New Plywood Cherub Build

These photos of a plywood Cherub build in New Zealand crossed my Facebook feed. A plywood Cherub is a rare beast. As is the fashion these days, most Cherub's are built of more exotic composite materials. New Zealand, the home of the famous Kiwi designer, John Spencer and his Cherub class, has seen a recent revival of the class; the class being moribund since the 1990's. As I've mentioned, buried in an old post; I raced one weekend in an English Cherub regatta in the 1970's. (Back when the design fashion was a deep V carried all the way to the transom.) I've always had a soft spot for these 12' double-handers (the original single wire, wide Cherub, not the two wire, rack version the English cooked up to compete in their Portsmouth handicap racing).

This blog has sprinkled various Cherub antics throughout posts over the years.

This build uses 4mm plywood throughout. Minimum hull weight is 51 kg.

On the jig

Minimum frames, double bottom.

Carbon Tube for Pole Launcher.

Hull complete. Fitting rudder gantry.

Typical flat hull sections of an assymetric-powered skiff.

A modern Cherub upwind in max power conditions.

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Addendum April 2022

For a modern day source of Cherub plans, Alan Roper writes:

"In regards to the cherub it depends what you want .Greame Hill has a hull kitset I have designed. ...There is another boat I designed to he built of stitch and tape system and there is another one built of conventional methods. The latter 2 have paper plans.

Some crash and burn to close out 2019!

The first race of the 2019 U.K. Moth Championships featured big breeze and spectacular wipe-outs. (As a change of pace, at the 2:04 mark it is amusing to see a rather slow submerge to a slow endo.)

Header Photo: Zephyr Dinghy OTP

OTP = On the Plane (This was the name of the U.S. International 14 newsletter - not sure if it still is - probably not since newsletters have gone the way of the Dodo bird.)

The previous photo featured the New Zealand Zephyr class ripping along. The Zephyr is one of four 11-footer conventional racing classes featured in the blog (Classic Moth, Europe Dinghy, British Moth, and the Zephyr).

Time to return to a Mini Transat 6.5 post

Nothing like watching some Mini Transat 6.5's let loose downwind. Sit back and get your Internet virtual buzz-on.

OOF! Massive squall hits the Bol d'Or mirabaud race.

A massive squall rolled through the Bol d'Or mirabaud race on Lake Geneva. This is a long distance race featuring a wide assortment of multihulls and keelboats. Luckily no fatalities in the race though a tourist died on a sightseeing boat.

Facebook has a short clip.

A view from the mast-base-cam of one of the competitors.

Header Photo: Cherub on a Roll-Over

For the previous header photo I remained with an Antipodean theme (they are, after all, the ones sailing during the Northern winter) The photo was of a modern Australian Cherub dinghy losing it on a spinnaker reach during this years Australian Cherub Nationals. The Earwigoagin archives feature several post about this blasting machine. Unfortunately the class split internationally about ten years ago with the English deciding the make their Cherub class a mini-International 14 with two trapezes, narrow waterline and a much larger rig.

The Australian's, on the other hand, retained the old development rule, with single trapeze, wider hulls and smaller rigs; a sensible decision in my book as it allows many different body types to race this high performance skiff. Because of the Cherub's manageable size, there are a fair number of successful women helms. Andrew Chapman, one of Earwigoagin's Australian correspondents, reports of this year's nationals, "25 of the 80 crew were young women ... [with a] Lady skipper first and lady skipper second." Andrew would like to see the Australian Cherub class gain a foothold in North America. I agree but that would have to reverse a trend in North America which has seen the disappearance of many of the single trapeze performance classes that were active in North America in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's. (The 505 being the one single trapeze class still chugging along in North America but that is a brute of a dinghy and requires some beef to race successfully.)

• Other Earwigoagin posts about the Cherub.
• The blogmeister's weekend regatta in a Cherub

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A precursor photo shot just seconds before the completed layover of the header photo.

A nice shot of the clean open interiors of the modern Cherub.

I always like the dinghies that inject some color into the fleet. A leeward mark rounding and hardening up.

A superb video from this year's Australian Cherub Nationals.

The Slap, Slap, Bounce, Pound, Pound, Water-hose Plane

The sound effects from this International 14 video really capture the high-speed hopping, and pounding, and slamming these twin-trap assymetrics experience going downwind. Video shot from the spreaders.

Companion video of a 14' Javelin dinghy motoring along over here.

Messing about in a 14 from Dan Cunningham on Vimeo.

Finn Dinghy Grunt Reaching

I've been featuring lots of videos about how to do it wrong - time to get back to the Olympic sailors doing it right - in this case Finn sailor Alejandro Foglia of Uruguay.

