Cherub (Development Class)

Description

The Cherub is a high-performance 12-foot two-person planing dinghy first designed in 1951 in New Zealand by John Spencer (originally for friend Ray Early to race in the restricted Pennant class on Auckland Harbour; the first hull was built by Early himself in hard-chine 3/16-inch plywood). It proved an instant success, promoted heavily by Sea Spray magazine with construction plans and registration, leading to roughly 450 boats built in New Zealand in the first eight years alone; the class spread to the UK (first manufacturer McCutcheon’s of Cowes, 1956) and Australia (1960), with the Cherub Class International Association formed in 1967 and the first Worlds held in Perth in 1970. As a development (box-rule) class with no single production builder, hulls evolved from early plywood (later foam sandwich pioneered by Russell Bowler) to modern carbon/glass composites while maintaining a minimum hull weight; key features include exceptional power-to-weight ratio, spectacular planing (upwind and off wind), asymmetric spinnaker (from 1991, with bowsprit), twin trapezes (approved 2004), self-draining cockpits in later designs, and rule-driven hull/rig variations (narrower flatter shapes in UK vs. Southern Hemisphere) that keep it fast, exciting, and garage-buildable.