The Cherub is a two-person racing dinghy with asymmetric spinnaker and twin trapezes. Just twelve feet long, weighing around 70kgs fully rigged for sailing, the Cherub combines spectacular performance with the “on the edge” handling characteristics only found in true lightweight skiffs.
Originally created in New Zealand by John Spencer in 1951, Cherubs are mainly sailed in Australia and Great Britain, with a growing fleet in France. As well as this, boats can be found as far away as Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, the USA, Portugal and now the Netherlands.
The Cherub rules are simple, giving maximum flexibility for designers and allowing boats to be created to incorporate sailors' own ideas. It also means the class develops over time as techniques, materials and ideas improve. All this makes the Cherub is one of the most interesting and innovative of all dinghies: The challenge extends from the sailing skills to setting up the boat to suit the sailor, and maybe even designing and building, too.
Cherub sailing is the real thing: True planing performance upwind, but then turn the corner and you’re in for the ride of your life….
Scumbag (Formerly Therapy, formerly Domino) Has gone to a new home. The new keepers appear to have already started getting to grips with their new toy:
From Forum posting:
Fun!!! That word seems so inadequate with relation to sailing Cherubs….We grin for hours/days after sailing her ;D I'm a bit concerned that 12ft of carbon skiff might get recatergorized as an illegal substance. Maybe it's a good job we didn't call her “Class A Addiction”!!!!
There are still several fully packed boats on the second-hand list ready for a summer of blatting (and of course the Nationals)