Dubai March 1st.

It is time for another Moth Worlds, and once again I travelled out with Si Payne. On arrival in Dubai we joked about the large greeting party that would be there to meet us, and then we saw the sign...

How nice to have somebody there to meet us!

A taxi ride later, and we got to the club to find a neat row of travel boxes. Fortunately our logistics coordinator Ricky Tagg had done a superb job, and all the British boxes were there. (We are still waiting for a load of boxes for Team USA!)

I got stuck into unpacking straight away, once again forgetting to mentally log how I’d packed it in order to save time after the regatta! I got keen with the camera, and set it up to take a photo every minute while I built the boat. It proved how much chatting goes on during assembly! James Phare got keen and wanted a salute on film so stood there for a minute and a half to be sure to get one recorded! You can see me doing a bit of karate sailing, and pondering my gantry with hands on hips.

After lunch most people went for a sail once the seabreeze had come in, and with the boat pretty much ready to go we got out there. A nice benefit of our early arrival.

It was nice to get out on the water again. I think I’ve only done a few days sailing in Weymouth, and the Tide Ride in Hayling since the last Worlds, so my preparation for this is less than ideal! My gybing needs some work, and I need to get up to speed a bit with my height adjuster, but all worked and I was going okay.

So who was fast? – well it was day one for several people, so it is hard to tell too much, but I’d say Si Payne had the edge on people in the runs I saw.

There are quite a few boats here sailing already, and so far nothing too new. The Swiss have some netting tramps, and a variety of neat little fittings. There are North V8 version ? sails, the standard collection of KA MSl10’s and 13’s andJP had a new Swiss sail I believe. The kit Team USA have brought over is eagerly awaited..

Today we have a bit of a storm. Torrential rain should ensure some blogging by most this morning, then we’ll probably all head down to the boats to check on them later today.