Worlds Review in Yachts and Yachting

There are a load of Oskar Kihlborg's photos in the Yachts and Yachting Worlds write up. Thanks to Colin Newman for seding one in! The class has so much publicity that it is easy to forget the traditional event report for the magazines!

I've got two good pics in the article. My flying leap - that nobody believes was intentional! and a great blurred flyby shot. I think I'll get a copy of that from Oskar for my front room.

DailySail Front Page

Moths make the front page again!

From the other side of the camera

The Nationals has only just finished but there was still Moth sailing going on in Weymouth on Saturday. I sat on the pontoon next to 'Payne's Post' with a camera.

Daily Sail Vid!

It is one of the funniest Moth videos yet! You have to check out the Montage of our latest pontoon running tricks during the Nationals last week! http://www.thedailysail.com/

I've perfected the bottle grab, the nose dive gybe, and the flying leap! We might have to have a stunts evening during the Worlds!

Please do not attempt these stunts without sufficient Moth experience and a video camera aimed at you!

It was a busy week, so I'll try and catch up with some posts here soon. It was a good event, and I'm just about sorted in the new boat now finishing second behind Jason Belben overall.

Sunday in Weymouth

I got back from Garda late on Friday night, had a busy day on Sat unpacking, then a chilled Sunday where I went over to Portland to catch up with the Mothies who were heading out for a sail. It was trying to rain but I got a load of good piccies.

Medal Race

Victoria, Emma and Sue had a great end to the regatta in Cascais, with a 2nd in the last full fleet race pulling them up from 16th to 10th overall and thus making the double points final day medal race. Then they finished the medal race in 4th which was enough to get them 9th overall.

Moth Research

I've been keen for a while to launch a page on the UK Moth website to promote possible research projects relating to the Moth class. There are so many interesting research ideas, and I'm sure many Moth sailors would be keen to support these projects with background info, and any help with testing... Watch this space for a more official launch soon.

On that theme there is a project running at the Hamburg University of Technology called “User Innovation in Sailing". The Moth Class is being used as an example in this.

This analysis is based on an online-survey and a printed version of that survey that was distributed during the championships in Torbole. The survey is available in English at: http://www.tuhh.de/~swpl1695/motheng.html Or in German at: http://www.tuhh.de/~swpl1695/mothde.html

A summary of the project will be available to the International Moth Class.

Big Saturday.

Races 5 and 6 were on the ‘offshore’ course 5 today, and it was quite a spectacle! Over 30 knots makes for very exciting Yngling racing! They must have been doing 10 knots, which is impressive for a water pushing Yngling. Victoria, Sue and Emma who I’m coaching out here had a great race and sailed through the fleet to finish 2nd. Really solid boat handling and pace downwind in the breeze saw them sailing around many of the fallen fleet.

Cascais

Straight after the Moth Worlds, I drove down to Milan and jumped on a plane to Lisbon, where I am coaching just down the coast in Cascais at the 2007 World Sailing Championships. I’m down here working with the Yngling development squad of Victoria Rawlinson, Emma Rawlinson & Sue Monson.

We’ve had a bit of time on the water, got through measurement, and start racing on Thursday.

The Skandia Team GBR squad is here in force with 99 sailors down here apparently!

Moth Worlds Wrap-Up

Although not a great result it was a very enjoyable Worlds in Garda. 8th overall reflected my lack of preparation, and launching of the new boat just days before the event.

Having had such a busy year it was nice to just be sailing again though, and although I did more pitchpoling than ever before, I’ve just about got the new boat sorted and learnt a lot more about these flying craft again.

Particularly enjoyable was the atmosphere in the British team this year. We had a great bunch out in Garda, and I look forward to catching up with everyone at the Nationals.

