Competition Time

The build-up of Cherub activity in France has attracted the interest of the press:

<html>

</html>

This is a write up of the Oleo Banjo project in today's Brest Telegram, in which Ronan and friends have built three boats so far: 2691, 2695 and 2696.

First translation to the mailing list gets a small prize.

And here it is, many thanks to JEREMY LANE who tells us that he used to sail an ancient Cherub and declined to accept the prize because we saved him from marking undergraduate essays! Translation, as follows:

A CHERUB MADE IN PLOUZAREL

Looking for a Cherub? Don't look too hard; there aren't that many to be found in France. Ronan Gélébart, former Mini-Transat sailor, has built one of these explosive little sleds, that aren't for just any old weekend sailor, in his garage, with the help of a couple of friends.

“The first boat I made was the General de Gaulle [French aircraft carrier]! But I had some help..”, quips Ronan Gélébart before bursting out laughing. The man in question (34 years old) lacks neither in humour nor in ideas. After years in Mini Transat, culminating in the 1990 Transat 6.50 with his wife Diane (she on board Pogo, he on his prototype), this carpenter by training embarked on building a 9.94 metre-long yacht called Banjo.

ON THE INTERNET In the meantime, his family having grown, he had to build a house. So Ronan settled down. “We couldn't just stop and stay there with nothing to do. We'd thought of sailing a Fireball, with Diane crewing. But in December 2004, we discovered skiff sailing.” Ronan enrolled two friends to help him in his exploits, Stéphane Gintric (from Roscoff) and Laurent Moal (from Saint-Pol de Léon): “It was at Térénez, in the bay of Morlaix. We had a go in a Spice and, with the kite up, we reached 25 knots!” It was on that day that the idea of building a low-cost planing dinghy was born. “We searched the Internet and found that the Cherub rules were well-suited to amateur construction.”

THE VACUUM PUMP? A MILKING MACHINE Ronan's garage would serve as building shed. At the beginning of 2006, Ronan and his two pals rolled up their sleeves and made a plywood dummy and then a mould. “Our vacuum pump was a milking machine”. The DIY ethic lives on!

The first trials took place at Saint-Pol the following summer, on a glassy calm sea. “We realised we were spending more time on the daggerboard than in the boat. In terms of its stability, the Cherub is more like a windsurfer than a dinghy. You can't ever sit down; you have either to be on your knees or standing up. It's a bit like a 49er.” The second outing was more invigorating, with a 15-knot wind. This Cherub “made in Trézien” could still stand some improvement but that hasn?t prevented our three enthusiasts from embarking on building two more boats. “We said we'd each make one. The second is being finished off and the third in the mould.”

200 MAN-HOURS Each Cherub represents 200 hours of labour and costs around 2,000 euros. “You have to allow 2,000 euros more for the sails” adds Ronan Gélébart, who found a sailmaker in Brest, 'Yucca Sails', to make his suit of sails. “We've got a carbon mast-building project and a meet at Saint-Pol organised with our English neighbours.” It's true that the Cherub is a design favoured on the other side of the Channel and in Australia. With significant differences: in England, the hulls are narrow and kitted out with wings, whilst in Australia, they're wide and v-shaped.

Philippe Eliès.

Not a member yet? Sign up for 2007 here.