Giovanni Galeotti Not Just Moth Sailing

Old glory

2011-09-19T12:30:00.001+02:00

Bruinisse is the last meeting of the year for Benelux mothies. I love the drive up from Antwerp through wetlands. The weather being somewhat unsettled, I counted at least half a dozen rainbows as a low easterly sun got under the grey squalls coming in from the north sea. Saturday was quite breezy and frought with breakdowns. Sunday was more mellow but the race course seemed to have its own dark cloud that kept temperatures at 10 degrees. I politely decided to stay ashore - this has been a very mellow season and I wasn't in the mood to change that at the last minute.

I was however happy to see Morgan Good get 2nd overall with my old prowler. Still a very pretty and fast boat. Very good of Morgan to have done so well in his first moth race.

White Knuckles

2011-05-10T11:32:00.000+02:00

A friend called me to say he'd just bought an old Moth so he could learn to foil. Great news to have newcomers to the class in Belgium. He needed some advice on setting up so I volunteered to take a look at his "new" ride. He showed up at the lake with no less than White Knuckle Express - a piece of history! I couldn't resist going for a spin and was amazed at how well it worked once sorted. This is the boat Rohan Veal used to show the world what foiling was all about. It should be in a museum.

There are plenty of videos on the net showing Rohan sailing around on his foiling machine in a style long since surpassed. It's quite interesting to compare Rohan at Garda on the much evolved Bladerider, the boat and Rohan had already moved on so far. Stepping into White Knuckle Express knowing what a Mach 2 feels like makes it so much easier to set up and sail the old boat. It's humbling to think of the huge challenge Rohan faced and met just a few years back without the benefit of experience. We all owe him and John and the handful of pioneeers that first got foiling a great deal.

Shark Wins

2011-04-25T10:28:00.000+02:00

Van Uden Reco Stellendam Regatta: 1,1,1,4.

A prematurely departed friend of mine (R.I.P.) once said he was almost perfect but that perfection itself would be boring. We were no where near perfect but brilliant enough to win. In fact we have been winning every time out this year. The key ingredients: a good balance of personality and skills within the crew, the ability to convert opportunities into advantage, and fantastic shore support. We just want to have some fun and we do.

Looking up!

2011-04-13T17:08:00.000+02:00

2011 is looking up. The family has grown with the arrival of Francesca. Shark has grown to 35 feet and just continues to win everything. The Belgian Moth class has grown with the arrival of Morgan Good. What next?

Odd again

2010-11-18T10:34:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the comments to my previous entry – I posted my further thoughts here to make them more easily readable: The present IMCA sail area rule follows the principle of measuring sail area according to ISAF guidelines. It attempts to measure the area contributing to driving force. That is why the luff sleeve/ mast is not measured since it contributes more drag than lift. The exception is area of wing masts in excess of 90mm X mast length. This is understandable and presumably written because it was estimated that a sufficiently wide wing mast (in excess of 90mm) would contribute to driving force. The 90mm number is probably an educated guess but even if it is not spot on it agrees with the concept of attempting to measure area contributing to driving force

The IMCA wing sail interpretation does not follow the principle of measuring area that produces driving force. The wing in its entirety produces lift and therefore the entire wing needs to be measured if ISAF guidelines are to be followed. The interpretation is at odds with ISAF general principles as well as specific recommendations for measuring wings. As such it is not even consistent with our Rules and their present application which do follow ISAF guidelines when it comes to conventional rigs or wingmast/softsail rigs.

I believe an interpretation not in agreement with ISAF principles will not stand up in appeal. Ultimately it is the rules which are the defining element. At the end of the day the real bone of contention is whether a multi element wing is one sail or not. I would argue that it most certainly is when slots are sealed. I would also argue that it is one sail when slotted but the point can be debated. If all elements can be sheeted together then it is probably one sail.

I think the matter should be cleared up urgently to safeguard the fantastic PR asset we have in the wing sail. The first step in moving the issue forward is to is to draft a new and more robust interpretation that takes into account ISAF guidelines. As of now there is no firm grounding for a reasoned discussion. If it is true that there is still doubt about what will be allowed at Belmont then the situation needs to be righted.

Odd interpretation

2010-11-17T16:16:00.004+01:00

Having read the recently posted (16/11/10) interpretation regarding wing sails written 12 August 2010 I came away with the feeling it was most probably at odds with ISAF reccommendations for measuring sail area that you can find here: http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/GuideSailArea-[941].pdf .

The great oddity of the class interpretation is considering the forward element of the wing sail the mast and the rear element the sail. This allows for the deduction of the 90mm mast allowance which implies that a two element rig will be substantially bigger than the current enclosed luff sail. It gets odder: a one element sail - twistable or not does not get the 90mm mast allowance and might(???) even be illegal. Same for 3 or more element sails.

ISAF would suggest that the entire area of a wing be measured. Furthermore it would suggest as would common sense that there is no difference between a one, two or three element sail. A slot is unmeasured area. One flapped wing is still one wing regardless the flap configuration - a biplane or triplane configuration is something very different. A flapped wing does not a multiple sail configuration create. The fact that a sloop rig can be analyzed as a slotted foil does not imply the converse (a dog is a mammal but a mammal is not a dog). In any case even if we were to accept that false argument any slot in the wing sail should be banned (including a slotted two element sail) but the number of mechanical elements and amount of inducible camber would be left free as long as all slots were sealed.

The apparent discrimination in favour of a two element wing sail at this point in time when we have no experience is nonsensical. It could very well be that a three element sail when broken down is more transportable.Equally, there is no reason to descriminate against slots, a multiple slot configuration may be sailable in a wider range of conditions. More critically the sail area bonus allotted to the wing (in the two element configuration) which should be an inherently more powerful and efficient rig hardly seems fair. Especially since it clashes with ISAF sail area measurement prescriptions.

Soon the class will be voting on the wing. The current interpretation of the rule might influence that vote - perhaps not for the best. It's hard to support the logic of the current interpretation.....

Team

2010-09-21T13:08:00.001+02:00

I'm hard headed. Usually I bin things like tuning guides and spend a season or two getting my own numbers through trial and error. For the most part the numbers end up being exactly like those in the binned tuning guide. Maybe that's not very smart. Maybe it is because I end up understanding the numbers. Moth sailing is different. It's not just about trial and error, it's about engineering. What looks the same to the naked eye can be miles apart in performance. It's about having a team of people with very special skills and putting theory and practice together. The most impressive improvement of the year required five minutes of work with 400 grit wet or dry. When our engineer suggested it I was skeptical - when the points scored dropped by an average of 30% I was eating humble pie.

We hit all the targets set for ourselves this year. The special parts we built proved reliable. Top speed has gone up 10%. We bring our individual exprerience together to make things better. We are a team. We're only just getting started.

