The Best in the World

Times change. In 1967 the King of Thailand sailed a Moth.

Nowadays the king is over 80, which by present trends still doesn't rule him out of a worlds race win, but their ex president Thaksin Shinawatra does own Manchester City Football Club, and actually if he did sail a Moth, he might not have had a warrant issued for his arrest. Moths are expensive but buying a football club is no mean feat and does tend to attract a bit of attention, and upon closer inspection the Thai authorities found he'd won the state lottery.

What are the odds on that? Y'know especially with him being President and all....

But who was the best? When you've won its easier to look back, and its immediately apparant that you can't be Thai. You need either to be British or Australian.

Sorry my European cousins and American brothers, but if you want to be World Champion you need to change nationality. And that's not easy because to be British you have to queue at Calais for 6 months and enter the country clutching the rear axel of a lorry, or if you're a wizard and aware of our sexual health problems and can make the spell "Chlamidia clearupo" work, then you're in bro.

Or in the case of Australia, either float off their shore line for weeks on end until the rest of the world plead you plight, or turn up at the airport with muddy shoes, In which case they cant get you in quick enough. To clean 'em.

Well I've looked back, and I've gotta say I reckon its David Izatt. Three titles back to back is unbeatable, but then again I think it might be Mark Thorpe..

But look again and Jean Pierre Roggo from Switzerland also won three times in the 1960's and as I'm writing this its perhaps a coincidence that the Swiss Moth Open Cup, sponsored by Alinghi is on this weekend. So maybe a Swiss sailor will be the first to break the Bulldog/kangaroo strangle hold?

How's that for an early worlds prediction?