Phil Alderson

Phil Alderson is the Technical Officer and runs the website and forums, builder of Primal Scream and AquaMarina. He now owns The Flying Kipper and Pocket Rocket, lives in Largs and can't wait for the 2010 Cherub Nationals to be held at Largo Bay!

I first got into Cherub sailing when Will Lee asked me to crew for him at the 1995 Plymouth nationals in 2522 a beautiful looking Hot Dog design that had just finished being repainted and re varnished. The first time out in the boat a week before the nationals we put too much rig tension on and split the boat, realised that the rudder was far too small, and that none of the systems worked. A frantic week of rebuilding and redesigning the systems and we thought we were ready for anything, except possibly Plymouth. A stunning week of blasting at un-feasable speeds, breaking every part of the boat possible and I was hooked. I borrowed 2522 again in 1997 for a light wind nationals in Babbacombe and after helping Will to convert 2642 Little Fluffy Clouds to 97 rules went to New Quay for the 1998 nationals.

At this point I realised that I had to get my own boat but not wanting a conversion project I dived in at the deep end and decided to build one. I started by buying the shell for AquaMarina from Andy Patterson as it would save on building a jig and I knew that at least part of the boat would be properly built. I then spent a few years putting it together before taking it on a 500 mile journey to finish building it at the side of the road in Weymouth, I got sailing for the last race of the 2001 Nationals and realised quite what a beast I had built especialy when using a rather heavy ex int 14 aluminium mast.

After several years sailing and modifying AquaMarina it was time to trade up to a new boat and got together with Dave Low from DL Boats to design and build Primal Scream. After sailing Primal Scream, with my wife for a couple of years, we decided on a change and bought The Flying Kipper for some high wind fun, we then sold Primal and added Pocket Rocket to our fleet.

Phone Phil on: 0794 3869739

Or using email