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