Daemon

So here it is! The Cherub Dæmon, a stripped down and pumped up production skiff designed specifically to target ALL the ISAF requirements for the proposed Women’s Olympic Skiff.

rich_taylor us to show your support for the project.

You are probably asking yourself why?

Well the short answer to this is necessity. Quite simply, there are production skiffs on the market and they do fit the ISAF requirement to a degree. However, some of these classes are restrictive and boats depreciate rapidly as there is no alternitive class to sail them competitively in.

For this reason a few like-minded members decided to galvanise and execute a project that would bring a viable alternative for the ISAF committees to consider.

The Daemon is our proposal, it is a strict Olympic One-Design and conforms to the Cherub class rules, this will automatically give all Daemon equipment a second lease of life inside the Cherub Development class rules and an alternitive fleet for owners to sail or “cut their teeth” in . Our proposal and design has a solid commercial plan and financial backing in the form of Hartley Laminates who have worked closely with the class and ISAF to ensure all product & commercial targets are met.

Now you are asking yourself how?

Creating the theoretical plan is relatively easy; executing and delivering it to market as a production boat is the hard part. Turning the Daemon into reality has been achieved by a hardcore of dedicated Cherub sailors with the collaboration of an exceptional production builder, Hartley Laminates.

In early 2006 the Dæmon project was conceived, by August the plans & tooling forms had been constructed on CAD with the help of Simon Roberts. Early September saw the creation of tooling patterns and in October the first complete hull emerged form the Aardvark workshop.

Gradually, as the ISAF specification became more detailed, we realised that the Cherub design & ethos fitted the criteria exceptionally well and we learned that a serious submission would be welcomed by ISAF.

In February we made our submission with supporting documentation at the ISAF office in Southampton. It was a truly important day as the previous year’s activities had successfully be kept secret but in a few short days time the applications would be made public and our commitment known.

Testing the water

The first Dæmon “The Subtle Knife” was already public, it had been pictured on Cherub web site and also the ISAF release. What the competition did not know was that there was a second boat and a production builder that were waiting to launch.

Hartley Laminates unveiled their Cherub Dæmon to an unsuspecting audience at the RYA Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace. The boat created a real buzz and many serious enquiries.

It was now clear to all, the Cherub entrant for the Women’s Olympic Skiff was a very serious proposal with the backing of a large production manufacturer as well as widespread support of the public. <html><center>

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Where to now?

The Hyeres trials in April are the next step in the ISAF process. Two Cherub Dæmons will be there together with crews and support team. We are there to present a serious alternative to the currently prevalent single-manufacturer system as we believe that it is important to support regional sailing industries around the world to broaden the appeal of sailing and to bring women's Olympic sailing into the 21st century.

ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 1:

16th April 2007

Today was the first day of the ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials in Hyeres, France. The two Cherub-Daemons were joined by four other teams, The RS800, the International 14, the 29er and 29erXX and the GT60.

The 0930 briefing gave us the opportunity to meet the evaluators and the for the teams to introduce themselves. The Cherub Daemon Team is being represented by Richard Taylor, Tim Coventry, Derek Clarke, Tim Noyce, Matt Albiston, William Lee, Lucy Lee, Tom Kiddle, Stuart Hopson and Ant Chapman.

The briefing was followed by an inspection of the rigged boats by the ISAF committee, ISAF designated evaluation sailors and the other teams. This allowed the teams to compare the boats and the evaluators to see what they would be sailing.

The Cherub Daemon was able to demonstrate its unique T-foil system with a mechanism within the tiller controlled by twisting the tiller extensions.

Following the formal inspection of the boats, there was a period of hours while the breeze filled in, where there was much informal discussion and demonstration.

The format of the event over the next few days will be that five pairs of ISAF evaluation sailors will sail each boat and report their impressions. These are drawn from the very best female sailors.

Today, the sailors in the Cherub Daemon were International 470 sailors Rachel and Rebecca from the UK.

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The Cherub Daemons were the first boats to launch with one evaluation sailor in each boat, paired with Tom Kiddle and Stu Hopson. The wind was initially light and patchy, so the crews were able to become familiar with the layout before the breeze filled in a little. After a short while Rebecca and Rachel swapped to sail together, getting to grips with the new techniques required in a twin-trapeze asymmetric with T-foil.