Mile High

2010-08-09T09:45:00.000+02:00

In 1910 Walter Brookins was first to fly a mile high. One hundred years later Moths take on Silvaplana - altitude: a mile and a bit.

Faster than the speed of light

2010-07-22T19:18:00.003+02:00

There hasn't been much breeze in these parts. Wednesday, late it started picking up so I rigged for a sail. Got off the dock while the fleet was just starting the evening race half a mile downwind. I futzed around a bit and then decided I might as well go round the course. Turning corners, traffic, good practice. Staying within the patchy breeze, I had to take very different lines from the conventional boats. Twice the distance, three times the speed. On the second to last reach I overtook the leading Snipe. Three quarters of the way up the last beat I got off the foils and waited for the committee boat to set the finish. - they were taking their time. When I went through no one stirred. Little lake I sail on - Dina was stting on a bench watching the whole race. Asked if she didn't think it was a little nasty not to score me - "Oh" she said, "I didn't notice you sailed the course". Faster than the speed of light - no one sees you....

Black is back

2010-07-19T14:47:00.001+02:00

It's been a week since the UK nationals. For me the first sail of the season with the black boat. Conditions were just perfect for racing making me very much wish that I was already up to speed with the boat work. Wishing aside I had to put in very long hours to slowly get through a long to do list of jobs. The original vang strop let go in the first race of the second day and that made life exciting as the hurried repair kept slipping - compounding my fading upwind performances in the long races. The raptor sail turned out to be not too bad in the marginal conditions and I was able to acquire a surplus Nano 4 which really does make it look very sweet. From now on seeing it on another mast will hurt my eyes. Truth be told I only used the raptor because I knew the cams wouldn't pop off and I had so much else on the agenda that I didn't want to deal with fitting spacers on a yet untried KA 13 which I otherwise like and know well (the old one needs repairs).

I was much impressed by the English fleet and it has to be said that the Hayling Island group in particular is very hot. It's the old story of a dedicated group of sailors pushing each other to a higher level. There's a great spirit of collaboration with detail improvements and parts production shared among the sailors which is very supportive. I was also occasionally impressed by my own speed. A lot more work is needed but so far so good. The development work done is in the right direction. That's rewarding. I am waiting for the big prize, which is just to be able to go out there and enjoy racing with a fully developed, competitive boat. After that I might not want to dive into the next project straight away...not if the regattas are as enjoyable as the UK nationals....

Ratcheting up the difficulty level

2010-06-21T11:31:00.001+02:00

I'm not much of a gamer but I've seen enough to know that you can choose your difficulty level to make life harder for yourself. Why you would want to, or why you would want to play video games at all I am not exactly sure and I am not going to go there. Certainly when it comes to Moth sailing I want it to be as easy as possible unless there is a big payoff in speed and then I still think twice about making life hard for myself on the water.

Last week end I tried the ultimate in difficulty level. Small cut down rudder (Mach 2), small flap on main foil (Prowler) and very flat sail (Raptor) in 20+ knots and extremely nasty short chop (Weymouth Cubed) over a shallow bottomed lake with 10 miles of fetch. It was as if I had just drawn a "go back to the bottom of the learning curve" card from the pack. Some hours of practice with this set up might improve things substantially but I don't even have to ask myself if I really ever want to race with such a narrow groove that strategic options and ability to get my head out of the boat are severely restricted. Sailability and versatility (ability to pick high or low modes) are key. Any foil/sail package has to be optimised and that means looking at more than just speed. Give me something fast but sweet.

Black and White

2010-06-18T12:07:00.001+02:00

My plan for the season was to sail the Prowler while developing the Mach 2 along with new foils. Honestly I was rather fearful of the results I might take home from events. Surprise, surprise , I just keep winning with the "slow" White boat. Ok, the races so far have been light air, marginal foiling and lowriding. Admittedly in practice the Black component of the Mint Tea Boys - Eelco in his VRX - is always faster when the breeze kicks up but we all know that most racing is done in lighter airs. I did go down to Campione del Garda for what was supposed to be a day of reckoning against a couple of faster Black boats but my back failed me 30 seconds into the first beat. That was a very humbling first and has made me very conscientious about training my abdominals and stretching properly. Definitely more painful than being beaten on the race course.

The Black boat is ready for trials with the first slew of mods. We have installed a prototype of a new control system and fettled the foils considerably in anticipation of building our own design. We also fixed little details here and there, some quite important - Black boats do seem to require and receive more TLC. Winning is nice but "farming" as Mike puts it, is so much more rewarding. I hope everything works well enough to take the Black one to the next regatta. Otherwise you may have to quake in your boots if I show up with Whitey on the roof and the forecast is patchy....

Three men in their boats

2010-05-10T13:11:00.002+02:00

This week end saw the first event of the Belgian - Dutch Moth season take place in Spakenburg. The greyish sky and fickle breeze were not totally encouraging but the organic mint tea boys turned out in full. Saturday was entirely calm so we did odds and ends of boat work but nothing involving exotic resins, custom made unis or vacuum pumps. Very low key, no glam, no bling. As Eelco explained to me Spakenburg is one of the last Calvinist enclaves in the Netherlands and pleasure seeking would have been entirely out of place and possibly sanctionable with pillorying in the village square. Meantime Constantijn instructed us on the different types of traditional Dutch fishing vessels and how they could be distinguished by the different styles of leeboards and presence or absence of shrouds. It was a lot of culture to take in just one week end... Sunday we got three races off in marginal conditions and I employed the strategy of tacking or jybing back to the rhumb line in pressure to stay foiling longer than the others with positive effects on the scoreline.

Galgenweel Instinct

2010-05-06T13:17:00.001+02:00

The Galgenweel is an over sized skating rink in winter and an undersized regatta venue in summer. It is the home of Belgian dinghy sailing. Sitting at the bar overlooking the lake, you can see all the random and short lived cat's paws making their way accross the lake. Even from this privileged vantage point it is not always clear which boats on the race course will get the pressure or lift that takes them out in front. The sailors who have put in the most time here develop a rare quality: instinct.

Twisted.... Rigs

2010-04-27T09:22:00.002+02:00

Why do we twist our rigs downwind? At higher downwind speeds the aparent component is bigger realtive to the true wind component so wind shear effects should be mitigated. Yet there is no denying that easing outhaul and vang both contribute to twisting the leech and that the effect on downwind speed is positive.

On top of that there is not too much difference in apparent wind strength and angle upwind and down, so why the shape change? This always puzzled me untill I came accross a possible explanation in an article by Lester Gilbert. It refers to triangular sailplans and should be less applicable to our square top mains but it's come the closest to shedding some light on the topic.

