Sails

[craig_guthrie]

I will be putting a boat together over the coming winter. Looking to buy second hand but good condition sails. Most likely this season's race gear I would imagine. Any ideas and prices? Who makes the best new Cherub Sails?

THanks.
Craig

[ross_burkin]

Arguably Fyfe are making the best sails around at the moment but there's loads of manufactures in the fleet. Some that jump to mind are:
Fyfe,
Hyde,
P&B,
Red Eye,
RMW.

Fyfe sails (combined with C-tech masts. Both from New Zealand) have won several nationals.

Hyde make a suit of 'Cherub sails'.

As far as I know, you have to take you boat down to P&B and they measure it up and design, make and fit your sails on site. That might be a bit difficult for someone in Nova Scotia! I see no reason why they wouldn't design you a set if you sent them the measurements of you baot (mast position, mast height etc).

Loco Perro's hardly used Red Eyes are for sale (£700) but the kite is worn out. Red Eye's have won a few nationals and seem to last for a long time.

I don't know much about RMW. Both 'Aqua Marina' and 'Primal Scream' (both put together by Phil Alderson) have/had RMW sails.

[phil_kirk]

Rowsell bassed in the South West are making a few sails.  Shiny and pocket Rocket have both had sails from them.

[Will_Lee]

Hi Craig,

Sorry about paypal delay and I hope it is all sorted out now. Thanks for joining the association.

If you'd like an excuse, then our excuse is that both Dan the treasurer and me the secretary are boatbuilding to the max atm, so other duties are sometimes neglected!

Are you REALLY in Nova Scotia? If so then I think you'll be  the first Cherub in Canada - excellent news!

Would you mind filling us in on your story?

Best wishes,

Will

[craig_guthrie]

Hi Will,
No problem with the Paypal stuff. Thanks for the message. Yes, we are really in Nova Scotia and this is a great place to sail skiffs.
I have sailed 14, 12s, 49er, 18s, 505s. I now coach sailing for the  coach  the Canadian Paralympic team in the 2.4 and Skud. My wife is a former Europe Dinghy sailor for Canada. The wife (Rachel) says that I need boat by the time I turn 40 so I had better get on it...So, I have been watching Cherubs for a long time, never sailed one but I am pretty sure it's the boat for us...

I have modest boat building and sail making experience as well as all the other junk that comes with boats. The winter here is a perfect time to build a one off male plug boat. Currently I am looking at the Banshee and Elway designs for the build and most likely buying second hand gear from you folks.

In building the boat, we want to have the most current design possible. We will not be shipping our boat to the UK to race but we definately will be interested in taking a holiday to charter and race in the UK if chartering is a possibility.

That's the skinny. Thanks.
Craig

Thanks,
Craig

[Will_Lee]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the skinny. You are very welcome to come Cherub sailing in the UK at any time - but do please give us a bit more warning than the hour we sometimes get from the Australians...

The nationals this year are 27th - 30th August. I can't think of a boat going spare right now but there could well be one that I don't know about. This year we have 2 French boats at the nationals: A Canadian visitor would make it an even more international affair. Also, the week after the nationals is an event in Carnac in France which is our annual race against the French fleet.

We can organise pickups from the airport and sleepover capability as well.

I have PMed you with Kevin Ellway's email. He always happy to communicate on his favourite subject. He is pals with Dave Lee, so he'll let you have his email.

If you come along this summer you can check out the sails and spars. People regularly make their own poles and booms, and their own masts slightly less regularly. People have even made their own sails too (but not spinnakers). A look around could save you some cash.

Best,

Will

PS What is a 'skinny'?

[MK]

The yachts and yachting class page found here http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/classes/?s=42&c=10 has some information on what people were running at the nationals last year if that is any help.

[daryl_wilkinson]

Hi Craig,

I've PM'ed you.

[phil_kirk]

Craig,

From my year and a bit in the class I found the answer to the question what's the best gear to have in the class rather difficult to find.  The main reason is that the rules allow boats to be customised to the sailor's needs to what is good for one pair will not be good for another. 

Fyfes have made a lot of sails for the class recently but each set is bespoke for the boat concerned, mast position mast stiffness and crew weight.  As i'm sure you are aware, it is important to match the mast,  sails to your boat. Matching available second hand gear may be harder than starting with new.

If you do come over to the nationals we can show you some of the poles, booms, foils and rudder stoocks that we have made over the last few years.  It may be possible to arrange a sticky project to give you insight into some home building techniques.

If you are thinking about an existing hull form I suggest you order the hull shells and save the time building a jig. 

 

[peter_barton]

I love my Hyde sails. Now we are getting used to it think it is a very efficient rig and (together with the rest of the package) was beating decent RS800s on the water on Saturday in a variety of wind strengths.

Hydes have a gigantic amount of experience in high performance asy classes from one designs through to dev classes (I14, B14, Int Canoe, Cherub). They are very pro-active with their R&D and tecnichal director Mike Lennon took the effort to spend a morning in a rib looking at my Hyde sails recently to work on the next further refined set. Mike has been actively campaigning our big sister the International14 successfuly for years and much of that is filtered down into the Cherub design.

Easy for them to adjust luff curve to fit varying mast profiles and jib dimensions to fit different boat geometries.

[Debi]

Time for some shameless advertising for work....theres always Alverbanks (just as ross missed it off his list of sail makers!)

We have made some 12 ft skiff sails in the last year or two, and loads of int canoe sails - some crazy sails for them! Might poss be making some Cherub sails during this summer...


From a sail makers point of view, depending what you want out of your sails, and your sail maker, makes a difference to who you go for. Some sail makers are more flexible and can do what you want, where as others are less likely to do differnet things for you - they will have a stock design.

I know we are pretty good at doing different sails for people - but that stems from Kevan Bloors work with the N12 fleet over the years

[daryl_wilkinson]

Whats the situation with Red Eyes now then? Is Andrew not involved anymore and if so as Kevin Bloor ( Alverbanks ) was bought by Red Eye what's the deal? Does he have Andrews sail patterns / programs?

[Debi]

Alverbanks was never bought by anyone else....red eye, alverbanks and evolution tried teaming up for a while, but it just didnt work out. So all went back to their seperate companies.

As far as what patterns we have etc, im not sure what Kevan has kept - would be best ringing and talking to him.


I will be making some sails for a couple of Cherubs before the nationals, but not using the red eye designs, Kevan and myself will be doing the designs using existing rigs and some new ideas....

[daryl_wilkinson]

the buying out thing... my mistake.

[Debi]

the buying out thing... my mistake.

No problem