Braving the cold!

We had a few visitors at BCYC today. Adam May, Katherine Knight and Robin Wood (sailing Tom Whichers' old Axiom4) joined Alan, Martin and myself for what was intended to be a group tune up but the weather soon put paid to that.

A very twitchy northerly, occasionally southerly, occasionally easterly and mostly non-existant breeze joined by air temperatures under 5 degrees and water temp very similar meant we were all very reluctant to go anywhere near the water. Yet there is something about Mothing that makes the bleakest weather seem optimistic and those brief moments of foiling served as a reminder of why we bothered getting out of bed!
There were occasional moments where sanity was questioned, like the time that Adam and myself were sailing towards each other upwind on the same tack. and shortly after I had to duck and the boat tacked nicely without so much as a twitch of the helm...

Robin Wood is quickly getting the hang of foiling after only his second outing in the boat looking in great control and just having to worry about the corners.

Valuable lessons were learned however - short wands are not very good and a quick dip in the lake with my Gerber was needed to sort that out.
We also learned that in order to get Tom Whicher anywhere near a sailing club on time is to tell him its the previous day and book him a BnB somewhere. He rocked up at close to 4 with his boat in tow, claiming that he had to stop for a nap. He might be back for a sail with me tomorrow morning, but I will just hope he turns up for a cuppa in the afternoon...

I'm still trying to put together some winter dates for training, but this end of the year is shaping up to be a pretty busy time and free days are hard to come by!

Imitation is the highest form of flattery...

Well, the Mach Two Website has now gone live, and while it's still only renderings at the current stage it does give you a good feel for where they are going... Barbara Streisands younger, slightly dumpier sister by the looks of things. :-)

So then: Cut away transom and forward angled rudder gantry and t foil then... Sounds familiar!
And a longer rudder vertical than the main foil - I've seen that somewhere before too. Nice to know I'm already on the right track so not too much work to do!

I'm loving the dreadnought bow though - Good way of differentiating boat shapes for spectators on the land at least. Looking forward to the Bloody Mary where Si will have a real one on the water and we'll see if it can live up to the hype.

Ongoing imitation in the hardware world also, with Holt releasing a nice range of Sailingbits/Hercules style thimbles....

Fallout at Mach 2

Well, I don't read it often but Rohan's blog has taken the cake for the week.

Competition is healthy, cheap shots do yourself and your business no good and burning your bridges while fun is not productive. Was that a cheap shot? I'm not sure... :-)

I dont think anyone is under the impression that McConaghy won't have teething issues with the new boats but if the designer of the successful Bladerider hasn't learnt a thing or two about this since his last attempt I will be very surprised. Its time to up the game and the problem for BR is that the brains behind the last raise of the stakes is now working for the other team...

I'm looking forward to what Andrew and Simon have come up with and looking forward even more to trying to take it to the next level with them (and maybe past them too!).

The Mini 40 Challenge

Due to too much wind at the Tide Ride, too much thinking and tea drinking was done. We all threw around some ideas and this was one of the sillier ones but I thought was worth a shot. Build a Mini40 multihull and take it to some Moth opens next year for something to do when not sailing real boats.

For those of you that haven't come across these yet, a Mini40 is based on the old Formula 40 multihulls from the 80's. Its an anything goes radio control boat. Carbon hulls, wing masts, hydrofoils - if you can dream it, build it! Having grown up following the F40 circuit around due to my fathers penchant for building sillier boats than me, this idea quickly took hold in my head.

So my first shot was the obvious one, a Mini version of the French Hydroptere! I dont think it's going to prove itself fast around the course, but it will be interesting to see just how quick in a straight line it could be...


Now I can safely say that it does indeed foil, although it is currently rather unruly and has had me trying to lasso it from the shore to right it after pitchpoling. But, as the saying goes, pics or it didn't happen - trying to take photos with one hand of something that is trying its hardest to capsize while controlling it with the other hand is pretty hard going! Will collar an innocent bystander next time.

Not sure who else is actually building anything, but I dont think I will be on my own...

Moth Open at Corus - Report by Adam May

Seven Moths braved the forecast, and headed to South Wales for the Corus sailing club Moth open. The ‘curse of Windguru’ was avoided and the intrepid few were greeted by a great range of conditions. Corus gave us a very warm welcome and gave us four good races.

Full use of the lake was made with a P style course giving us a start and subsequent gate off the club line, and a selection of tight and broad reaches downwind.

Race 1 saw local hero Dave Edwards lead round the top mark, with Cooke and May in close pursuit. The first few rounds were very close with numerous lead changes at the front until May got through upwind with a high mode that enabled him to lay the upwind gate in fewer tacks. Edwards was looking good for second until a broken mainsheet strop allowed Cooke through.

Race 2 saw the wind drop a lot down to marginal foiling. The first beat was again very tight but soon May pulled away, managing to foil for longer up the beats. Cooke was second again, with Edwards third.

Race 3 was held in more wind again, and solid foiling conditions. DJ was getting stronger and lead early on, but May was able to sail over the top down the second run when DJ sailed just a bit too far into a lighter spot. A little swim by Cooke up the beat while challenging for second dropped him back from the battle for the lead.

In reduced light now, race 4 saw the forecasted breeze start to show, and the fleet numbers suffered. Mike Cooke peeled off shortly after the start with a control rod issue, leaving Dave Edwards, and Adam May to battle it out. With a movement of the first gybe mark there was some discussion down the first reach as to where it had gone! DJ spotted it first and was able to stay low and prevent May from gybing. DJ then covered May well to prevent him from getting his nose through and held on well for the win. Katherine Knight showed the benefit of the Mini rig in the windier conditions, to take third.

With an absolutely shocking forecast for Sunday, the general consensus was to call it a day after 4 good races, and head over the Severn Bridge to home before the forecasted 40/50 knots came through.

This left May with the win, from Edwards and Cooke, with Knight taking fourth overall, and first lady.

Calling all South West Mothies

I'm planning on organising a few days over Winter with sailing At Weymouth/Bristol/Corus to try and get some sailing/training/tuning/coaching in numbers as there was some interest in this over the weekend.
I have a pretty good idea who is out there and have contact details for most, but if you are out there lurking and interested in getting in on the action please email me so I can keep you in the loop. I will also post info up here when i have something solid.

Cheers

Mike C
GBR 3371 Secret Squirrel
mike@aardvarkracing.co.uk

Sunday sailing

Alan and myself were both out yesterday, braving the cold temperatures and crappy northerly wind. The first race was all over the place, from 5 knots to 20 with wild shifts and a lot of boats to dodge in search of good breeze.
Until halfway through the race I couldn't stay foiling long enough to break away from the pack, luckily the breeze kicked in a bit more and I managed two laps with very little lowriding and managed to take the lead and then lap everyone bar the Fireball and Alan.

We both got warmed up over lunch and braved the cold launch again but unfortunately my prodder wires (holding the stays in) died a sad death and left me with massive mast bend on starboard and I kept getting dumped in to windward. Decided to leave it there and head in as you cant fight these boats - even the smallest of things out of place makes life incredibly hard.

We're off to Port Talbot (Corus SC) this weekend for the final Moth open of the year. I think we should be getting 4 Bristol Moth boats over there and I'm hoping for a good turnout.