Most of the afternoon was spent sailing around a small course in company with the other trial boats.

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There was no formal racing, but there was some friendly rivalry between the Cherub Daemons which kept it lively. As you can see from the GPS-track, courtesy of our Nationals Title Sponsors Velocitek, the Cherub Daemons did not hang around offwind, even in the light conditions, hitting 12 knots at times. Both Cherub Daemon crews were very pleased with the performance compared to the other boats in light airs with the T-foil rudder providing a clear performance enhancment in these conditions.

“Today was a chance to show really excellent female sailors this terrific boat.” says Lucy Lee, Cherub Class President, “I am thrilled that they found it such an enjoyable and challenging experience, and were able to see for themselves just how well it fulfills the ISAF's criteria for the proposed Women's Olympic Skiff. ”

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Richard Taylor, Daemon Project Manager, added “Hartley Laminates have really pulled this off. The boats look excellent and have drawn admiring glances from everyone, including teams preparing for the regatta here next week.”

The evaluation continues tomorrow.

 
ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 2

17th April 2007

The second day of the ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials was characterised by moderate breeze in the morning in beautiful sunshine, and less breeze resulting in tow-ins for many in the afternoon.

The allotted trial crew for the Cherub Daemon were Maki and Mitsui, the nominated team from Japan. These two rigged one of the Daemons themselves under the guidance of the Cherub Daemon team. They then assisted with the short and easy lift to the water right around the other boats waiting patiently to use the slipway.

Maki sailed as crew in one Daemon and Mitsui sailed as helm in the other with Cherub Daemon team members filling in. Once out of the harbour the next half an hour was spent showing them the ropes and demonstrating the T-foil system, both upwind and down. Before long these two 470 sailors took a Daemon between them and reported thoroughly enjoying twinning upwind and down in the building breeze, and experimenting with the unique twist-grip T-foil control, allowing them to push this ultra-light skiff hard in the lumpy water. Soon our new friends were whisked away to their next assignment by an official ISAF RIB and then the process started again with another pair of nominated sailors. Who could ask for more than bright sun, blue sea, fabulous breeze and a Cherub or two to burn about in? (with a RIB to carry the drinks)

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After lunch (taken serially in the Hartley Laminates sponsored RIB), one of the US nominated sailors named Elizabeth enjoyed a marathon tacking and gybing session with a Cherub Daemon team member and the other boat was snatched for joyrides by the liveried members of some of the other teams - Naughty!

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All too soon the breeze switched off and little tow from the RIB got the sailors home ahead of the rush to pack up in good time to go back to the hotel and look at the pictures, video clips, and, of course, our Velocitek sponsored GPS tracks.

More breeze is forecast for tomorrow, the third day of these four day trials.

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PS Max speed recorded today was 14.7 knots (See the GPS track at: http://www.sailingsource.com/cherub/appletGPSAR/gpsar.html)

 
ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 3

18th April 2007

Today began with more light southeasterly winds and sunshine. There was a full house of ISAF nominated sailors in the Cherub Daemons to begin with: Hela and Marie from Denmark in one and Elizabeth and Caroline from the USA in the other. These two evenly matched pairs match raced as they put the boats through their paces. The Hartley Laminates RIB followed at a safe distance, taking photos and videos, answering occasional questions about T-foil use, but mostly looking at the incredibly high quality sailors and picking up tips on how to improve our own sailing.

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The course was set as a windward-leeward with a leeward gate just to keep everyone together in the same place as the ISAF raters visited each boat to watch. The building breeze allowed for the boats to be used in every 'gear' by the teams. Hela asked for a Cherub-Daemon team member to swap in to demonstrate T-foil use, so she and Lucy Lee did a couple of laps, visited for a time by Team GBR Tornado Coach (and friend of the Cherub Daemon project) Derek Clarke in his RIB. He came to see how his rig alterations were getting on before going to continue with his team preparing for the Hyeres Regatta next week.

