All in all its been a pretty good few days on the Moth, if you can can excuse the body damage. 23 knots to stop and your body doesn't stop till it hits the shrouds. One black eye, two cuts and a bent shroud pin from my troubles. For an 11ft boat with only 8m2 of sail they sure can bite very hard if you get it wrong. Long Beach has been classic over the last few weeks, turning out a 20 - 25 knots on Sunday and a 15 - 18 on Tuesday. Big chop driving harder and harder, no compromise on the gybes and tacks and you do get to wipe out........ often....! Add on to that testing my new ride height adjuster and wand / flap gain doodah and it makes for an interesting session. As it was pretty much on the limit Sunday couldn't get too much input on changing the ratio, but upwind felt like winding off ratio brought the bottom end speed up and smoothed out the ride. Down wind was faaaast but needed to be real careful on the gybes as the boat is much less forgiving especially with our notorious LB chop. It sure feels like there is a ton of boat speed possible but developing this slowly. One of the best coaching points I heard was from Chris Rast who helped me with.....
"Set it up to go fast even if it's very difficult to sail. Then learn to sail it!"
Much more to go and really looking forward to the flatter waters of South Bay Diego this weekend
Over and out
Oh Bugger, maybe you should string some pool noodles onto your shrouds ;) isn't this not the first time you've had a run in with your standing rigging?
ReplyDeletePart of the skill of moth sailing is "boat exit" where you learn to eject with minimal damage! We all have different ways of doing it but it is essential!
ReplyDeleteI hope you heal quickly!
Cheers,
Phil
No second time.... first was Gorge last year.... Got to lean to press the eject in time...
ReplyDelete