A brief summary of the top ten:
1. Rohan Veal. - On top of his game after a lot of training and time on the water this year. Original reports of Bladerider pace suggested it could be close, but in the breezy conditions and tricky waves experienced in Torbole, the boat had pace and a level of control no other package could match.
2. Scott Babbage – A very solid series using Bladerider pace and control to good effect.
3. Simon Payne – On the back foot after loosing his gantry/transom on day one. He never had the upwind pace or control downwind in the breeze to match the Bladeriders in full flight. He did win the lightest race of the series though, so it would have been interesting to se some more races in different conditions.
4. Sam Pascoe – A great result for Sam. Always tipped for a good series if it was windy. Good pace with the new Full Force main foil, but possibly a few too many swims and the odd average start cost him a possible podium.
5. Graham Vials – An early Bladerider preproduction boat slowly fell apart around him. Leaks and wand issues during the regatta after a host of problems before the regatta ended with a hull deck joint failure in the final race that could have cost him forth overall.
6. Amac – A snapped foil, lost main flap, and a few other boat issues upset his series. He sailed really well though, and certainly deserves all the credit for the pace of the Bladerider package.
7. Jason Belben, – I’m not really sure what happened to Jason, he’d done lots of sailing and pushed Simon hard in UK opens, but
8. Adam May – Ready for the Worlds to start once it had finished! No chance to sort out the boat in average conditions before the regattaSurviving the first day helped out a lot, but control issues and never
9. John Harris – A top result for a relatively new foiler.
10. Les Thorpe – Solid sailing in the breeze early in the week, probably sailing close to the limit of his boat and foil package.

Almost Garda Bound!

One more day in Kiel, then on the road to Garda. Still haven't sailed my boat, so Worlds prep looking good! Not!

Got all the fittings on now, and had the rig up, but not had the whole thing rigged, ie tramps and rig and foils all at once yet!

Rain has prevented much boat work, and no wind has prevented sailing. A very long protest for one of my squad this evening didn't help matters either!

Looking fwd to getting down there though. It will be so nice just do do some sailing rather than watch other people!

Typical Kiel

Rain rain and more rain! Kiel has once again remained true to form, raining every single time I've come here! We had 25 - 29 knots yesterday, with numerous big downpours. No sailing but got the boats in, took the rib outside to check the conditions (and came back in rather quickly!) and registered. It continues to rain today and the forecast is for rain for the next few days. So the weather gods are doing their best to ensure I can't get any work done on my Moth.

The round robins being held up in Valencia from no wind didn't help matters, and now it is rain in Kiel! Oh well, I hear it has been raining in Garda too!

On Route to Kiel

Got to leave for the ferry in half an hour so I'll keep this brief.

While Rohan is training in Garda, I'm still finishing the new boat.... Not quite ideal champiosnhip preparation, but then I knew it would be a push once I'd signed up to be involved with the AC, and I couldn't really turn that down.

The new boat GBR 4098, 'The Weapon' is just about there, I've just got to get the last fittings on, and I'll do sea trials in Kiel, Germany. So far the boat has done miles. The shell was built in Weymouth at Full Force, then I took it to Exmouth to start my mods, then it went to Valencia, where the wingbars were made, and the deck put on, then it was back to the UK, and my new house in Weymouth for the final push. I'm now coaching in Kiel for a week, so I'll try and do the finishing touches to it in the evenings there. I'm getting pretty used to the late nights and early mornings on it. That is certainly a lesson from the AC - I seem to be able to survive on a lot less sleep!

In summary 'The Weapon' is a modified Mistress 3, slightly less freeboard, smaller foredeck, aerofoil wingbars, new style gantry, and a fair bit lighter than my last boat. Nothing to radical, just lessons learnt from the last boat. Don't have time to implement too many of the new ideas on this one, but lots of interesting scribbles in the notebook! Full description soon.

Paint job was very last minute. Looks okay from a distance, not so flash up close. Needs to be booked in for a proper sprayjob after the Nationals I think.

Garda should be fun though, and I'm just going there for a bit of a laugh and will just see what happens in the racing.

Cheerio.

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.