Riders on the Storm

Wind Graph, Belmont Shore

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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,