I quote:

According to Marchaj, the need for twist in a sail has much less to do with the wind gradient, and much more to do with the upwash along a triangular planform. Unfortunately, the amount of this upwash is not readily calculated by simple methods. It depends upon the lift being generated by the sail; if the sail is operating with a relatively small coefficient of lift, there is little increase in upwash. Conversely, if the lift being generated by the sail is being maximised, then the increase in upwash will be at a maximum and the need for twist is at a maximum.

Downwind the slightly wider sheeting angle and slightly lower apparent wind strength should reduce the heeling moment which means we can use a more powerful sail shape and higher angle of attack for the sail plan. This means a higher CL can be used. and according to Marchaj/Gilbert more twist is optimal (at least for triangular sail plans). This is the only rational argument I have found so far for justifying the twist we carry downwind.

Coming from lower performance skiffs and dinghies I have always associated twist with the need for acceleration or the need to deal with extreme wind shear in light air. Of course high accelleration does require power and therefore a high CL so it is not really as contradictory as it might appear. You can see Gilbert's article at: http://www.onemetre.net/Design/Circulat/circulat.htm

Continental Foils

2010-04-12T12:32:00.000+02:00

It has been a long cold winter. Having decided not to do the Dubai Worlds I went into hibernation and built up a few pounds of energy reserves. However not all has been quiet. Together with a group of friends who share a passion for innovation we have been working hard on a foil program. We want to put Europe back on the map of Moth development and match the successes of the best European sailors with leading edge technology.

Rumour has it that we are not the only ones on the Continent who have been drawn to the challenge. 2010 promises to be a very interesting year, right here at home. Personally, the biggest challenge will be to combine the development program with the racing calendar. I know what matters most to me and that helps. If by the end of the year we have made both the white boat and the black boat a handful of knots faster I will be satisfied.

Now for a serious thought - regarding kinetics

2010-03-08T15:47:00.006+01:00

The issue is once agiain rearing up its ugly head and those who attend the AGM have a chance to change things if necessary.

Just a thought:

We can allow unlimited kinetics for the purpose of initiating foiling but only on condition that while applying kinetics the boat must be sailing in a direction perpendicular to the wind (which will be a beam reach). That means approx 0 VMG (certainly less than a boat low riding at optimal VMG) while applying kinetics and no advantage gained (most probably a loss incurred) unless we really manage to take off and then only subsequently.

Obviously we cannot have tight reaching legs in the course for this to work but we normally do not.

While sailing VMG optimising angles no more than three consecutive pumps (3 is nicer than 2), no ooching and no rocking.

Abuse of the rule to get from one side of the course to the other in a flat calm would be sanctionable by the umpires.

Grandissimo Mac!

2010-03-08T15:09:00.000+01:00

The next big thing: sesame seeds.

Armchair racer

2010-01-11T14:46:00.001+01:00

There are a few inches of snow on the ground and mercifully my sailing waters are iced over so I do need to risk internment like our British colleagues. I am fat, happy and well rested as one ought to be this time of year at our latitudes. Plenty of time to scour reports of Moth races and more.

Amac wins the Australian title with evolution foils. Can´t really make too much of that since standard M2 foils not present for comparison. There is however one item in the reports which should heighten the resolve to develop a better flap control mechanism. If the top contenders, who we know lavish loving attention on their sailing machines suffer linkage breakages or failures, then we must conclude that systems are still too unreliable and fragile. It is true that overall reliability is increasing but if foiling is to ever go mainstream it has to reach a whole different level. Since I like to play with stuff but can´t compete with the carbon freaks/ prepreg junkies in the fleet (someone had a vacuum pump for repairs at the last Euros!) I´ll be conjuring up new iterations of the tension system which I had on my boat at the Worlds. It did not shine but it worked with just a few hours of development time. That´s sufficient promise to keep me at it.

On another topic the America´s Cup is coming our way soon. I have to say that for a while I thought Oracle would be hopeless against the lighter, lower drag Alinghi but now that it has a wing sail it may have both more power and less drag - if they have done it right.

Perception

2009-11-20T15:56:00.001+01:00

What's important? Co-ordination or IQ? Well to be honest sailing is a perception game. The most successful sailors are those who have their heads out of the boat and see what is happening on the race course. The game in itself is simple, you need not be a genius to work out the optimal strategy or tactic but you do need to be very sharp to see where you are in the game.

Co-ordination, athletic ability and time in the boat/familiarity help in getting the head out of the boat and sharpening perception. If you have ever had the privilege to call tactics without having to worry about doing anything else on board you know how easy it is to be "smart" when you are able to look around full time.

It works - don't fix it: Equipment Limitation

2009-11-06T16:47:00.000+01:00

The amount of time needed to optimise equipment pretty much limits the amount of equipment it's optimal to use. The day that we can buy such perfect gear that it just goes first time on the boat and the day we can adjust our sailing technique to new gear instantly we need to start worrying. I don't see that happening any time soon.

I haven't seen anyone frantically changing sails and foils at regattas all that much to be honest. Not to mention that limiting the equipment you can measure at a regatta is not going to stop the development race and the testing of sails and masts. On the contrary you might have to hunt for the perfect all round set up or venue specific solutions by testing dozens of foils and sails - assuming that's how you like to spend your time. One might argue that this would lead to some optimal packages that would then benefit the entire fleet. However the nature of carbon masts construction and the stiffness of film sails means that reproducing rig shape consistently is far from a given - Not to mention that we are not all the same size and we do not all sail the same way.

Aftermath

2009-09-08T11:35:00.002+02:00

The Worlds have been over for quite some time now. I have had time to read comments, listen to interviews and go over my own impressions. My efforts remain a work in progress. Although I suffered no breakdowns performance was by no means satisfying and I owe it to all those who have contributed to the program to deliver both better performance and results. Efforts will continue through the fall and winter. However it is general impressions of the Moth Circus which I want to share.

The event was excellently run at a hospitable, challenging and beautiful venue - definitely a step in the right direction with respect to the previous year. Media coverage was again excellent (congratulations to Bora for his covershot on Seahorse http://www.seahorsemagazine.com/) and the level of competitors was exceptional in every department.

The class is definitely becoming more elite, requiring a huge commitment to hard work on and off the water. Numbers were down by 50% with respect to last year although the level was unquestionably higher. The boats require far more fettling than the average sailor is able or willing to do. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous. The way forward is to continue to organise great events to incentivate all that work. The Moth will always be high committment so it needs to be high reward to succeed enduringly.

Half Way

2009-08-12T23:49:00.003+02:00

Today is lay day, we are almost half way through the regatta and I am sitting almost exactly midfleet. Conditions have been near perfect and challenging as they should be for a worlds. My glass is half full or half empty. I am still chasing the goal of a completely comfortable set up. On the other hand having an innovative control system with less than 10 hours of sailing time on it that is aproaching the performance levels of state of the art systems evolved over years is somewhat satisfying.

