Tuesday 30 October 2007

New mothy

Martin Fear, a former RS600 sailor has joined the mothy ranks at BCYC having picked up Tom Whichers old Axeman 7. Hes got some tinkering lined up and I'm giving him a hand with some tweaks before he gets on with learning to fly.

That in theory takes us up to 7 boats at Cheddar. If only we were all on the water at the same time!

Weekend sailing

Last weekend saw a load of random boat swapping going on. Tom Whicher was up checking out progress on the new v.4 Axiom pending his new boat so we cruised over to Cheddar to steal whatever we could find and go play.

Gavin Dove had borrowed Alans Prowler and was getting well learning the foiling basics in a 10 ish knot breeze. Chris Bishop was sorting out his B14, so let me out in his Axeman, while Tom took Gavins Axiom out. Quite entertaining lowriding again after two years of foiling and it was quite surprising how fun it was with a couple of us bombing around...

v4 Hull is done, pending some paint. Wingframes are done. Rig is done. Just waiting for new shape foil moulds and sails to arrive... Awesome!

Monday 22 October 2007

So long, farewell, etc

Silver Samurai has now gone to her new home on the South coast. Building work commences on the new v4 now - hull and most of the deck is done and I'm hoping to have a new boat on the water by mid November... Rock on!

Heres the boat on its way up the motorway...


Monday 8 October 2007

Draycote Moth open

The end of season bash was pretty interesting, being sailed all saturday in marginal stuff. It gave a pretty good opportunity to try out take off skills and perfect the light airs gibes.
Jason gave us all a good kicking, but the minor places were close fought.
James Roche in his Prowler did a bit of a horizon job in the last race and I only managed to catch him at the finish line!
Can't wait now for my new foil moulds to turn up now, and the v4 mould is ready to go... New boat due in early November.


A dozen Moths braved a rather dire weather forecast for the Draycote Water end of season moth bash, with boats ranging from an old-school Magnum 8 to the latest in foiler technology.

An unexpected 5 to 10 knot breeze had appeared on the lake in time for the start of the race, making for some interesting tactical choices and testing the marginal wind skills of the foilers.

Jason Belben sailing his Prowler showed his nationals-winning form, to take all three races by a considerable margin from Russ Wheeler, king of the lowriders, who was sailing his Hungry Tiger. Ed Sibson, sailing in his first Moth open meeting took third in his Skippy, having finished on equal points with Alex Adams in his Mistress 3 and Mike Cooke in his Axiom v3.

The evening saw a fine roast from the host club and plenty of cake to fuel the conversation and tip-sharing into the evening.

Sunday morning dawned to a windless lake and an early start for the hardcore Mothies, who were found huddled around a portable TV outside the sailing club watching the Formula 1! There was a postponement to allow the wind to do something, but it continued to do nothing, so the Race officer made the sensible decision to call it off.

Until the next time....

1st Jason Belben, Prowler Foiler
2nd Russ Wheeler, Hungry Tiger Lowrider
3rd Ed Sibson, Skippy Lowrider
4th Alex Adams, Mistress 3 Foiler
5th Mike Cooke, Axiom v3 Foiler