There's Raptors Waiting in the Long Grass

The new Raptors have arrived in Long Beach! First shot you can see Nat's sail rigged, other three shots you can see my sail laid out over my trusty 13b. So what do we see Mothistas?

Although Nats sail is not loaded, it clearly sets up well on the stiff McConnachy mast. Smooth skin, flat up top, power where you'd want it.

Compared to the 13b, and yes only laid out on the floor, the plan shape is narrower, more area up top, quite a bit actually, higher clew (much easier gybing or go like Bora with a massive amount of rake!), and slightly lower luff curve. I can see why it really suits the Nano 4.

I'm planning to continue training with the 13b, stick the sail numbers on the Raptor, and then do a bit of testing with the Raptor before Gorge Madness. We're in the middle of a major product launch so don't have much time to burn of testing and finding set ups, so will need to be careful in my selection. I've got a nice set up going at the moment, and plenty of speed.

Bad Moon Rising, an American Memorial Day

Had some off Moth fun this weekend. Friends invited us out to the Mojave, rode dirt bikes, smoked cigars, drank Tequilla and Howled at the Moon....

Dont worry Mothistas, the boat will be wheeled out again next weekend... :)

I Can Sail for Miles and Miles

Finally got around to down loading my Velocitek. Quite some interesting data there:

First speed:

As chart above shows got very close to cracking 25 knots in our recent regatta. Came down the last leeward leg in the pressure of the day and still in relatively flat water. Even with the wand flicking like crazy I still had a ton of control in the Mach 2. It's really made me wonder about how to go for a max speed run. I think bear off, hike like hell and sail deep, using VMG to keep speed building. Been trying some other stuff recently, but next time its on, I'm going to give it a go. Recon if I start high up under breakwater at Long Beach where its super flat, shoudl be abe to build some good ol' velocity....

Distance:

Interesting stats. Thursday and Friday I sailed 45Km and 51Km respectively, whilst at ABYC regatta sailed 66.7Km on Saturday and 51.6Km on Sunday. Make you think that some long distance racing such as Border Run or the Ditch Run could be on the cards with the right weather and right suport boat, i.e. faaaaasst!

My Random Walk Down the Start Line

This week, I was really fortunate to have 2 days coaching with Charlie and to be joined on the Friday by a mystery Mothista for some windward leeward fun. Massive amount of learning from an excellent coach, who was able to diagnose and break down my "issues" into manageable chunks that I can work on and improve on my own. Great breeze, up to 25 knts on Thursday and a more modest 18 knts on Friday, made for some great foiling. We just have to have the NAs or US Champs here in 2011.

Biggest "ahah" for me was the exercise "pick a point before line and accelerate into pin end start". I knew sort of where I wanted to put the boat, but either couldn't put it there, or couldn't hold it there for long enough. Made me wonder about just how random my starting has been. Yes I can basically figure out which end of the line to aim at, but the rest for me was then a random wander down the start line reacting to what ever I encountered and if lucky enough foiling off the line roughly as the gun went and in a direction the boat just happened to be pointing at that moment. It really made me think about just what have I been doing or not doing. Still now I have a system to break it down and hopefully remove the randomness! Next regatta we will see!

I also got much better at gybing on the whistle, so much so that Liz is now thinking of getting one to see if she can train me at home: "peep" do the dishes, "peep" do the ironing, "peep...." ok I am sure you get the idea....

Whilst the cats are away: Post Script

I thought about this some more last night. Whilst we only had 4 boats there, we really went at it on the start lines. 7 races and every start was really hotly contested by all 4 boats. Closest I have been to other Moths all played out at high speed. I pushed Nat over the line, he pushed me over, we both pushed Dan over, port starboards, Eric trying to catch us on the line with a starboard start. This was much closer than ever. I am guessing but without the "Heads of State" to keep order, and with fewer boats, we had more room to dial up, both contributed to some white hot starting action. There were definitely a few starts where I couldn't believe what we were doing. I could have thrown my water bottle and hit all three other boats easily. Awesome practice and a ton of fun.....

While the cats are away the mice will play. Santa Barbara Skiff Fest day 2

With all the usual suspects out sailing Melges, the Moth SoCal B fleet took to the water for day 2. Bit of June gloom, (mist) on little wind made for a slow sail out and a bit of worry about what we were going to get. BUT magically as the 5 min gun went first Nat then me were up on foils. By the gun we were all on it and another incredibly tight well fought for port hand start. Starts were the order of the day, Nat pushed me over in race 2, getting me back for pushing him over yesterday. Returned and fought hard to get back to a second inching Eric on the line. Sorry dude but I needed it! Wind built to a nice 15 - 18 again and sunshine, Nat almost taking the win, coming downwind on the pressure of the day. The morning group foil tuning seemed to have paid off at least for Eric, he was really pushing it and almost won the last race. Ended up with 1,2,1,1,2,1,1 so was pretty happy but my starboard to port gybe, wow that was bad. Even manged to turtle on one gybe chasing Nat in the second race. Think I am being a bit too timid and need to drive the boat round the turn. Always something to work on. Funnily enough I seemed to have nailed my port to starboard. Its a strange ol world! Still awesome fun weekend and a ton of sailing. Nice to sail with Dan and Eric, they are going to be tough competition in a few months.

Back to the beginning: Santa Barbara Skiff Fest day 1.

Last year this was my first event on US soil, well ocean. I'd learnt to sail the Moth, sort of, in Sydney and had relocated with work to SoCal. Boat arrived, we still weren't members of a club saw the event on the Inter Web and thought, well its a skiff festival, must be Moths. Well got that wrong, last year I was the only Moth in a hoard of I14s and 29ers. This year we're more organised and Nat, Eric, and Dan ( who drove down from San Fran) are rewarded with awesome conditions. Given its been a year, I'm pretty happy. Standard of my sailing and racing has really improved, I've been to my first Worlds, got a new boat, been through several rigs and settings, and just had a blast in this awesome class. Roll on the next 12 months, yeehaa>

Now our normal service will be resumed and back to the racing.

The June gloom, gave way to sunshine as we sailed out and we were on foils from the getgo. Dana ran a tight program in building breeze and well/ chop. Wind steadied at 15 - 18s, and we cranked out three races. I managed a 1,2,1 with Nat, 2,1,2 and Dan and Eric catching up fast as they get used to their boats. My new foil worked really well on old settings until wind built but managed to find a new setting quickly and ground it out in the third race. My gybing was awful, I don't think I pulled one off during the races despite have a great practice on the way out. Practice practice practise tomorrow. Very strange only having 3 races after 4 months of 4 - 6 races at events, quite relaxed really. Back on the schedule tomorrow.