The sailing conditions are perfect; the learning curve is steep. There are still 8 races in which to attempt to post some good scores. I look forward to doing my best.

Gorge Tuning

2009-08-06T01:09:00.002+02:00

The venue is fantastic. The hospitality has been great and George from West Coast sailing has done a huge job to support the event bringing the boats down from Portland and generally taking care of competitor's needs.

Too much breeze at mid day so early morning and evening tuning sessions are on the menu. So far I have been impressed by Scott Babbage, Simon Payne and Arnaud Psarophagis. All three look on form and on the pace and all three have speedy all black mounts.

The wind is strong and unsteady and short tacking up the left bank seems fast - so it is quite likely that the young and fit will do well.

My boat now feels pretty good but I am still working on getting the rig to show better gust response. If I can get that sorted I might do OK for an old man.

Heat

2009-07-31T01:31:00.003+02:00

I arrived in Portland together with a heatwave. Temps are up to 40 degrees which is most unusual but will be cooling off in the coming days. It is lovely here and I am looking forward to putting the boat together and going for a sail. Very nice breeze that seems to come on and off with a switch.

The folks at the Cascade Motel have been very helpful and and I am settling in and relaxing. No one's here yet and there is nothing to report for now but internet access permitting I will try to post tid bits of news. I don't have cam so no pics but I am sure someone else will oblige.

Tension system with height adjustment

2009-07-26T08:33:00.004+02:00

Vision

2009-07-24T11:38:00.002+02:00

A boat has to have eyes....

Taking a Breather

2009-07-23T10:22:00.002+02:00

Warp 10

2009-07-20T18:52:00.002+02:00

Tomorrow the Mach 2 goes into the crate for Portland. This will be it's second coming. The first hull imploded due to low pressure and version 2.0 has a 20mm hole covered by breathable membrane - just in case. I put up with the Sheik Yer Bouti hull for the Euros to get some hours on the Mach platform. After a couple of sails with the new stiff hull, I at least feel the sacrifice was worth it.

Now it is all just a question of timing. On a normal boat you want to have your race configuration months before a Championship so you can fine tune. On a Moth I feel you have to push the innovation envelope a little bit harder and learn to live with change. I'm not used to it and it is not comfortable but it feels good.

Has all the development work yielded the improvements desired? The height control system is much, much evolved from anything yet seen. The rig has had some minor but important tweaks as well and now works a little more coherently with the KA 13.

I've spent more time than I would have liked doing boat work but I do have a very fast Prowler Zero for training while the other boat is on the slab. I am 72.5 kgs and happy so all that's left to do is keep things as simple and clean as I can on the race course.

It's been a long trip but I've managed to stay positive way beyond my usual limits and that's an achievement in itself. Mach 2 is really old hat though isn't it? Aren't we doing Warp speed by now?

Insurance

2009-07-10T13:16:00.002+02:00

It used to be that all it took to extend insurance cover to the USA was a phone call to your insurance broker and a small extra charge. Unfortunately the current economic downturn seems to have provided an excuse to cut customer services and it appears to be nigh impossible to get a European company to cover third party risks for the US Nats and Worlds.

If things do not change it will make it quite pointless to hold international regattas in the US unless the organisation provides the possibility to purchase insurance to the participants.

If anyone has a solution for this problem, please drop me a comment.

Organic Mint Tea

2009-07-07T08:34:00.003+02:00

Constantijn brewed up a great pot of of organic - or was it bio dynamic? - mint tea after which we sat on our cabin porch admiring the neighbouring caravans. I had just turned danish bacon, margarine, danish egg and finely ground pepper and salt into a Carbonara that would surely have stopped the Risorgimento dead in its tracks but which given the circumstances tasted acceptably good. Is any of this relevant?

Let's stick to facts: I can report that three members Dutch Belgian Moth Association, E.B, C.W., and G. G. had a dinner party in Horsens - to celebrate a week of boat work. Of note that in that location and at that time a European Championship was sailed in which E.B. distinguished himself by kicking ass.

Development Hell

2009-06-16T12:48:00.005+02:00

Anyone who has ever had anything to do with pictures (as in movies) knows what development hell is. Well the Moth is a development class and it isn't really maxing out on the fun factor to sail a Moth and not do any development, or is it?

To be honest there are two types of development. One is just finishing and making a production boat reliable. The other is true innovation that brings technical improvement to the class. Unfortunately all our much loved builders seem to think we have as much fun with the first kind of development as with the second. Maybe some us of do, who is to say? In that case thank you guys for throwing all that fun at us.

Long story short, I have not been posting because I have spent massive amounts of time doing both types of development. It has been largely fun and inspiring with a few fleeting moments of despair thrown in.

I want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone who has contributed, listened and helped out in the past weeks of blogging silence. The result could not have been possible without you all. And that is a very big all. It has been a huge team effort and some of you have offered help beyond the imaginable with great generosity. Moth sailing has been more of a team experience than anything else I have ever done. It has all just come together as if by magic. Thanks again to all of you.

Sunday Races

2009-05-11T14:18:00.004+02:00

The Belgian and Dutch Mothies met on the Hellevoetsluis for a week end of sailing. Saturday was just practicing and sailing together and Sunday we had 4 very short races around a very short course with lots of cat traffic - great for practice.

Nice to see that all the work on Garda has paid off in boat handling and speed. I did manage somehow not to win any race, spaced out on a mark or two and found a big hole when in the lead - too bad I hate golf. I was not fast low riding but I know the other foilers were carrying less AOA. The AOA game is obviously not as simple as I thought. Might be better to avoid it unless you can adjust while sailing.

I was obviously too focussed on analysing my relative performance as when the wind filled and came round 180 degrees I fixated on the windward mark and offset and was still seeing them as the leeward gate. It took careful positioning to place myself on the layline to the offset without going over the windward mark. But I managed and then halfway down the run I figured out why Elco was shouting at me!

But then all is well that ends well. I found a sparring partner in Elco and hopefully Constantijn if he can make time and I found my Achilles heel. So I am almost ready for graduation. It is that time of the year, isn't it?

Simon´s Xs

2009-05-05T15:37:00.005+02:00

Titles are important. I bet you this one got a hook into you. I thought of "Bavarian Rhapsody". That would have been very appropriate as I spent three great days in a bucholic setting on the shores of a beautiful Bavarian lake. But I know gossip sells....

It is a matter of fact that I did run into, and spent the week end with not one but two of Simon´s Xs. We are talking moths here. One of them trounced me convincingly and if you look at the flags and are a sharp blade you might correctly surmise that it was not the young skinny one but the more mature shapely creature in a red dress.

