Das Boot

No racing Saturday due to lack of wind, but an awesome day today. Everyone up early with a 10am start, out on water by 9:15, straight into foiling. With an 8 races scheduled it was always going to be a full on day. We got to use our AC style course, with a reach into to the turning mark, a down wind, then upmwnd, twice. Races were very exciting, fleet pretty much together at least to leeward gate? Apart from having brain fad end thinking we were doing windward leewards on first race, I really enjoyed it. Very different but very fast paced. And yes we crammed in 8 races. I started to get into the groove, then about race 5 started to struggle. It wasn't till part way through race 7 I realized I'd lost my breather tube out the back of the boat, and was starting to make some good submairine impressions. Could just about get on the foils but very bow up, then as water moved forward, yup massive nose dives. As or sailing into a marina, hmm, any way thanks to the collection of powerboats who helped me before I sunk completely. Boat took well over an hour to drain and I'm guessing back tank was full near enough.

On the racing side it was Bora all the way, from Anthony, then Matt Pistay. Really solid regatta, great location,

Happy holidays over and out......

Miami Vice, slalom version

We're in Miami for our first winter event. Friday was slalom with 11 boats here and 2 more promised for the weekend. Great conditions, warm, some chop and 8 tightly fought slalom races before breeze died away. Magnus set the slalom course of all time, definitely our best yet. Tons of lead changes few different winners but Bora came out on top. Great day and a great start to Miami.

I used slightly different settings and was really happy with my speed and manoevers, yes the Hayling rig settings were working well, thanks !

We've also got our usual ethnic mix with a Brit and 2 Aussies (Ben and John), so may be we should have the ashes, although their sailing is in a different league to mine, so need a few more from the home land to join me next time. Warm water, fun area socially, good breeze, what more could you want.

Proper racing starts today, over and out from Miami

I Fought the Law and the Law Won

Guess you learn every day. Got pulled over on the way to Long Beach by the 2010 versions of Ponch from CHiPS. What do you know, I get a ticket for driving in the wrong lane. I didn't think that was possible but guess it now is. I personally think it was a case of racial profiling, Welsh guy, driving a Japanese car, towing a boat made in China that flies. It's all falling into place!

Sailing was fun, bit marginal. Tried to compare mast rake with Simon but as both our mast are different lengths, (McK vs CST) it poses tonight's Maths problem.

Have at it!

If Richard and Simon are looking to have the same mast rake but Richards mast is longer than Simons, What length does Richard forstay need to be to achieve the same rake as Simon?

Simon Mast is 3455mm

Richard Mast is 3488mm

The J ie forstay to mast stump is the same at 969mm for both boats

Turkey Town

Finally, Finally we have wind for a regatta! It the usual ABYC Turkey Day regatta, about 200 boats and 8 Moths. Yesterday we had a gusty shifty 15 - 18knots, PRO fired off 4 races, huge legs (will need to speak to him about that!) and a to of fun. Eric is showing some really awesome speed taking out 3 of the 4 races run, who Zack taking the other bullet. Anthony and Matt travelled from the East coast and are being rewarded! Geoff came down with his home build from Park City (cant wait to have our first regatta there) and got part of his foiling issues sorted out.

Overall a couple of things really came together:

1) we got the demo Moth going which is a great omen for the future

2) Anthony sailed Charlies boat.

All makes me believe there is a market for having a few boats on each coast for charter, the US is a big place and if we're going to really build the fleet could be the way to do it. Tons of logistic issues of course, but a call to arms for our two Mach 2 dealers.

More wind forecast today, probably with rain and an unusual direction for us...... Final results later in day

Over and out from Long Beach

2012 Worlds dates and ;ocation now fixed

You heard it here (plus Int Moth Web site!)

As such I hereby announce that the 2012 Zhik Moth Worlds will held as follows:
Venue: Vela Club Campione, Lake Garda, Italy
Dates: 18--‐26 August 2012 (with an Italian Championship on 16--‐17 Aug)

Book now!

