UK interview

I read this interview this morning on the UK International Moth site and it made me feel special.

I'll keep all this stuff to show the grandchildren. Thank you.

Accidentally on purpose

photo by kind permission of Thierry Martinez


In the late 1800s, people suffering from asthma might have been told by a pharmacist to smoke a cigarette. Daft now given what happened to the Marlborough Man and even though the recent smoking ban was designed to make the world a better place, you might argue differently if you were a shampoo manufacturer or a dry cleaner, where in these markets, business has declined as hair and clothes now need to be washed less. But there are some unlikely advances that really have had a significant and unforecasted effect on the world being a better place, even if at first they were viewed as a huge threat.. Nuclear Weapons come to mind here, built for mass destruction yet somehow managing to create an (albeit) uneasy peace.

But the most recent one in our world must be the unlikely liaison between the Wing and Rule 42.

I’ll explain. For the last few years the most popular debate just prior to any big championship event was how many times you are allowed to pump and/or wing bounce to promote foiling. Hardly any and none are the current answers but everyone did and the rule 42 discussion, which threatens to divide opinion, encourage protests and, in a bid to monitor it, lumber us with associated jury costs has now been made completely redundant.

Why? Because you can’t pump a wing. It’s true, and one of the greatest exponents of relaxing rule 42 informs me that it makes absolutely fuck all difference.

Interesting isn’t it to think like that? So if it proves to be the case that pumping et al are not needed. What does that mean for the class? Younger sailors? Older sailors? More women sailors? Who knows, but consider this when you form your view of the Wing, as again we differentiate ourselves from normal sailing dinghies by getting rid of a potential problem through elegant solutions and not silly little red flags. Even if it is by accident..

Nomenclature

I've always liked the word, mainly because for the first 30 years of my life I never understood what it meant. Nomenclature is a term that applies to either a list of names and/or terms or procedures related to naming. Clearly now we need to complement the Exec with this position to provide support for the newly appointed Measurement Secretary. Nomenclature Secretary's first task would be to propose a naming procedure for new developments, so that we don't have the current and obvious issue of having to change the name of the wing away from err wing, so that we don't confuse them with the already currently named.. err wings.
I would recommend we do, but on no account must we let an American do it. Americans do invent new words, almost every day actually, but this is largely by adding the prefix "de" and the suffix "fy". So we can get (recently heard) wonderful words like "Decomplexify" which presumably is another word for "Simple". Which it isn't.
The Australians should be precluded as well because they would just stick an "o" on the end of it and we'd just move from wing/wing to wingo/wingo which wouldn't be much help. The Germans, who currently translate the quite attractive word "bra" to "Büstenhalter" which I think means "bosom holder" would come up with something more literal still like "solid sail", which would be shortened to "SS" and that really wouldn't work.
No this must be left to the British. And so I would propose that the procedure is that any new invention brought to the class is named after the first sailor to use it. Adam however already has the "Maystick" and I'm now mindful of the recently introduced 2010 Equalities Act which means he can't have it in isolation as he's already go one invention, and two would be un err.. equal. Nobody is allowed to loose in Britain these days and anyway if he had two we'd be back to where we started with May/May Stick.
So its not easy as you can see, but a combination may work? How about the Bora May Invention? We could consult the French to shorten it and surely (but not guarranteed) it would turn into "BMI" which also stands poignantly for "Body Mass index" which is a subtle hint that if you are a fat bastard it could be for you, but BMI is also a low cost airline which makes flying accessible to the masses and that may just be a subtle reminder to everyone to think, as they look up, about what's really important to the moth class..

Si (sitting in a Starbucks waiting for someone, so err sorry)

Collide Ride

It was when I couldn't get back in the boat that I noticed something was wrong. A lap earlier and in the first race yesterday Richard Lovering and I bashed off each other at 20 knots downwind vying for the lead. He capsized and I continued, aware that I'd taken a big knock, but after messing up another tack up at the windward mark I couldn't get back in the boat. Then when I headed for the shore I couldn't get out and rammed the foils up the beach. Nice.

First time I've ever ever retired because of something like that and when everyone else was enjoying quick fire champagne racing Graham Simmonds was kindly helping me to put the cover on the boat, as I couldn't do it on my own. I limped off and spend an afternoon lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. Still nothing that Ibuprofen and BUPA wont be able to fix.

So sorry I wasn't part of yesterday and congratulation to Mike Lennon who really looks the part these days. Maybe that was the last year of the Tide Ride at HISC but once again the Moths put on a really good show!

Anyway injuries happen, but the most annoying thing is I have this beautiful little Abarth 500 sitting on my driveway and I can only drive one handed!



On an entirely different note, we lost a rudder vertical at the Europeans in Silvaplana.. It was a spare, but it went missing. Anyone seen it around?

S

Where are you with the wing?

There has been quite a bit of talk in the Moth class about wing rigs of late. In particular how they should fit into the class, or not.

Andrew McDougall has posted his thoughts in the forum on the new Mach2 website and you probably should read them.

Do you agree with Andrew or not? We'd like to hear your views so tell us what you think! It is easy to log in and the topic does need debate...

Just register in the below section of the home page.



Then click on "Mach 2 Forum" ....



Then read the post.. calm down...take a deep breath...

Excuse me while I kiss the sky

They say that in order to move to a higher level you need to force yourself out of your comfort zone. Of course in a Moth you need to be sensible too, but if you always stay inside a figurative and pre prescribed four walls I guess you wont ever really fail, or in fact improve, and that's because those four walls are really a jail.

Chichester harbour has offered some pretty shit racing this year for me to be honest. It's full of weed, yachts and a tide that goes about as quick as a solar wind, but its my home, I love it and yes it's very comfortable. Yet I'm also keen on improving, and the bay is the only place you get to sail around an international sized course. (That's excluding Silvaplana of course which you could quite easily replicate in the lagoon)

And those four familiar walls seemed temporarily more appealing as I pitchpoled off another wave in the middle of Hayling Bay on Sunday with 24 knots on the clock. By the time I'd done it four times I was even managing to fit a little prayer in between leaving the tramp and hitting the mast. I don't often bruise, but today I feel like I can't take a deep breath.

The ride out was fine. A bit bumpy but your only gonna go one way so might as well get on with it. The racing though was magical. It was just me, and the boat, and its a pretty connecting experience when its not the two of you against another Moth, but against the elements. It makes you feel really good.

It was full foam up and I was trying to hang onto the imaginary tails of Bora, Nathan and Jon Harris in the big waves. I faffed with the boat but in the end gave up and was safer down wind just by steering really accurately. At first I couldnt get back down to the start but the more downwinds I did the better I got. The last three laps were incident free.

In between races I caught my breath and also caught sight of some very black 25 knot plus gusts coming my way. Holding onto an always too short mainsheet I ran for the skirting boards as quick as I could and to the shelter of the harbour!

Little Rudder

I tried the small rudder last night at Hayling Island. This one is the very first one out of the mould and I immediately liked it! It felt very slippery and in the gorgeous little ten knot breeze we had in a sparkly Chichester harbour the boat felt great! Specifically with high ride height the leeward tip did not come out, as it tends to with the standard rudder and three foiling tacks in a row seemed to indicate that there is no lift penalty.

You can see the difference in size in the picture but you can't see that the section is proportionally thinner too.

The little rudder is available now as an aftermarket option.