The Bavarians, being very efficient, calculate the avg. speed of the boats and the highest speed of a race won by Harald was 5.2 knots while the lowest speed of a race won by me was 6.5 knots. We won all the races between us, Harald 4 and I 2. As consolation Harald thought I was fast low riding - for a foiler. As the courses were up and down but not necessarily perfectly aligned with the wind this gives only a rough idea of where low rider/foiler break even point might be. Most of the time there seemed to be a steady wind of 4.5 to 5 knots, just a fairy´s breath away from getting me up on foils.

I did learn one very important thing: the muscles used low riding are not the same as those used foiling. After a month on Garda I thought I was fit but days later I am still feeling the very long hours of low riding. I will work in a couple of low riding sessions a week if I can manage it. I would hate to get to a major championship and be knackered for the duration due to a first day of low riding.

Easy come easy go

2009-04-29T22:09:00.003+02:00

All packed and ready to head back up across the alps. Going to pop up to the Ammer See for a little race and then home sweet home.

More than twenty sailing days and roughly 600 miles on Garda. So many details, so much honing to do, so much to learn - can I say: "workaholic"?

There is still shitloads to do.

Big Bang

2009-04-20T09:19:00.001+02:00

Yesterday the mast came down while peacefully sailing upwind in about 12 knots; spreader bracket failure. By coincidence a volunteer rescue team was out practicing so I gave them something to do. They had a landing craft and they just lowered the front and we pulled the boat in. Last time I had that kind of service was at the 1978 Laser North Americans in Kingston. I had forgotten my stern plug and it was pretty disconcerting to get caught up by the leaders of the silver fleet who had started 10 minutes later. I was only 16 and I went through an uncomfortably long bout of self doubt before noticing that water was sloshing over the deck at every tack. Ian Bruce had organised a fantastic championship and a landing craft was on standby for quick on the water boat repairs. Pulling a fully swamped Laser into the boat required a bit more effort than hauling the Moth in. Draining it must have taken the better part of thirty minutes. They had a spare stern plug and didn´t charge me for it!

Today I buzzed down to Malcesine to strafe the M32s as they were waiting for a start. Easy come, easy go. About 20 miles of water covered down and back up the lake – just a short session. It´s Sunday.

Privilege

2009-04-17T10:25:00.003+02:00

Air temperature slightly above 10° C, water temperature slightly below same, breeze-fickle; on standby for seven hours in order to get three and a half of good sailing. Sky overcast and raining most of the time. Pit stop required to change AOA as conditions go from light marginal to 15+ in the gusts. All this is to say that no other sailing project I can think of would motivate me to this extent.

The Moth is a truly exceptional machine. There were Melges 32s out practicing – state of the art keel boats crewed by a mix of professional and semi professional talent. Nice platforms from which to view some Moth action. And this crowd´s nowhere near as cruel as the Opti kids: they don´t laugh when diving is on the program. My body felt a little rebellious but all I had to do was look at the guys hiking the big boats down with the life lines in their gut to totally get over it and thrash myself up and down the lake.

Walrus

2009-04-14T20:52:00.002+02:00

The easter break - from training - is coming to a close. I am steeling myself for another immersion in the black art of Mothing. I am growing intimate with my flying machine. The more I learn about the arcane details the more I realise that trying to pass them on would generate mostly gibberish. From now on I will make no pretense whatsoever of writing anything sensible.

Toil and Trouble

2009-04-08T09:42:00.003+02:00

"Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

Life would be great if only my wand paddle didn´t generate so much turbulence. On fast downwind runs it´s making my vertical foils cavitate and I´m getting shaken from side to side as the lift reverses. All this shaking isn´t doing much for the stability of the horizontal lifting foils either. I suppose if I practiced enough I could more or less master the ornery beast but it´s hopelessly slow so paddle surgery is imminent.

I´m envying those who get to practice in warmer climes more and more. Boat handling when wearing a dry suit and stiffened by the cold is particularly exhausting and ego limiting. It´s like doing tacking practice in the laser while wearing weight - I was born in the era of weight jackets - herniated discs be damned. Come to think of it last time I did that it did me a lot of good. So far I am just feeling the pain and not seeing as much gain as I would like but occasionally patience can be one of my virtues.

I should be more disciplined and stick to easy straight line testing until the weather warms up - which is what I came here for. But moth sailing is so much fun I just need to let it all hang out. Luckily today the tramps are getting some repairs and I will not sail untill the afternoon or maybe not at all. Rest is key to a training program - but I´m having no patience for that.

Imagination

2009-04-05T20:39:00.002+02:00

Garda has been unusual so far. The wind has been mostly light and I´ve only had one afternoon being bucked by the Torbolean waves which I came to tame. I whisper to them but they are not listening...yet.

Today my light air take off speed was in the low fives and just three weeks ago it had been in the high sixes. I´ve been imagining possibilities instead of limitations.

Road Trip

2009-04-02T20:26:00.005+02:00

Driving down the highway with a boat on the roof conjures memories of North America and Laser sailing in the very distant past. Now the car and the boat are quite a bit faster but the autobahn despite, being the holy grail of motorheads world wide, doesn´t quite evoke the limitless freedom of the Trans - Canada Highway. The sound track has changed too. Feels like a time warp.

The destination ends up being Torbole, Malcesine is running too many regattas and there´s no space in their dinghy park for my Moth. Just as well, the breeze will be a little stiffer...

The trip doesn´t end here. I head down to Florence to see my sister and drive my wife to the airport in Pisa before heading back to Garda. I cross snow capped mountains three times. Italy looks beautiful to me this time around.

T.I.B.

2009-03-23T10:29:00.003+01:00

Time in the boat has always been the single magic ingredient of speed and solid results. I had planned to head to the South of Spain for a long training session but I've changed my plans. I'll stay closer to home and head for Lake Garda. I'll be there most of April and May and perhaps a few days in June too. I will be splitting my time between Malcesine and Torbole to get the full spectrum of breezes.

Anyone interested in joining can just drop me a comment with contact details. I'll be happy to help you organise your stay - I do speak the language after all.

Other than that all I have to say is that the last couple of sessions have been way above expectations. The boat is becoming almost boringly easy to sail. Light air take off has improved markedly and so has control in the breeze not to mention going round corners. 100 hours on Garda should buff things up a little further.

Photo is from Belfagor flying on Lake Garda. Note the massive bow wave coming all the way to the stern! Very innefficient way of doing 20 knots. Prehistoric monster.

Caterpillar

2009-03-18T09:22:00.006+01:00

Last week end was a case of back to school. After a year away from the helm and back with my teammate from three years ago I ventured back into the very competitive Belgian Snipe scene. More than thirty boats on a short start line (If you were to scale the fleet size to the course size it's the equivalent of 100 boats on a normal course) and then very short up and down courses.

If the lessons learnt are proportional to the trouncing experienced then much was learnt. This sort of racing puts a premium on boat control on the starting line and boat handling in general. It should have come as no surprise that after spending all my time on a Moth weighing 15% of a Snipe my time on distance would be a little off.

