My boat is for sale

Photo: the gifted and ever young Thierry Martinez

Wow what a tough event! My Ibuprofen intake is possibly now at dangerous levels.

Congratulations to Nathan, a popular and worthy world champion.

Hey my Mach 2 is now for sale and back in the UK mid next week. If anyone is interested let me know at simonpaynegbr@btinternet.com

Darling leave the light on for me.

Brad funk and his space ship..Photo from award winning Thierry Martinez

Lay day! Time to recover and do some boat work. We had big winds yesterday which peaked at about 28 knots. It was a wild ride and the rich got richer as the big and strong smoked upwind.

The windward mark can be a long way away sometimes.

Well done to Nathan, Peter and the others who showed the rest what a Moth can do in these winds when you light the blue touch paper. And fast it was! I went through the line in the 2nd race with 28.6 knots on the clock. Clive Watts, owner of CST recorded 30.3knots which was a nice birthday present for him.

It wasnt so long ago that we had the prestigious 20 knot club...

So I'm struggling in this event and some people have asked me why I still race after winning the worlds in 2006 ands 2010. For the love of the sport mate, you have to get over your ego and if you still enjoy it, go sailing. In this game sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes you are the statue. You have to be pragmatic and the effort required to win a worlds is immense! You cant do it every time and accordingly you have to be realistic about your result. You win when you can and you dont run for the skirting boards when you cant. Anyway it was fun yesterday and my little Abarth Moth was going nearly as fast as the car. I wouldn't have missed those downwinds for anything. At the end of the day you are a long time dead. I can't wait for Campioni already.

The AGM was in typical Moth style, emotional and hi energy. A strong discussion on the wing and its place in the class was debated and the rules team will set to work creating a framework to measure it, with a vote on the subject planned at an EGM later this year.

Charlie McKee stated that he wanted to thank the exec for their work, he mentioned that there had been some "regrettable" US blog posts and media/forum coverage which anyway now is all forgotten, but it was nice of him. Mark and Adam have put a lot of work in.

On gear? Well Nathan and some of the other Aussie Moth Squad have cut 60mm off the tips of their main foils and accordingly it's our intention to make a smaller foil for big winds, so dont get the saw out just yet!

Days of Thunder

Thierry Martinez photo.

Tough day on the race course yesterday as 65 kilo's battled against a bullety 20 odd knot breeze. I got decent starts but the big guys stormed away up wind and didn't go any slower down. Today is the first day of the Finals racing and it's looking windy again. Yesterday I used an MSL10b on a soft mast and it went well. I was able to lose a lot of power as efficiently as I could but you can't in the end beat the laws of physics, my constant challenge every since I started moth sailing.
There were some very tired people yesterday evening but the racing is fun and well run. Nathan is looking indestructable and must be the next world champion unless anything goes badly wrong.

More weed than Marley

Me and Bora yesterday.From the magical lens of Thierry Martinez

One of the very few days I wished I'd capsized more. The accepted amount was 4-5 times per race - to clear the weed.
Still it was the same for everyone and Joe and Nathan head the leader board with some very consistent sailing.


Get off weed!

The split fleet system worked very well for all except for Brad who got mixed up. Yellow and Blue not being common colours on Mars apparently.
For me it was a tough day, I'm lying 12th overall and shared the frustrations of many of the sailors who hit weed and didnt get it off quick enough. I had my moments, but my lack of sailing prep is showing a bit and I'm struggling to get in sync with the shifts. It's a bit like a very warm Grafham water here although the boats and bikini's at the start area tend to differentiate it from any UK venue.
It was another long day on the water yesterday and many sailors will be aching a bit.
Today the wind is more round to the north east and already up to about 15 knots. It could be a windy one!

Worlds update

The 2011 Worlds start tomorrow and most of the sailors will be relaxing today and doing some boat work. I have a bit to do also after the toe straps broke yesterday and I exited stage left at 20 odd knots, snapping the tiller extension in the process.
Nevertheless it's fun here and the fleet seems to be on good form. We've had a few good races in the Australian Nationals and plenty of starting practice. I've been consistently slow downwind in practice and so for the event the KA MSL13 is coming out. As John Harris put it "You need that power to pull all that weed to the leeward mark" The 13 allows you to sail lower and that means you can stay in the gust longer. Its a gusty place.
I've also done more general recalls than I can ever err recall. The black flag, used liberally, was only accompanied by the black board once, and then order was restored. We must have had 10 generals over the last couple of days though..
Nathan and most of the Moth Squad are going well, all that practice not unsurprisingly paying off. Other names are struggling a bit but we are all on the same score right now so we'll see what happens.
Amacs new MSL16 is looking nice and I want a go! More tomorrow now my computer is working. Event website here http://www.mothworlds.org/belmont/