A couple of observations:

• You know it's really honking when a Finn sailor isn't pumping the main.
• The Finn is a heavy singlehander - 107 kg hull weight - but despite the weight this if full on, balls-to-the-wall reaching.

Tillerman over at Propercourse just recently featured a video of the massive American centerboard design Flying Scot planing. (There is a true sense of unleashed power when you get some of these heavy designs up and going; I have some fond memories of some great reaches on a American Lightning dinghy (318 kg.) under spinnaker and also the Y-Flyer scow (227 kg.).

Lightweight Sharpie Fleet Turning the Corner

Great fun in videoland when the drone operator is an experienced dinghy sailor and knows the best footage in a breeze is always at the jibe mark.

The Australian Lightweight Sharpies are 19' (5.8 meters) long, crewed by three (one on a trapeze) with a symmetrical spinnaker. The Aussies used the hull from the 12 sq. m Sharpie but redid it in plywood in the 1960's, reducing the weight considerably. The rig was updated from a gunter to a modern full battened main with aluminum mast. One takeaway from the video is how impressive is the wake from a full-on planing dinghy.

TOH to Jim Champ who posted this video to the Yachts and Yachting forum.



Earwigoagin archives has another Lightweight Sharpie video.

From the comments, Mike Scott chimes in with his experiences crewing the Lightweight Sharpie;

"When I emigrated to the Antipodes as a "Ten pound Pom' in 1965, I sought out my local sailing club - Lake Heights Sailing Club. Classes sailed there were OK dinghies, Lightweight Sharpies, and sundry others. "As I had no money to buy a boat in them days, I volunteered my services as crew aboard a Sharpie. What an eye-opener that proved to be for a British kid used to sailing little dinghies on ponds and rivers!! I was sheet-hand (mainsheet trimmer, and spinnaker raiser/trimmer), and those boats could really fly. Faster than a Dutchman, 505, or Fireball, it was a blast, and the thing I most remember being how warm the water was! Very wet boats, one was completely drenched on a planing reach, as you can see from the video. Occasionally we'd be out in the middle of Lake Illawarra, where the club was located, on a hot sunny day, when the clouds would gather on the horizon, and a Southerly Buster would come screaming across the lake, flattening the fleet, and forcing a rapid and hair-raising ride back to the beach!

"I don't think they are the most popular trapeze dinghy in Oz - the skiffs probably have a bigger following 14ft 16ft and of course the 18ft-ers.

Daggerboard Hum (Loud!)

Sometimes when dinghies go fast they sing to you, as is the case in this video of a 14' Javelin class at speed on a long spinnaker reach. Originally designed by John Spencer of New Zealand as a follow-on to his 12' Cherub, the Javelin is a development skiff design, single trapeze with a moderate rig. The Javelin remains an Antipodean class, raced in Australia and New Zealand.

Yee-Ha!

The VX One - A Hybrid Whatsit?

The VX One is one the new generation of hybrid racing designs, in this case a design that targets the longer (17' to 19' or 5 to 5.8 meters) dinghy market in the U.S.. The VX One is that modern mashup of dinghy, skiff, and keeler concepts. It borrows most from the skiff world; the fat arse, narrow bow sections, flat rocker, assymetric and roachy full-battened sailplan. To calm it down a bit, it has a lifting keel of about 60 kg (135 lbs.). The VX One's length, sail area, overall weight and, no hiking assists, it is raced as a hiking sailboat, puts it out there as a modern market alternative to America's longer traditional hiking dinghy classes; the Lightning, Thistle, and Flying Scot. Conceived and designed by Brian Bennett, with naval architect data crunching by Rodger Martin (who also did the Johnson 18 in the early 1990's) and Ross Weene, the VX One seems to have maintained steady growth in the U.S. since 2011. Though I couldn't find a price on the InterWebs, The VX One seems to be pricier than any of the aforementioned traditional large dinghies, and definitely more balls-to-the-wall than family oriented racing. Is this hybrid concept the way of the future in America small boat racing, where we seem to treasure both stability and performance?

Here is a very nice video of the VX One with the obligatory planing-at-full-speed filling up most of the footage.


Best of VX One Sailing from Ian Maccini on Vimeo.

A Big Boy Up and Hammering

Every once in a while I get a hankering to pull out a video of one of those wide-body French offshore speed machines. This is the French PRB, one of those IMOCA 60's.

Video removed from Vimeo.

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A video of the small tykes, the Mini-Transat 6.5's planing can be seen here.