But the most valuable lesson had to do with boat set up. And it can be translated to the Moth or any other class. I have a special traveller system on the Snipe which allows me to accurately control the leach. However, unlike the standard system it is not self tacking. In medium size fleets and long courses this system is an advantage (and there are results to prove it). But in tight spots it degrades boathandling and distracts from tactical awareness. That means it is no good for the type of racing we were doing last week end and it is questionable for a continental or world championship where sooner or later you will get in a tight situation. No one needs distractions while trying to get out of jail.

Boats need to be kept as simple as possible and as automatic as possible or at least have a simple default mode that delivers 95% of potential performance. When I am steering an offshore racer I don't look for peaks in my speed, I try to keep my average as high as possible by not slowing down much in a rough patch or light spot. I have my trimmers set up the boat for accelleration and try to keep the groove as wide as possible while still being fast. Similarly a dinghy should be set up to never slow down. It's the best average speed that wins a race.

By the way a big thanks to Max and Jan for their superlative organisation of the Antwerp Snipe Cup. Now I'm going back in the cocoon and when I come out I'll have wings.

Passion

2009-03-06T10:02:00.005+01:00

We all love sailing and racing, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Passion is not an overstatement for what we share.

The energy of passion needs to be directed at execution. We must sail well, prepare the boat well, and plan the logistics of our campaigns well. This means preparing every aspect of our game including the unexpected.

The numerical result of a race has to be accepted as the final score card for performance. However emotion need not be invested in the number itself. There needs to be an intense, single minded committment to execution.

If you want to have a chance of winning don't work on winning, work on sailing well.

I am left handed too

2009-03-04T10:35:00.003+01:00

The Bladerider type crank and slider pick up mechanism (fixed angle slider) translates ride height as sensed by the wand into pushrod travel. By suitably tuning the geometries the response can be made quasi linear.

The Bowden cable pick up attachment to wand (variable angle slider) cannot be made to deliver a linear response.

? smetsys owt eht fo ecnamrofrep tnereffid eht rof nosaer a eb siht dluoC

! noitavonni eht erahS

Fear, Part Two

2009-02-28T14:17:00.004+01:00

If fear of losing is the Achilles' heel of the insecure, unskilled, or unprepared, fear of winning is the most common fear of the accomplished sportsman. Why would anyone fear victory? Is it not the goal we all pursue?

There is widespread evidence showing that human beings find change, even objectively positive change stressful if not very stressful. If you are comfortable with being a top contender it does not mean that you will be comfortable with winning. Very few of us win so consistently that it becomes a habit. Again, just because you win all the evening series races at your club it doesn't make it easy to deal with winning a World Championship.

The possibility of winning brings on anxiety. To avoid that nasty feeling, self defeating behaviours are engaged in, often subconsciously. How consoling it is when you blow that championship that was at hand. You are back in your role of contender and you plan for yet another attempt the following year - something you are very familiar with and happy to fall back into.

Luckily fear is stupid and there are ways to trick it and do an end run around it (offensive manoeuvre used in American or Canadian Football). It's all got to do with how you channel positive forces, namely Passion and Desire. But that's another book in the Head Shrinker's Trilogy.

Fear, Part One

2009-02-26T09:35:00.009+01:00

Long hours on the water, long hours in the gymn and long hours fettling the equippment. But how much time do you spend shrinking heads? The psychological aspect of preparation could be the most important.

Fear is a powerful driver, unfortunately it is too primitive an emotion and when faced with complex problems it tends to be a poor counselor. Let's deal with the fear of losing first. Theoretically this could be a great motivator but it only works if you are 100% sure of yourself in which case you are not afraid to lose.

Anyone who is the least bit unsure of his or her abilities craves and needs disproportionate amounts of control. Insecurity, fear of losing and a need for control go hand in hand. Losing at the hands of the adversary or an adverse probabilistic outcome is intollerable for the emotionally unsure. How better to control the situation then to bring about your own defeat? How comforting to jump on your own sword before fate or foe cut you down. Perverse logic finds consolation in certain but"controlled "defeat. This is backwards, wrong and leads to poor outcomes 100% of the time.

The most obvious (and therefore avoidable) example of this in sailing is tacking off in the wrong direction rather than hanging on to a faster competitor. This way defeat comes at the hands of one's own decision rather than the competition's superiority. With a little experience most of us learn to recognise this situation and train ourselves to fight instinct and hang in there waiting for an opportunity. But it's easy to get caught out when things get more complicated.

Moral of the story: forget about losing. There is nothing to lose anyways until you've won and then it's too late to lose. Winning is the really scary part but that's Part Two.

Nose Picker

2009-02-23T10:38:00.004+01:00

Downhill great Franz Klammer called him a "nose picker".

Remember Bill Johnson? He won the Men's Downhill Gold in the 84 Olympics. He pissed off all the the other competitors by announcing he would win in advance. "I don't even know why everyone else is here" he said after his first training run "Everyone else is here to fight for second place".

Am I a nose picker?

Do you want to go all the way to the Gorge to fight for second?

Ask a Pilot about Take Off

2009-02-15T21:33:00.008+01:00

Why is it that when taking off in a Moth, when conditions are marginal, sometimes the front foil just stalls out as we reach flying height? Why does easing the sail help the boat fly? Why does the boat sometimes seem to take off in a lull after a puff?

The Moth sailor's answer is that power in the top of the sail torques the boat forward, placing greater load on the front foil; easing the sail and spilling the head eliminates the problem. Sounds reasonable but not entirely. While it is true that the torque loads the front foil, by the same token the rear foil is unloaded. So why not slide your butt aft and let that lightly loaded rear foil lift your ass out of the water?

The pilot's answer is different. We all know that planes fly straight into the air column. They do not normally fly with an angle of yaw except... when landing or taking off from a runway in a cross wind. Guess what? When yawed, landing in a cross wind, the the stall speed increases. Interesting...

When a moth takes off it is initially making very little leeway as the vertical foil sections are fully immersed. During take off, as the vertical foils exit the water, leeway is bound to increase. Suddenly the lifting foil is moving through the water with a larger angle of yaw, stall speed increases and if the boat does not accelerate sufficiently at this stage it may stall.

Easing the sail, a drop in the wind, or taking off at a broader angle to the wind will reduce the amount of sideforce and therefore leeway and yaw angle, this may prevent the stall speeed from rising to a critical level.

Personally I am more inclined to follow the pilot's line of reasoning. After all aviation dates back to 1903. Mothodology is pretty interesting too and it's 100 years newer so who knows, it could be better? I'm not going to sit on the fence but forgive me if I lean on it.

P.S. If I were designing the horizontal foils for a Moth I'd look into performance at yaw angles greater than 0.