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The Austrian team Sylvie and Sonia asked for a second shot in the Cherub Daemon and swapped to replace the Americans. They really enjoyed the extra speed available offwind when using the T-foil - especially as they had made full use of an of-the-water masterclass the previous evening in the boatpark, turning the extension and watching the foil change angle in a fully controlled environment.

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After a lunch spent basking in fabulous sunshine and chatting with members of other teams, it was back on the water with the Swedish ISAF nominees, this time divided between the two boats with Cherub Daemon team members Ant Chapman and Lucy Lee filling in. These two Swedes soon asked to be together and spent the rest of the afternoon showing off the Cherub Daemons absurd pace upwind and down, with many spectacular gybes, hoists and drops thrown in.

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The Japanese team of Mitsui and Maki also asked for another turn in a Cherub Daemon so it was a full house of nominees again.

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All of a sudden at half past four, nearly at the end of the afternoon, an unsettling bank of sea fog rolled in from the southeast on the breeze. As the landmarks, yachts, RIBs, and other close-by boats disappeared around, the Japanese team were just swapping into the RIB for a Cherub Deamon team pair. This was enough time for the Swedish team to be out of sight - and this was the boat without a full featured GPS aboard. The wind stayed up while the fog was in, and everyone headed for shore. The RIB arrived at the harbour with the Swedish pair, who still had their kite up and flashly sailed right to the slip before a smart drop and jumping out. The GPS equipped Cherub Daemon appeared shortly afterwards, having followed the GPS track back in.

After the boats were packed up the Cherub-Daemon team made their presentation to the ISAF evaluation committee. This outlined the details of the boat and the wider proposal. This was well received.

Tomorrow is the last day of the trials, and with the presentations out of the way, the team can relax a bit and concentrate on helping the crowd of elite female sailors who want to try out the talk of Hyeres: The Cherub-Daemon.

 
ISAF Women's Olympic Skiff Trials Day 4:

Thursday 19th April 2007

There was much talk of more wind for this, the last day of these interesting and enjoyable equipment trials. All of the 'main business' of each of the nominated sailors having a sail in all of the boats and later filling in a questionnaire had been completed, so people chose which boat to sail.

Finding some rational method to choose a pair of teams to sail the Cherub Daemons from the moderately orderly queue of keen elite female sailors was a challenge, and in the end it was decided to offer sails to those who asked the earliest: This meant it was Lina Stroemquist and Tina Nilsson, two 470 sailors from Norway who had asked to have a go before the event even started in Badgers, and the Danish nominees Helle Orum-Nielsen and Maria Gade in Subtle Knife.

The wind was slightly fresher: It may have even had exceeded ten knots at times, and it was cloudy which gave the day a very different feel. After some sailing around a gate-start was arranged and the boats headed upwind on a short beat to a buoy. The RS800s and to a lesser extent the i14s got clean away, the extra rag, weight and length keeping them moving through the chop. Once the Cherub Dameon 'Subtle Knife' was clear to tack, that's just what the Danes did, and then they were able to put the nose down, get back and use the T-foil properly. Watching from the RIB the speed difference was immediately apparent and at the windward mark the Cherub Daemon was comfortably ahead of both RS800s, which were followed by both i14's. There followed a neat hoist and then they were away: Locked in on their way downhill: Unstoppable! They were persued by the evaluators RIBs: All eyes were on the Cherub Daemon! (See the pics taken by pro photographer Andrew Filipinski on www.digigraphics.co.uk - page 6 of the album has the sequence. Videos and GPS track coming soon.)

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After this the breeze went down and there were some boat-on-boat rabbit-start exercises. Then, all too soon, it was all over. People were getting on planes, boats were having their masts taken down and being lifted onto trailers. It was sad to see that our experiences in Hyeres were coming to an end so suddenly: The chance to show elite female sailors, and the administrators of our great sport, what we have to offer - and for them to all absolutely love it - was really special.

The Cherub Daemon team at Hyeres was Richard Taylor, Tim Coventry, Derek Clarke, Matt Albiston, Tim Noyce, Ant Chapman, Will Lee, Lucy Lee, Tom Kiddle, Stuart Hopson.

 
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