From the UK Cherub Website…

This week the town of Santander in Spain has played host to ISAF and the trials of six skiffs, one of which will be chosen as the boat for the Women’s Skiff event in the 2016 Olympics and possibly beyond.

Two E6 UK-Cherubs designed by Kevin Ellway, built by Aardvark Technologies and beautifully liveried as Arup Skiffs have attended the event as one of the six entries. You may recognise these as the boats as “Eleanor” and “Marmite” displayed at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, Eleanor winning the 2011 Concours D’Elegance Award.

Accompanying the boats are a team of UK-Cherub sailors headed by Roland Trim and he is supported by his employer, the engineering firm Arup.

Photos and reports from the event show the boats performing fantastically well, and although there have been days of poor weather there has also been sufficient time for the Olympic sailors to trial the Arup Skiffs, which offers a much lighter alternative to the other five contenders.

The ISAF are expected to make the decision on which Skiff will be used in the 2016 Olympics during May 2012. We wish everyone involved with the Arup Skiff Project the best of luck with the selection.

The UK-Cherub class is proud to be associated with this project and to have lent its support, boats and expertise. You can read more on the Arup Skiff website, and read the Arup News here.

We wish everyone a safe trip home.

This year the UK International Moth Class Association stand at the RYA Dinghy show looks set to be as busy as ever with an exciting 2012 racing season fast approaching. As usual there will be an enthusiastic group of ‘mothies’ manning the stand ready to answer any questions you might have about the boat. These could range from questions about getting started in the class to more technical questions on setup, technique & construction – there will be a cross section of sailors more than happy to help.

This year there will be two leading designs on display in the form of the National & European Championship winning Ninja by Aardvark Technologies in Bristol and the World Championship winning Mach 2 design from Australia. As ever throughout the winter innovation has continued and some of the latest enhancements such as the latest iteration KA & fibrepath Hyde Sails will also be on display.

Mike will be at the show both Days to answer questions about the Ninja – you’ll probably find him on the Moth or Cherub stand or looking for good tea… Bring cake!

We’ve recently found that our vertical sections will fit the Bladerider with very little modification to the daggerboard casing so we are now offering replacement standard modulus foils and upgraded high modulus foils for improved stiffness.

More info here

Full report and results over at Yachts and Yachting’s website

Chris put on a dominating display with 7 first places in a mixed condition event with light airs races to 15+ knots and big waves! Ben Paton, also on the new foils finished in 3rd place – winning race 6. Other Ninjas in the top ten were chief Aardvark Mike Cooke in 5th and Jason Belben finishing in 9th place, despite counting a rtd in his score after a shroud failure on day 2.

Things are looking good for Team Ninja and with the worlds in Europe next year we’re stepping up a gear at Aardvark HQ…

The Europeans start in Germany in Travemunde this coming weekend and with Jason and Chris on good form the outcome could be very interesting!

Check back on here and the Bristol Moth Blog for more updates.

The Moth circuit has seen the Ninja Death squad starting to get their act together, with Chris Rashley winning the Inlands at Queen Mary and the first 2011 Ninja Donatello winning a race in it’s first outing.

Rashers and Jason Belben gave Si Payne a run for his money at Parkstone, pushing him all the way and there was only 1 point in it at the end. Again, Donatello showed what she is capable of, taking the first race.

Hayling saw the local black boat fleet on top, but Jason was looking pretty fast in his first outing on the 2011 foils and kept them on their toes, leading races and taking 3rd overall.

Thorpe Bay saw biblical conditions, with only Chris Rashley able to get around in the only race on the Saturday and showing the way around on a more sensible Sunday, making that his second open win in his first season.

The Nationals at Stokes Bay are now upon us and with the entry now topping 50 boats it’s going to be excellent. The Ninja is the strongest it’s ever been with several people capable of winning races and the event will be a good indicator for the Europeans a few weeks later.

On an equipment side, the new foils are proving themselves to be stiff and fast while losing none of the light airs performance the Ninja is known for.

Rudders are available as upgrades for the Mach2, Bladerider and Prowler and mainfoils will fit the above although due to the pushrod direction some control modifications would be required. Mike has been experimenting with a new stiff mast designed to work with the KA10 which has shown much promise and we can accomodate any bend requirements.

Mike Cooke from Bristol has set a new UK speed record of 28.8 knots. This is now the fastest recorded time in the UK and has surely opened the door to the elusive 30 knot club.

Mike Cooke tells us how it was done….

“Well conditions were pretty hostile to be honest, but with my wingman badger egging me on we decided to take to the skies. Some pretty big blasts down the lake saw Badger going into a 5g inverted dive that ended in a big ball of spray, his black box was later recovered recording 27.5 knots. I barely got away with my wings in a 30 knot puff but was rewarded with a big score at 28.8.

Conditions were starting to get really wild after that so we retired to the hard deck for a nice cuppa”

Kevin Ellway, the designer of the Ninja and Ninja foils said “The foil design is the culmination of hundreds of hours of 2D and 3D CFD modelling combined with 3 degree of freedom dynamic system modelling. This should provide a foil system which can win around the racecourse over the wide range of sailing conditions we experience in the UK and Europe.

The foils have performed as predicted during initial sailing trials and performance looks very promising. As ever, however, the proof of the pudding is around the racetrack, so it will be interesting to see how the season unfolds.”

This was the first of the E6 Cherubs out of the moulds last summer and it’s owners have done an exceptional job finishing her off to the highest of standards! Aardvark Tech boats have been nominated in the past so the judges obviously appreciate good aesthetics!

Read the PR here

2011 is shaping up to be a good year already!

For more information or to order one of these units please visit http://www.velocitek.com/ or get in touch with Mike.

Mike Cooke and Jason Belben have both been sailing with a set of experimental, very skinny, high modulus foils for for the latter half of the season. After a few months of testing, we know that they are very fast, but have been a little fragile. Kevin Ellway has worked on a few tweaks to the designs to correct this and Mike is about about to get the new moulds produced.

We intend to sell these new skinny foils from February 2011 onwards. They will fit existing Ninjas with very little modification, and the rudders can be used on all designs. If you are interested in a daggerboard conversion on another design get in touch, as this may also be possible.

Pricing will be confirmed in the near future, but expect them to be in the region of £1500 per foil.

If you are interested in getting your hands on the very latest kit from Aardvark HQ, drop us an email: mike@aardvarkracing.co.uk

For more information please contact terry@aardvarkracing.co.uk