97 Club

[Tim Noyce]

Well it is the beginning of another new Cherub era for me having passed the Badgers Nadgers on to a new home on Friday. I am now onto my 4th Cherub... which just so happens to be exactly the same hull design as my first one...

On Saturday Kate and I picked up Cherub 2648 - Comfortably Numb, from Oxford. Ben hasn't been getting much use out of it and so kindly let us buy it off him to complete the next stage of Kates sail training programme as we felt the jump from 2303 to 2694 was a bit of a steep learning curve to deal with (especially with me at the helm!)

On Sunday we rocked up at Netley and rigged up, (many thanks for the help from Stu Tinner and Stu 'Hoppy' Hopson as there were a few bits which we had to guess / bodge until we have time for a long lasting rigging solution). The wind was similar to the conditions we experienced at the Bonfire Blast so it was offshore, shifty and more than a little bit gusty but this meant we got to put the boat through its paces in a variety of conditions. The boat performed well and the main negative from my point of view was that my crews kept leaving me at every slight opportunity (do I really smell that bad?!) Kate decided to unclip herself in a windward dunking incident leaving me to sail off... and Hoppy ejected himself overboard using the excuse of a broken trapeze wire!

Big smiles all round after a good 3 hours on the water and I am certain that we've got ourselves a good ship, I'd forgotten the magic of a single wire 97 rules boat with no t-foil in a big breeze... counting down the days 'till I get to go out again!

[Hayley_Trim]

That's so good to hear. Bring on the '97s!

Perhaps you should talk to your crews a bit more nicely though 

[Phil Alderson]

97 rules is the way to go, two of us at Largs. They are a lot of fun, have a look at the 97 rules video from a the summer

[pratn0]

Just joined the club.

Picked up Mardge yesterday.  will hopefully be at the sticky weekend.

She needs alot of work before going sailing. she is missing alot of fittings, Boom and Sails. but the hull seems solid.

can;t wait to get started on her.

[Tim Noyce]

She looks very similar in deck layout to 2643 that I used to have, but with an additional centre console.

I think that hopefully there will be a fair few active '97 boats on the circuit (or at least the nationals) next season so would be good to all keep in touch and help each other out where we can. Nick, I will start a new thread to help you try and locate the bits you need to get up on the water as quickly and easily as we can!

I spent yesterday evening removing the temple vang from Numb and trying to design a new kicker system which used the 2 double blocks which are spliced into the continuous sheet system so that I didn't have to untie it and redo it! Bens temple vang system was a very neat system but sadly there wasn't quite enough space to get it to work with the full range of movement so it had to go!

[ross_burkin]

Are we using big kites?

[Tim Noyce]

Depends if you wanna be 97 or 05 I guess! To be in 97 club you need to measure as a 97 rules boat. The clue is in the name ;-)

[Tim Noyce]

I did the kicker mod last night to give the full range of movement which we were severely lacking at the weekend. I managed to get away without removing the continuous system and still getting in a decent number of purchases (and more importantly, not having to buy any more blocks!) I think it has turned out as 12:1 but I am sure there is someone out there who can tell me otherwise.

I also replaced the 9 missing balls out of the self tacker car... I felt a bit sore when leaving the chandlery as the Harken spec Torlon* balls cost nearly a tenner for a pack of 20! Ouch! Oh well... it seems to have fixed the sticky car so shall not complain.

Next job on the list is to remove and replace the gunwhale grip and Kate is planning a new kite sock after the success of the Badgers.

[Stuberry]

Strawberry is progressing in the hands of Davro.

[Hayley_Trim]

Strawberry is progressing in the hands of Davro.

Good to see Davro's sitting room being put to good use. It will be grand to have the Berry back on the water Stu. It's not been the same without her.

[phil_kirk]

Tim you have a 16:1 kicker.  2 X 2 X 4

It sounds like the 97 club is growing which is brilliant.

Nick,

When Madge was being offered to a class member I offered a proctor ally boom that I have in my garage and a ally rudder stock.  Both came with Slippery but were not needed following the mods we did. Please let me know what boom length you need and the type of rudder fittings you have and distance between them.

[Tim Noyce]

Thanks Phil, that should be enough to be getting on with anyway. I will splice the dyneema once I have decided that the lengths are acceptable so it will look a bit less 'ropey' (geddit?!)

Not sure that Nick knows what length boom he needs just yet as he doesn't have a mainsail yet! If anyone has one which is suitable please add it to the swap shop page... and Nick, make a list of all the items which you still need.

[Phil Alderson]

Depends if you wanna be 97 or 05 I guess! To be in 97 club you need to measure as a 97 rules boat. The clue is in the name ;-)

Well that is me out then, my up wind area is a bit over, and I will be using a bigger kite next season.

There looks like some good modding going on.

[Tim Noyce]

Have you got any pics of your new mainsail Phil? I think to be honest the main aim is to get more old boats out sailing and to have fun whilst doing it. Not sure we will be waving the rule book about as ling as they still measure as Cherubs. To win the 97 trophy you've got to tick all the boxes though I would say.

[Stuberry]

With the older rule set we could go with a slightly more traditional way of measuring the sails.

Standing back and saying... "Yer that looks about right, you're in."