I was made for loving you

This is what this weekend's racing should have been like, only it wasn't! 10 boats on the start line Saturday and all we manage to get in was 2 low riding races before we all ended up getting towed home! Never seen Long Beach that calm before. Definitely a weird year wind wise. Thanks to all who traveled so far, still the curry Saturday night was memorable.

Small front foil is finally fitted and as of last weekend felt very fast. Ride height all working well so now looking forward Turkey Day then Miami.

Looking ahead to next year, there's the Worlds in Garda, when we finally get a date, then back for Hawaii Pac Rims and the "Road to Kaneohe" or our Worlds in 2013. We've some great regattas starting line to line up, so gt your self a boat, plenty of Mach 2s now entering the second hand market, as well as active dealers on both Coasts.

Over and out till Turkey Day

The Right Profile

Nice photo from Da Woody at this weekends Coronado Yacht Club Fall Sports boat regatta. You know the one, used to be ISAF, Sailing Anarchy shindig. We only got 4 boats there but was pretty mellow racing ie turn up at start line once the wind had built, 3 full foiling races, sail home and on to the rumbos. The club couldn't have made us more welcome and they clearly have a soft spot for us Mothistas. All boast from FT10s to us racing on same course made for some very interesting moments especially some of the mark roundings, but everyone played nicely and it was only the Tigers that seemed to have an affection for hitting each other.

I managed to wind on so much mast rake that although fast, I now can't get under the boom without getting stuck which had its moments. I now need to decide to work on more flexibility, or loose more weight......

Nah.... just wound off some rake going more upright!!

Adam won, after going for it in the boat park with a hacksaw, chopping 20mm off his main foil, Eric sailing his new M2 showed us why he has been winning the Bladerider Cup where he took Adam to the tie break and count back. Jimmer went on to win the Bladerider place, tying the series with Nige. Nige will need to turn up at the next 2 events or looks like Jimmer will be an easy winner.

On a final note, has the AC45 coverage been awesome or what!!!

Over and out

Two Faces

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

Rehab

After several attempts earlier in the year to get my new Sailing Bits ride height and gearing adjuster working properly, I have now had yet another go. Well, OK , the first two attempts don't count as I hadn't really thought it through, but no sailing over weekend and time to kill allowed me to spend some time fiddling with the boat, current JP ride height adjusters and foil. First thing was stick the foil in and to measure everything so I could accurately recreate my favorite settings, both high and low modes. I then managed to get to the same place with the new RHA but it was jamming on the combing surround of the foil case. Out with the Dremel and ground it down till it all fitted and wand was friction free. Then tons of measurements and adjustments and finally got back to my start point. From there it was really a case of testing out the gearing adjuster. What was really a surprise for me was at max ride height on my old RHA, how little wand movement there really is.

The big test will be this weekend when I go sailing. I'll have the Go Pro and its time to test the new set up in some serious Long Beach chop. Forecast looks good.

Over and out from LB

Transmission

Pretty crappy piece of video of a pretty awesome system. Yes Karl had "Virtual Reality" out again today. It flies high, it flies level, it flies fast, then he got a ticket from the harbor patrol, so games were ended early. It's a much better approach then the previous, its well sorted, seems to have little friction and is definitely a different way to think if a foiling moth. Lets face it with Nathan sailing 300 days a year, its going to take something more to beat him. May be this is it and a resurgence of the DIY Moth. Not sure I'm going to cut the bottom out of the Mach 2 just yet, butI'm just sayin'.

Other than that full on Long Beach day. Wind over tide again with decent standing wave at harbor mouth. But yes had a great day, full control, tons of speed, till I ran out of steam about 2 1/2 hours in. Came back with a smile though!

Crazy Train

My Little Demon

Finally worked it out today...... Building breeze, peaking at 18 - 22, class Long Beach day. Went for it and yes finally remembered how to gybe and even tack. Had a blast, enjoyed it, I'm back! Seems like it was a long summer of frustration, too much work too much travel and not enough sailing, but today made up for being washed up on the beach last weekend when the breeze was on.

I see the new Mach 2.1 is now available. Nice line of upgrades. I'm starting to wonder the phasing of a new boat, before the Garda Worlds or before the Hawaii Worlds? Also interesting to see it now comes in colours. Well that's going to change things! Sky blue anyone?

