, the Japanese team were just swapping into the RIB for a Cherub Deamon team pair. This was enough time for the Swedish team to be out of sight - and this was the boat without a full featured GPS aboard. The wind stayed up while the fog was in, and everyone headed for shore. The RIB arrived at the harbour with the Swedish pair, who still had their kite up and flashly sailed right to the slip before a smart drop and jumping out. The GPS equipped Cherub Daemon appeared shortly afterwards, having followed the GPS track back in.

After the boats were packed up the Cherub-Daemon team made their presentation to the ISAF evaluation committee. This outlined the details of the boat and the wider proposal. This was well received.

Tomorrow is the last day of the trials, and with the presentations out of the way, the team can relax a bit and concentrate on helping the crowd of elite female sailors who want to try out the talk of Hyeres: The Cherub-Daemon.