Mothodology

2009-02-11T09:13:00.005+01:00

I didn't just write Summer of 86 so I could parody Ray Chandler. There's something about the primitive Liberas that is relevant to the Moth evolution of today. At that stage Liberas were still derivative of established type forms. Either scaled up Fd's or modified IOR designs or a combination of both. This made them highly flawed boats requiring idiosynchratic gear adaptation and out of the ordinary sailing techniques. It's only later that better understanding and application of physics led to rational designs with a performance envelope that was previously unimaginable. Eventually it all became very simple and very fast.

Foiling Moths and the way they are sailed are evolving in a similar way. Foils have been developed empirically and slapped together in configurations believed to be optimal. This has given rise to Mothodology - the quasi mystical pseudo science of tweaking a bunch of parameters to try to get the things to behave properly. There are various religious schools that worship AOA, gearing, wand length and other talismans so powerful that they must be kept secret and pixellated lest the uninitiated lay their eyes upon them.

The ones who don't tweak and just sail win the major championships -Ok they do let the Gurus help them with the set up but they don't seem to waste too much time on the various religions.

Mothodology gets more complicated by the day, mesmerizing the neophytes, luring them into the labyrinth from which escape is difficult. So let me be the prophet of the One True Way. Physics is simple, it is clear and its truth serves humanity well, it will serve the practicing Moth sailor too. If you flunked it in school stick to sailing and let the believers do the work for you.

Sooner than later, light will shine and Moth sailing will get simpler and much faster. But beware: lose yourself not in the temples of Mothodology.

Shark Again

2009-02-09T10:53:00.005+01:00

Back on Shark. Time to see if we can repeat a clean score, or if those three firsts had just been flukes. http://giovannigaleotti.blogspot.com/2008/12/317.html.

We face a couple of challenges right off the bat. First the weather. The racing area is smack dab in the middle of three minor lows. The forecast is for a shift 50 degrees to the left at pretty much a constant rate throughout the day. Looking at the isobars the only predictable thing is unpredictability. That's how it turns out; the wind ends up shifting 30 degrees to the right. On top of that, the breeze is a patchy 10 to 14 with a minefield of holes.

The second challenge is our new beautiful, super fast 3DL 850 carbon sails. There has been no time for tuning and we will be playing with the rig tension between races. Given the tricky conditions our beautiful but unfamiliar sails could become a distraction if we only give it half a chance.

When expecting large random shifts, the thing to do is start well and then consolidate any gains immediately. I ask the guys to prepare for a fight as there is no way we will lead 100% of the time as we had in the steadier conditions of our previous sail.

We are early on the line in the first start and have to shed too much speed. Terrible start. We take some transoms and after a couple of tacks to clear our air find a lane that takes us to the weather mark in fourth. A couple of well placed jybes on the first run and we get inside at the leeward mark and into second. The first boat is too far ahead and that's how we finish.

The next two races good starts, tight covering and good tactical runs allow us two victories, one comfortable, one tight despite some minor boathandling issues.

With a 2,1,1 we win the day, not perfect but we will take it. Good job, Christopher, Jan, Jim, Steve, Joost, and Giel. Those sweet new sails are well deserved.

Summer of 86

2009-02-06T09:38:00.009+01:00

She was deeply flawed but I was passionate about her. I made her better, I made her sing and she performed for me and for me alone.

Belfagor was a Libera D, 7,50 metres long. The hull had been designed with the IOR in mind, canoe body, fine in the ends, tiny little laser sized rudder to reduce wetted surface. What were they thinking when they took out 500kgs. and slapped racks and trapezes on her?

No one had managed to sail her more than a few hundred metres when they asked me to see what could be done. For starters you just had to sail. You had to know that if you heeled more than 15degrees you had to call a tack because tack she would, like it or not.

We went to work on an improvement program. The number of crew trapezing was increased to 5. The next step was to control her on the downwinds. I remembered having heard tall tales about 18s and how they were using such long poles (before A sails) that in a puff you reportedly had to push the tiller down as the boat would just bear off on its own, going sideways through the water. The equivalent of opposite lock to correct oversteer on a car; you had to align the rudder blade with the flow just to avoid tripping over it. So ass backwards, it was said to spoil a helmsman's reflexes for anything else.

On goes a 6 m long pole and a narrow head, wide foot, super flat 100 sq. m. spinnaker. The tall tale turns out to be not so far from the truth. We win our class in the Cento and a bunch of other races too.

That summer I sailed four long distances on her, each one 19 hours long, never taking my hand off her helm (nobody else on board dared to touch it). What did she give me for all that attention? Pain. I know no one's made her sing since but is that consolation?

Ambrogio's Law

2009-02-03T11:47:00.005+01:00

Ambrogio's Law: Always go to bed hungry.

Was Ambrogio Morelli right? I don't know. He was second in the 1935 Tour de France among other things. For me those are serious creds.

Coffee and a Donut

2009-01-29T09:14:00.004+01:00

Here in the northern latitudes it is freezing and moth sailing is momentarily out of the question for me. However it's time to train and train hard. I'm already 3kgs off my Christmas highs. A Shaolin monk could be proud of me.

I'm getting on so well that as a reward I had myself a coffee and a donut after lunch yesterday. I was high for six hours. Funny thing is some people live off the stuff and most of them don't look none too happy for it.

Is there a lesson in that?

Gamble and Lose

2009-01-27T17:06:00.002+01:00

I wasn't there but the "Mothcast" reported widespread pumping in marginal conditions at the Australians. At the few moth regattas I have attended that took place in marginal conditions, the propulsion rule was most certainly broken more often than not to initiate foiling.

In no other boat is the advantage for pumping so great. You can get foiling with a series of pumps and gain entire legs as a result. So the incentive to cheat is enormous. The question is why do we have a rule that competitors will not and cannot enforce and that umpires would have an almost impossible time policing fairly (if they miss someone pumping for only 5 to 10 seconds he or she could gain hundreds of metres)?

Sooner or later we could have a major championship decided by random umpire enforcement if the rule stays as is. If somewhere between 5 and 10 pumps were allowed only for the purpose of initiating foiling or planing that would solve the marginal conditions problem. So would freeing up pumping completely.

The status quo sounds like a bad gamble. Please make some noise about fixing this sooner than later.

Getting Around or How to Jybe

2009-01-26T10:53:00.007+01:00

I've only just begun learning to sail a moth and here I am explaining how to jybe. Am I arrogant? Yes, in large part. Then there's the fact that I still remember the learning process so I'm well positioned to share it and - here goes the arrogance again - I haven't seen much in the way of well written guides that explain the most basic mechanics. I hope this very brief intro saves beginners some time.

Basics: Sailing a moth downwind is largely like riding a bike. The boat is inherently unstable and the pilot must steer for balance. Since it is very fast the centrifugal force will make the boat heel towards the outside of a turn. This translates to head up - heel to leeward, bear off - heel to windward.