Video: Aussie Dinghy Compliation

GoPro video of several Aussie dinghy classes featuring the Frank Bethawaite designed Tasar, the ubiquitous Laser, what looks like a Holt Pacer but has an NV logo on the sail, and the whoop-it-up Cherub dinghy.



ADFASC Promo 2014 from Matt Bruton on Vimeo.

Equal Billing - Europe Dinghy on Lake Garda

Enough about the Merry Finnster on Lake Garda - how about the world's most popular Classic Moth - the Europe Dinghy. One of the top Swedish Europe Dinghy sailors put together this intriguing travelogue of the 2015 regatta on Lake Garda, with plenty of hand-held GoPro planing shots, plenty of spray everywhere, all set to the appropriate bombastic music score. Sit back, pull out a beer or potato chips - your choice - and enjoy!

Melges 14 - Vaporware?

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Melges Performance replies to this post....

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A couple of months ago there was a flurry of sightings of a prototype Melges 14 on the water and at the Chicago Boat Show. Since then, not a peep about the Melges 14, at least not that I can tell sitting here on the East Coast. Anybody know if Melges is going forward with production of this singlehander?

No matter what the timeline is (or not) of the Melges 14 actually emerging to the market, they did put out a very nice promotional video, complete with drone footage:



Melges 14 Promo from Melges 14 on Vimeo.

Of the Laser Borg

Many years ago; my one and only Laser - sail no. 549.

Photo: Ellie Martin

The Merry Finnster

I noticed that Finn videos were popular in the bloggosphere a couple of months ago. Being somewhat late in following trends, I offer up one of my favorite Finn videos, this of Olympic sailing's free spirit, Estonian Deniss Karpak. Sailing in Lake Garda, on a day that appears to be solely devoted to training on downwind technique (lucky dogs those Olympians, to spend the day planing to and fro), our hero pauses to pick some flowers to decorate his centerboard before resuming the workout.


Daybreak: Garda Adventures from Deniss Karpak on Vimeo.

Down the Mine Twofer

We just got another dollop of snow this morning in the Mid-Atlantic (nothing close to what they are dealing with in the Northeast). To buck me up before I go out to shovel the driveway, a duo of sailing crash and burn videos.

First up, that old chestnut of dinghy disaster, the Olympic 49'er. This time the performers are a Canadian team (the acceleration once they get the assymetric trimmed is jaw-dropping - at about 2:04 into the video).

Click here for more 49'er shenanigans.


Splash's & Crash's from Ferguson Sailing on Vimeo.


Next up, a plucky and persistent junior team having their difficulties around the course in their RS Feva during the 2015 Bloody Mary. Good thing they are wearing matching dayglo-green knit caps.

Bloody Mary Handicap Race - 2015

There is nothing like this in entire world. In the middle of winter, 235 racing dinghies from most of the English classes, and based all around England, show up at a reservoir in West London to race a pursuit race. This year the breeze was on and Yachts and Yachting online has the story.

If you are like me and can watch dinghies planing this-way-and-that-way all day long on YouTube, you'll find this video of the 2015 Bloody Mary enjoyable. It's nice to see the 1960's vintage Fireball placing on top. They still have symmetrical spinnakers and seeing the crew manhandle the spinnaker pole onto the mast on the spinnaker sets reminds me of my crewing days. One can also glimpse the two new singlehanders, the RS Aero and the D-Zero making appearances at the leeward mark.

(I also noticed Steve Cockerill, head honcho of Rooster Sailing, who can have his pick of the latest, greatest sailing kit, sailing without gloves....Wassup with that!...Ouch!)



For a previous post on English winter sailing click here.

D-Zero Singlehander Video

In the battle in the sailing marketplace to be the next "modern" singlehanded racing dinghy there is, besides the RS Aero, the Devoti D-Zero, designed by Brit Dan Holman. Visually the D-Zero looks more "swoopier" than the Aero and the snout, the area in front of the mast, looks more pronounced. The D-Zero is not as super-light as the RS Aero (but at 42kg still very light).

There is the rumor on the InterWebs that Melges also has a 14-foot singlehander in pre-production testing. This will add an interesting third new singlehander to the mix; a development bemoaned by some as cluttering up consumer choice and prohibiting one class from gaining traction. However, it is not a bad move by Melges, given the odd tendency of Americans not to buy sailboats that were foreign designed or built (or if they were foreign designed we need to re-work them such as the Collegiate 420 or Collegiate FJ).

Back in Mark 2014, I did a post of the unveiling of the RS Aero and Devotti D-Zero at the London Dinghy Exhibition.

As promised, a send-them reaching video of the Devotti D-Zero.