Over and out from Long Beach

Ghost in the Machine

At last weeks Moth Madness I saw some pretty sweet numbers on the max speedometer (ProStart). Quick investigation of the track down load showed this. So to believe my 33.6 knots average speed I think I have to believe a 43 knots and a 35 knots. I was shifting in some big pressure on relatively flat water, but is too long a stretch for me. So unless any of you techy mindset mothistas out there can interpret this differently I'm calling a "ghost in the machine". I can guarantee that it wasn't from being frustrated and throwing my Pro Start! Shame as it was quite exciting for 24 hours.

Reflecting back on the Gorge, hadn't been in the boat for a while, and when it blows there, that place gets into my head. Lesson is to strap on your big girl panties, harden the f#ck up and send it.

Beyond that it was very interesting how much I had to wind off the ride height going down wind at high speed (28s). When I forgot to wind it back on upwind, I was really riding low. It always amazes me how sensitive the boat is to a half turn on the ride height.

I'm going to get the SoCal Mothistas going again with a couple of training sessions (Long Beach and Coronado) as well as focus on Halloween and Turkey day regattas where we should congregate next.

Over and out from LA.

Back in Black

Wow, 3 months since my last blog!!! I knew I had been busy but there some limits. Work in last quarter was crazy as we bought 2 new Companies in Brazil, so Liz and I decamped to Sao Paulo for most of May and June, only coming back to do the US Nats at Long Beach. Numbers were back up to 12 with Karl guesting in "The Pearl" and new guy JP showing us all how its done in light airs. It was a good regatta, won by Dalton, but the predominently light airs and South Bay chop did many a head in...... Matty were talking about you !!! Still good regatta with about 12 races run.

Were just back form the Gorge, which roared then coughed the fell silent. Friday was awesome at 20+. Howver my sailing really left quite a bit to be desired. Seemed to have moved back a few moths making all the same old mistakes. At least I finihsed every race, didnt come last in all them, and generally did much better than last year. But its a tough place to sail and can really get in your head. However when you get it right its just awesome.

Next regatta coming up. Newport on Aug 21st 22nd

Over and out

Small but Perfectly Formed

A very small fleet formed for the PCCs in Coronado this weekend. All in all despite having 11 Moths there, we only got 6 sailors. But perfectly formed it was! Winds Thursday Friday were 10 -12 and Saturday a shifty and complex 8 - 10. We got off 13 races plus a 4 race slalom that was really fun. High lights include Zack as new champion and JP showing how talent can really be applied in a Moth at a young age! Watch out for him, he will be a force to be reckoned with even this summer.

So whats the scoop, well I bought a new sail MacDougal 10c and really liked it even if I didn't get the set up quite right, but more worrying is the tail off in fleet numbers at each regatta so far this year.

I think this one over the Easter Weekend and the odd timing of it didn't help us much, but after getting 22 boats there last year, to have only 6 was a bit of a knock. I'm really hoping this is just a blip and that by US Nats in June we will be back on track. We had 15 boats there last year and I think we should try as a class to beat the number. We're on the road towards the Worlds in 2013 and which it may seem a long way off, in reality it isn't and we need to work as a Class to increase the numbers of Mothistas at each event otherwise we risk being sidelined as a side show. Its our Class and we can only make of it what we will, but that's going to take each of us being involved. Let me know if the schedule isn't working out and we will do our best to change it. We still need to vote on ABYC or Kaneohe Bay Yacht Club for our Worlds venue and we should aim to get all feedback and votes by the US Nats at ABYC in June,

Till then.....

Paint It Black

A little video producion from an awesome event. Point for spotting my near miss with Charlie turn 1 slalom heat 2

Trust I'll see you all at Coronado in a few short weekends or the PCCs

Pac Rim Day 2. Slalom is on

4 races in and it was on to the slalom. In a light and shifty 10 knots, the 11 competitors went head to head in 2 heats. Format was top 2 went through to final. Then we had a losers heat, where top place also went through. The repercharge was on! Adam and Junior qualify, and Boras in the repecharge! Our heat was closely fought, at as to first mark, with Charlie and Zack going through. Bora makes it in at last moment. and the winner of the pitcher of Mai Tais is........

