The Cherub

The Cherub Dinghy started in New Zealand in the early 1950's and spread to the UK in 1956. The Class has been active in this country since that time and more recently the UK fleet has followed a new positive and independent policy.

High Performance

The Cherub is a true high-performance dinghy. With a hull weight of only 110 lbs a sail area of 125 sq feet and a trapeze, the Cherub will easily plane to windward. Add the 130 sq ft spinnaker on its 9ft pole and the downwind speed is electrifying. On 3-sail reaches, Cherubs have the speed to overtake much longer boats such as 505's often enough to cause considerable embarrassment The present Portsmouth rating of 115 has now been overtaken by developments in 1984/85, and modern Cherubs are probably fast enough for a rating of about 113. At only 12 ft long, the Cherub is only beaten by the Australian 12 ft Skiff (which has the advantage of 2 trapezes and unlimited sail area).

Development Class

The Cherub is one of the select band of racing classes which permits development within the class restrictions, and the class policy is one of controlled and steady improvement. This allows the class to stay abreast of state-of-the-art dinghy sailing and ensures its long term future. The development concept permits individuals to tailor their boats to their own preferences and different hull designs encourage a wider range of crew weights than can be accommodated by a one-design.

Construction

Any form of construction is permitted. Both plywood and f.r.p foam sandwich hulls are competitive. Amateur built boats are common and successful Well built hulls remain competitive for many seasons and boats up to 6 years old can compete at the front of the Nationals fleet.

Crew

The Cherub is a boat for energetic light to medium weight crews. Competitive total crew weights range from 16 - 23 stones, although those at the extremes need to select their hull design more carefully. Because of its light weight, the Cherub responds instantly to good boat-handling and speed and agility count for much more than brute strength.

Cost

The Cherub is one of the cheapest high-performance dinghies. The light weight, combined with sensible rules, discourage the complexities which add so much cost in other classes. Professionally built boats can be put on the water for rather less than the equivalent "off-the-shelf" one-design spinnaker/trapeze boats. Amateur building can save another 40% from the total cost.

Organisation

In the UK the class is run by its members, for its members. We make all our own decisions within the Owners Association. There is an active and enthusiastic Committee and members are kept in touch by a quarterly Class Magazine