Sailboat Show 2004:

Will and I (2637, Norweigan Blue) arrived on Saturday morning with Phil and Carol (2681, Aqua Marina), having skived off the setting up by being at work on Friday. Phil and Carol might have won the prize for the furthest traveled (Aberdeen) but they were trumped late on Sunday by friends of Skip Kovak (2679, Hungry Beast) who’d come all the way from Annapolis!

We’d planned to spend a couple of hours catching up on the gossip and then see the rest of the show. However, when we got to the stand it was so busy we were there all day answering questions and meeting Cherub sailors past, present and future. These included: the guy with original publicity handouts describing the boats when they first arrived in the UK, the man from Hillhead Sailing Club who has put us in touch with the owner of Cherub 303, Harry who is fitting out his pre-’87 boat and plans to take advantage of the boat jumble at the ‘Try a Cherub’ day, Mark and Sarah (2661, This Way Up) who are just about finished their winter re-fit, Tom who has his eye on one of the second hand boats and Gary from P&B who rather fancies building one…

The stand was very well placed: next to the National 12s and opposite the International 14s and Canoes, we got lots of visitors from those classes who rather liked the look of the Blue (ex Green) Slug with its spanking new rig from C-tech.

There were lots of people keen to come to the ‘Try a Cherub’ day, on April 3rd at Stokes Bay Sailing Club. Some of you with boats to sell or repair were keen to come along for the boat jumble and expert tips on rigging and tuning, others wanted to ‘do what they are doing on the DVD’ (watching Mango Jam goin g Mach 10 at Neyland). If you are planing to come along on April 3rd, either with a boat or without, do please let us know (wlee40 'at' aol.com) so we get some idea of numbers for the curry on Saturday evening. We promise it will be better than the curry house at the Tiger Trophy! We can help you sort out transport, boat storage & accommodation.

The DVD was a big crowd pleaser, with a constant stream of wide-eyed spectators marvelling at the antics on screen. Lots of you put your names down to win a copy, so congratulations to Helen Rosser, ticket No.25. It is in the post. If you didn’t win, you can order a copy here.

There was so much interest and so many keen new faces that we ran out of fixtures lists, CDROMs and secondhand boat lists by early afternoon, and had to do some emergency photocopying / CD burning for Sunday. If you are looking for a second hand boat and the one you fancied from the secondhand list has already sold (we know two have gone already) why not place a ‘Wanted’ ad describing what you are looking for. You never know what might happen

Things calmed down a bit by Sunday afternoon so we were able to see some of the sights. These included the hydrofoil gadgetry on the back of the RMW I14, Mike Cooke’s National 12 with the canting rig and an unballasted model skiff eing shown off by our old friends the Stollerys. I am sure there was something fabulous at the Moth stand but we never got that far. Sorry, guys but we’ll see it all in action at the Nationals in Weymouth (July 18th-23rd).

So, it only remains to say a big hello to all the people who came to talk to us and well-done to everyone for such a fantastic stand. See you again soon on the water!

Lucy Lee