Charlie. Awesome and using my new cut down main foil. Clearly more development to come in that direction.

We had Liz working the camera shutter and there are just some awesome shots of this beautiful place to sail. It looks like the club will potentially make a bid for the 2013 Worlds. It would be a great destination location for the event. We also have a strong bid from ABYC in Long Beach. To make our decision I think we will make a vote after this event, and then again after the Long Beach event in early June. This will then allow enough time to pull a proposal together for ratification at Euros in Travemunde.

Looking a little light today, so who knows but were 11 races in already.

The Morning After

I'm awake, just. My body hurts. I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Welcome to Moth Pac Rims Day 2! Yesterday was a bit of a tour de force. Wind 8 - 18s, 7 races, all fast and furious. There's really an intensity to Moth racing that just exist in other classes, at least not the one I've been invoved in. At some point I'm going to wear my heart rate monitor during a race. I would bet when were upwind, we're anaerobic the whole way. Still a ton of fun, had a bit of a bug so plenty of puking, which isn't fun when youre hiking your ass off. And yes big speed down wind. 26.8 in one memorable gust.

More to come, over and out from Kaneohe

The Last Wild Waltz

A bit like George Lucas with the Star Wars films, this one is the last chapter. Two more to come but they take time. This one I shot in max resolution HD on the Go Pro and you can really notice the difference in quality. Plays like TV n the lap top.

Normal service will be resumed next week as I head off to the Pac Rim Champs in Kaneohe Oahu. Boat is delivered Monday and I get there Wednesday. All other boats which are coming from Aus are still in customs so I hope Bear can wave his magic and get them out Monday or Tuesday. Otherwise will leave Nige Eric and me! We may have to change the championships to Mai Tai drinking instead.

Over and out...........

161 800

161 800, 161 800, 161 800. I keep repeating it to myself, 161 800. Yup vertical ft skied in BC last week. I'm in a trance used to the rhythm of a heli skiing day. Wake up, eat as many calories as you can force down. Boots on, transponder on, out to heli, fly through what really is the last frontier. Guide picks some insane first run, either steep and trees if the weathers down, or wide open deeeep alpine. First turns, everything grumbles, find the rhythm of the day, snow whapping against your chest, with the occasional face shot, legs are burning but don't give in, down to heli, pack off, skiis off, wade through chest deep snow. Repeat 10 times. Back to lodge, shower beer dinner sleep by 8:30. Repeat 7 times.

The trance goes on.........

I've Got the Power

Wow, what a day, very "other world" compared to our usual Long Beach days. Arrived early, wind already cranking. Bit of a slow sail through the channel as I was being shadowed by the Coasties. But once outside it was on.... Turkey Day 2 Redux. Blowing dogs off chains, cold in a SoCal kinda way and a big ugly chop. Was winding off the ride height adjuster but for some brain fade pulled the wrong way so had max height and yes max wipe outs till I figured it all out. Once I had my setting back then Yee Haa, popping through 27 knots again down wind. Still I was out on my own, not even a power boat in sight and felt pretty exposed in those conditions. So set to some training tacks and gybes but general boat handling. Happy to see what I learnt in Turkey Day epic stuck and had fun in big conditions. Also had a ton more rake on. Makes boat easier to handle but tacking harder, just need to nail more foiling tacks

Realized I need to pack my boat tomorrow for Hawaii.... at least it'll be warm there

Over and out from Long Beach for a month or so........

