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!