Worlds Preview....

Scott Babbage has posted his thoughts on what he thinks will be the form going into the Moth Worlds. Check it out on: http://scott.projectsomewhere.com/

He's pretty accurate with most things, and has clearly given some thought to it.

I guess the big question is the relative performance of the Bladerider to the rest of the fleet. If Rohan is correct in that sanding his foils will make him 20% faster and they've found another 10-15% of speed recently he should be winning races by considerable margins.... I somehow think it will be a little closer than that!

Holt Support

Holt have confirmed their support of my Moth again this year. My new Moth will be fitted out with the latest Holt fittings. Can't have that Rstn brand getting all the Moth exposure!

Stokes Bay Open Meeting

Stokes Bay Moth open at the weekend was a good return to Moth racing for me. I finished third behind Simon Payne and Jason Belben, and while I wasn't completely back on the pace it was a perfect weekend to figure out areas to work on. Marginal foiling on Saturday, and windy with tricky waves on the Sunday are two difficult areas of Moth foiling so it was good to get racing in them.

Event report features on www.thedailysail.com and www.yachtsandyachting.com

Must push on with the new boat now!

DailySail Feature

Those photos of me sailing the Moth in Valencia made it onto www.thedailysail.com with a little article by James Boyd.

Flying in Austria

Doh!

After lots of windless weekends Doug Culnane finally got foiling in Austria recently. Sadly it all finished rather spectacularly with this rear wingbar failure!

(Feeling a little guilty as I'd had to chop the bars in order to fit the boat on the trailer to get it to Garda for him. It survived the week there, but the loads going down whilst foiling are pretty high, and it obviously the dinghy park fix wasn't a long term fix back together.)

Check out Doug's blog at: http://dougculnane.blogspot.com/ for the full story and more photos.

International C Class Catamaran Championship

With my involvement in the big AC over, my attention is firmly on Moth sailing and developments, but I'm drawn to the "Little America's Cup". The naming of the event is a little complex, so I think this event is to be the International C-class Catamaran Challenge (ICCC) allowing the tradition of the "Little Americas Cup" competition to continue after the the trustees of the former C class event, the ICCT, decided to abandon the event in favor of racing with one-design boats.

Racing is in C Class catamarans, 25ft long, 14ft wide, twin trapeze, and with wingsail rigs. They are incredible efficient, and one of the coolest classes of boat on the planet.

Which is why I'm going to be there! It is being held at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club on Lake Ontario. I'm coaching at the 2.4m Worlds the week before on the US side of the lake so thought I'd pop on over afterwards to watch the action. A friend of mine from Tornado days is crewing one of the boats so I'll try and help them out.

Provisional dates are: September 18, 2007 - September 23, 2007

Looks like there will be 4 boats. Cogito the current Cup holder, and class of the field, Alpha the new Canadian boat, Patient Lady VI, and Invictus from the UK with a new wing.

Port AC Mothing

Here are some more photos of my brief sail around Port America's Cup just before leaving Valencia. Officially you are not allowed to sail within the Port, and the speed limit is 3 knots...But in about 5-9 knots of breeze I got one good reach in at 16.3knots!

I did a quick flyby past most of the bases, and a lot of people came out onto their docks to watch.

Congrats to the observant few who spotted the few things I was testing on this boat for the new one. Namely a gantry mod, and a 'cranked boom'. The gantry is just trying to reduce the drag of the gantry in the marginal foiling conditions where the tube style gantry can drag a lot. The boom mod to try and make it easier to control the outhaul without leach tension making it difficult. The gantry advances to version 2, not sure about the boom yet.

Superman, Batman & Mothman

I won't go into much detail just yet, but it was a fun day at the base yesterday!

Post Racing Entertainment!

So what are people up to now we are out of the Cup? Aside from the various meetings, wrap up and pack up of stuff, a few personal projects have ventured into the workshop area! While I've pushed on with the build of my new Moth, a few guys have been building model cats! This one had a few capsizes today, but we had the Cup boat tender out on rescue duty!

4073 is being rigged in the compound now and I plan to go sailing around the Port America's Cup tomorrow evening during the team barbecue. Then it is a dash for home! My new workshop (& house) is waiting for me in Weymouth, and I can't wait to get the new boat in there to finish it off!

Out of the Cup

The final cruise down the AC Port canal, with a 'Thank You Valencia' sign.

Well the 33rd America's Cup is over for Victory Challenge. I survived the Cup experience, and have come out with many lessons learnt. I've met some awesome people, and I think that has been the highlight of this experience for me. I'll back date a load of posts soon with various photos and highlights, but I'll keep this short, the Red Bull bar is in full swing upstairs!

AC over - next mission - Garda Moth Worlds - 48 days away!

Still in there.....

The Red Bull got its nose in front today and kept it there. A seven second win against the Spanish was close but we achieved the first win in our must win three in a row streak! So we live to fight another day.....

It nearly went very wrong though when the drop line was knotted at the leeward gate, requiring a chase boat drop!

"The Moth Guy"

In random Moth news, I was cycling home the other night, and an Italian guy who works for +39 cycled up next to me and just said - "are you the Moth guy?"

He was really interested in the class, and very keen to see me sail it in Valencia. With so many requests to have a go, it doesn't look like I'll be able to get out of here very quick to finish off the new boat!

3 Races to go - 3 Wins required!

We've now got only 3 races to go in round robin 2 and we are sat 5 points behind the Spanish who currently hold the remaining semi final slot. So in order for Victory to make the semis we need all of the six points available in the next three races.... oh and keep our fingers crossed that Spain don't win any more races!

We go head to head tomorrow. If we beat them, we then have to beat the Kiwi's and Mascalzone, and hope that BMW and Luna Rossa both beat the Spanish.

If they beat us tomorrow, there will be lots of people planning a rapid exit out of Valencia!

Meeting the McKee's

Just met up with Jonathan and Charlie McKee for a drink after sailing today (no racing because of too much wind today!). They've been toying with the idea of getting Moths, but just wanted to hear about it first hand. After giving them the basic low-down, they are up for it. Top blokes who are another welcome addition to the class!

(For reference the McKee brothers are the bronze medallists from the 49er in the Sydney Olympics, and currently sail with Luna Rossa down here in Valencia.)