Twisted Logic

As we close on our first event of the year, Pacific Rims Champs in Hawaii, a strange phenomena is happening. I guesstimating we will have between 12 and 15 boats there, but with only about 30 % of the fleet sailing their own boat, and a ton of chartering going on. Just so happens a very stuffed 20ft container made a stop of on the way from the Words back home. Looks like it contains 13 Moths, 3 wings (various states of repair), a coach boat (deflated), and a partridge in a pear tree (only joking, I think). Good for us, many people can come to Hawaii without cost of shipping their own boat and defraying the cost with charter costs. Being always interested in a scheme or 2 this got me thinking...... a 40 ft container 20 boats shipped from event to event. Turn up and pilot. Then I thought some more, and thought back to Bercy in the 80s, indoor windsurfing, 20 000 crowds pumping music..... so then I thought some more and it really got dangerous... 20 moths shipped from event to event, big media, buoy racing as well as slalom, close enough to shore to watch, crowds, pumping music, and not you hip hop hat on backward crap, but pumping god fearing rock and roll... last gybe, Charlie vs Bora, soft sail vs wing, mano e mano cage match, one winner....

All potential backers and McConaghy please pm me for further details...

Riders on the Storm

Wind Graph, Belmont Shore

Today's windspeeds not shown. Click here for current windspeeds.

Fun day training with Zack and Nat. Arrived at club rigged no wind. 11:30 am blast came through with first front. Hang on to all gear. Sail out for some nice foiling in a dying breeze, get skunked (2 - 2:30), low ride back only to get hit with with 30knot gust right in the channel, yup at the narrow bit, the always difficult bit! Out of control foiling with TWA at 160, no space for a gybe away and the Harbor police right there. Fortunately they gave us a pass as they could see it was all a bit out of control. Almost foiled into the club trying to avoid Nat just below me. Definitely a mad 10 minutes then nothing! Great conditions to practice changing gear and puling a little bit less Vang.

Looking forward to some warmer weather and to Hawaii which is in just a few short weeks.

Before the Europeans we need to choose a venue for the 2013 Worlds. Thinking of some criteria how about:

1. Predictable consistent winds
2. Warm
3. Easy to get to
4. At or near a big population of sailors so we can convert as many to foiling and Moths in advance and post the event
5. Experienced club

Also being an AC year, timing will be critical. Other thoughts?

Pump It

With quite a bit of debate in SA forums on how much vang to pull on, I thought I'd run an experiment. OK I was bored at work and went to gym! But after a nice warm thought I'd see how much weight I can pull with a 4 mm line. The protocol was sitting, not bracing feet, pull maximum weight.

The stats were:

Left hand 43Kgs

Right Hand 45.5Kgs

Now my vang is rigged at 24:1 and I have been pulling vang on till I cant pull anymore so thats erm.... 2 takeaway 5

Port Tack 1032 Kgs line load

Starboard Tack 1091 Kgs line load

F#ck that's a lot! Rig is a stiff CST355 and a Raptor. Thought I'd started to see overbend wrinkles so last sail eased the vang by about an inch or two from max and got much better speed. Pulling too hard.... you decide :)

Seahorse just came through the post. Cover shot, 6 photo spread of "that Nathan wipe out", 4 other shots of Moths and a quote from Lindsay Bergan. How cool is that? Cooler than a cool thing, and a huge boost for us, especially the 15 boat going to Hawaii for the newly minted Pac Rim Cup.

Bring it on!

Come Rain, Come Shine

First foiling day since Thanksgiving and YES, I still remember how to tack and gybe, Sweet!

Long Beach was cranking, 22 at Pier J in the gusts and fronts, rain showers, sun, we had it all.

New painted and sanded foils, more rig rake and some sweet top speed runs including 22 knots straight down the channel on the way home.

"Who me Officer, no sorry must have got the wrong person".

But best was saved for our last windward mark bear away. 26.6knots and not bad in the usual Long Beach chop.

Nat and I sailed 41 km, hiked our legs off, and were rewarded by a great start to 2011.

Key learning this time around was allowing a little bit of twist into the main when it was cranking. Thanks to Adam Lowery for that tip. With a ton of cunno, it seemed to give me height and speed when we did our straight line tests up wind. Also really worked on smoothing out the carve on the gybe. Nice plus really fun.

Roll on Hawaii for the Pac Rim Champs.......

Raining Again

The Mothista says to his smoking hot wife:

"Honey can you book some tickets for Seattle Jan 8th"

Smoking hot wife says:

"Great we're going skiing?"

