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