Just as on a bike, a turn is initiated by a weight transfer towards the inside of the turn and then steering is adjusted to keep the boat in balance through the turn. What's different from a conventional boat? On a slow conventional boat you steer first and then shift the weight (especially in the case of a roll jybe). On a Moth such a manoeuvre is looking for trouble; it is the equivalent of turning the handle bars on your bike before leaning into the corner.

Viewed from the outside, a jybing moth will appear to remain flat and that's because steering is used to keep it that way. However always remember that the only way a Moth will stay flat while turning is if weight has initially been transferred towards the inside of the turn.

There are surely many more fine points to jybing but if you keep this one in mind you will get around.

Jybe

2009-01-23T15:34:00.005+01:00

Advice from a former Olympian: If you are not happy with the direction you are going, jybe....

Share the Technical Innovation

2009-01-16T16:09:00.007+01:00

When I was a Laser sailor, ages ago I learnt to share. There's only one way to get fast: train in a group, share knowledge. Keeping innovation hidden doesn't allow for it to get properly tested unless you have a budget like that of Alinghi or BMW Oracle.

So I'll come clean right away about what I think could be this year's most important evolution... mutton chops.

Getting it Together

2009-01-01T11:47:00.002+01:00

Moving on is the current paradigm but it´s a little weak in my books. To me life´s a puzzle - you don´t want to bin any of the pieces. Now is the time to take inventory of what I was dealt last year and to see where it fits in the big picture.

2008 was a season of remarkable achievements that didn´t come together to deliver many results. Notable exception: second place in the Open Belgian Snipe Championship with Floris.

What about all the rest: an amazing performance in the North Sea Race where the class divisions robbed us of a crushing victory over our on the water rivals; learning to sail and tune a Moth in virtual isolation; sailing an interesting season in the Snipe having swapped roles with Floris; doing tactics for a great crew on a Swan 70 in Sardinia; surviving the Moth Worlds. The one thing I´m proudest of is keeping us off the sand banks in front of Harwich in low visibility when the GPS failed. It was a short bright moment of getting it all together when it really mattered.

Silence is Golden

2008-12-26T12:47:00.002+01:00

31.7

2008-12-15T11:14:00.006+01:00

This summer I got a lift from Olbia airport to Porto Cervo with the North sails guys from Antwerp on our way to the Swan Cup. They were doing the 45 series, I had a more laid back part doing tactics on a compact floating palace just 70' long. Asked them what the one design winter series scene was like in the Netherlands and they said 31.7s were a fun, active class.

So when Yan called me up and said there was a slot for doing tactics on Shark I thought I would check it out. Sunday was a little cold but the light breezes made it bearable and we sailed out of Port Zeelande relaxed but ready to do battle. We would be sailing short up and down courses 3 or 4 times around with downwind finish. The wind was expected to back during the day and the line was biased to port. We went on to win all three starts by being the dominant boat heading out to the left at the pin and we led at every mark and finish. In one race one boat did cross us at the start taking a high risk port tack option but that sent them off to the right and the wrong side of the course. Christopher could have shut the door on them but he wisely let them go, avoiding any hassles.

The boat was skillfully helmed by Christopher and well handled by his crew: Jim, Giel, Jurgen, Joost, and Yan. There's nothing like a fast boat to swell the I.Q. of the tactician and we simply put in a perfect score. Winning is simple: just go fast in the right direction.

Expectations

2008-12-10T11:39:00.003+01:00

Crewing is a fantastic learning experience. It´s much easier to be objective about what is going on. Get a hand on the helm and vision gets clouded. I´ve speed tested against guys who always thought they were faster no matter what.

I´ve done the whole season crewing on the Snipe. It´s easier to disengage the ego and maintain positive and objective expectations at the front of the boat. From now on I´m going to helm with a crew´s frame of mind. This might be the most important thing I´ve ever learnt.

Spyshot

2008-12-02T21:36:00.003+01:00

Being different pays off - one way or the other. We showed up at the 90 FD worlds with a different mast and it was wicked fast up wind. So fast the competition commissioned some aerial photos which ended up in a glossy magazine. A top team showed up next season with a copy but they just didn´t get it right. We busted our mast in winter training and Proctor made us an improved version that was slow as hell and that was the end of that.

This time around we have a vintage stick for the Snipe. Will it be fast? Maybe, maybe not but it will be different.

Fat and Happy

2008-11-28T17:01:00.003+01:00

Winter is here in the northern hemisphere. It's snowing in Italy where I plan to do some holiday Moth testing. For some reason I always grow this time of year. The scale is bumping up towards 76 kgs.

That could be a good thing. The forecast for the Canaries is 20+ knots and 3 metre waves. Snipes will also fly sometimes.

http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=238

The hiking pants are packed!

We haven't been able to train so we will have to make up for it with imagination.

Once back it'll be almost time to start thinking about shedding weight for next year's moth season while digesting the Holiday meals.

Either that or I'll just publish my great grandmother's recipes on the blog and hope that has a fattening effect on the competition. But that wouldn't really be fair, would it?

Safety

2008-11-24T13:42:00.003+01:00

There are people on my lake who don't like to see a moth on the water. Perhaps because the majority do and it steals the show or perhaps simply because it is new and they are afraid of change. They hide their prejudice behind mutterings about safety issues....

The Moth is the wickedest, deadliest weapon on the water - is it not?
Reading some of our own hype you would think a few moth sailors are proud of that faulty perception. Well, reality is a lot less impressive but far more comforting.

The Moth is so light that boat + sailor have considerably less momentum and energy than most conventional dinghies, let alone high performance skiffs with which we are likely to share water.

A Snipe or 470 pack a lot more punch than we do even though they are limited to lower speeds. A 470 at 14 knots has 20% more energy than a moth at 20. Even a Snipe at 12 knots has 10% more energy than the Moth at 20. When it comes to something like the 49er, the energies are absolutely incomparable: a 49er at 20 knots has about 2 and 1/2 times as much energy as a moth at 20. I've done the calculations including crew payloads, without crew the results would be even more in favour of the moth.

Then let's not forget that the moth is extremely manoeuverable and can be turned/stopped in an instant to avoid collision. As much as we love our spectacular image of high speed daredevils it would be most wise to explain far and wide that Moths are safe boats sailed by responsible people.

The End

2008-11-19T17:39:00.002+01:00

It's close to the end of the year. Will do the Snipe Europeans in Las Palmas, Canaries with Floris, then the season will be history.

That's not the end this post is about.

The end is the objective, the final desired outcome, the purpose. And my question is: to what end did I begin a relationship with the Moth? What do I want to do with thirty odd kilos of foiling carbon? What do I want to do with myself?

Moth sailing is so involving it empties the brain; it's zen. So am I seeking enlightenment? Hardly. That happened when I was five.

The end is the beginning.