Old glory

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

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

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 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?

Team

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

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

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....