"No, sailing! But pack your ski stuff we're going to need it. Forecast is snow"

Pic is of Liz, for once on the other end of the camera. Duwarmish Head race with Jonathan on the mighty Dark Star. The forecast of rain held off but we did get the odd flurry of snow. Ton of fun with a great crew!

2013 Worlds

Looks like the 2013 Worlds will be held in the US of A. Yeah Baby!

Tears in Heaven

Pos Helm Nat R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Pts

1 Nathan Outteridge AUS 5 1 1 1 1 1 5

2 Peter Burling NZL 2 3 2 1 1 1 7

3 Joe Turner AUS 2 1 1 7 2 3 9

4 Scott Babbage AUS 6 2 2 3 3 4 14

5 Rob Gough AUS 1 3 3 4 5 4 15

6 Iain Jensen AUS 1 9 7 2 6 2 18

7 Tom Slingsby AUS 6 2 6 3 2 5 18

8 John Harris AUS 9 7 3 8 3 3 24

9 Brad Funk USA DNF 8 11 2 4 2 27

10 Arnaud Psarofaghis SUI 4 4 6 7 7 6 27

Here's the leader board at the Worlds after 2 days and 6 races. No Bora, no Simon, several new names, so whats happening? Is this a shift in the world power of Mothing? It's all going the Moth Squad way at the moment and with Brad keeping the US Airforce just in contention, likewise for Arnaud and the Euros. Bora and Dalton are just outside the top 10 in the early teens. So why the Aussie domination? Could be a couple of things playing out:

• Moth Squad loaded with talent? Yes possibly but the US and Euro top sailors are also pretty seriously capable with ex Olympians and ex World Champions.
• Practiced more? No doubt pulling together the concept of a team, load with talent, and then practice together like hell is one out of the US airforce play book. The concentration of Moth sailing in Sydney again helps especially if you compare to the US where getting together for a regatta is a serious exercise in logistics.
• Focus and build up? Did designing and building the wing plus shipping and travel to Australia, take the focus out of the US airforce build up at the last minute? Similarly a dreary winter in Europe and then travel can't have made a solid build easy for the Europeans either. But it certainly looks like Moth Squad had a strong build of momentum leading up to the event which can only have helped.

But as they say, it isn't over till the fat lady sings and with the format of the event allowing the results from first 9 races to be taken through as a non discard, all is to play for in the last 2 days.

Game on and don't discount anyone in the top 15 from pulling off the Championship!

You Can't Always Get What You Want

First, Happy New Year to everyone, trust it will be all you wish for, and a successful one. Been playing around with my Go Pro on a recent ski trip to Deer Valley. I'm sure Ill get some technique tips from Bear on this one, and yes I'm still in the midst of my Rolling Stones obsession.

On the Moth front work list is complete apart from tightening some bolts on the trailer. Sailing next weekend up in Seattle with Jonathan McKee. Could be the prelude to some thing but blogging about it will have to wait for now till I'm more certain it will happen. The it's full on Mothing till Hawaii or the mid winters, which ever happens first! New years resolutions are made and looking to make the next jump in my Moth sailing. Not going to the Worlds isn't exactly helping the cause, but work has to fit in!

Thursday this week will be a big day. Race 1 of the Aus Nationals. The furor around Bora and Bears wing seems to have died down a bit. Measurement day will be critical but at least now there is a set of guidance for them to be measured to. How we got there is another story, but really highlights the difficulty for a Development Class in managing rapidly advancing technology with a fleet and set of followers that are very connected in cyberspace. Till we get to the AGM, next test is to see how fast they really are.

From my SA post here's my tips for Worlds

Top 3:

Bora, Simon, Nathan. You couldn't really bet against any of them.

Top 3 wild cards:

Dalton, Tom Slingsby, AMAC, Brad Funk (a real dark horse in this, could bring home the chocolates), Scott Babbage

Top 5

Bear (sure to be there), Arnoud, John Harris (been here before), Dave Lister, Luka Damic, Charlie McKee

Top 10

Chris Rast, Mike Lennon, Adam Lowery, Joe Turner,