punt championships!

So while everyone else was out in Switzerland another championships was taking place out on the Norfolk Broads... (really need to get the new moth done...fast..) the Norfolk Punt Championships! Sailing with my brother had some good racing at the sharp(er) end of the fleet, battling out with two other brother teams (very Norfolk...) for the championships getting it down to the last race, only to lose the win due to some unfortunate wind shifts....broadland sailing... still 2nd is not too bad for zero practice..good one! looking forward to next year when the new unlimited sail area rules should hopefully come into play...

As for the new boat, should be posting as progress is made, M2 two piece boom is now a one piece again, and trolley is ready to weld, just need to get cracking on the actual boat!

Andrew

SIlvaplana Update

Quick update before laptop battery dies.

Has been raining solidly for several days now, very cold at night (0 degrees).  Tonight it even rained pasta sauce after Doug had an accident cooking at the campsite whilst cooking a communal meal.  Jon started to cry but hid it well.

Martin has been impressing us all with his reinvention of traditional english dishes, namely the full monty (all day breakfast in a tin), supernoodles, pepperami, and pot noodle.  Martin has also pioneered a new way of keeping warm in his tent at night by choosing to use his dry suit as a pair of pyjamas.  This has drawn some odd looks but apparently works better than wearing everything you brought on holiday with you.

Rodders appears to have gone a funny green colour following too many cans of relentless energy drink, and has gone to bed with a mysterious illness.  Tom Offer's tent appears to be the size of a small aircraft hanger, we have decided to rig this and pitch the rest of our tents inside.  Jon appears to have the smallest tent known to man, even a hobbit would be at risk of aclostrophobia.

The wind has been fickle so far but our spirits are reasonably high and we are hoping for more wind in the coming days.

Emma's Flapjacks have raised the spirits slightly this evening, fingers crossed the weather doesnt get any worse over the next few days.

Over and out.

Lift to Silvaplana?!

Anyone willing to give a lone mothy with bag a lift to Silvaplana in exchange for beer / fuel money on Thursday afternoon / evening or Friday morning? 

I'm currently in Pfaeffikon SZ near Rapperswill, near Zurich (not Pfaeffikon ZH) but happy to get a train to a more convenient pickup point!

Cheers

James

Who's in?

Preparation for the Euros is well underway at Queen Mary.  Quite a few of us have been making it out on the water over recent weekends, despite Queen Mary being more aptly referred to as 'Green Mary' at the moment.  An old chap at the nationals warned me that there was toxic algae making its way up the coast from France and I guess it was only a matter of time before it made it here....!  The edge of the reservoir looks like a bright green pea soup at the moment making for pleasant launching.

Doug, myself and Ben ventured out last weekend for some light / no airs practice.  Doug was running rings around both of us when the wind was light in his ninja, Ben managed to have a breakage free sail which should be commended.  This weekend myself and Jon Peates ventured out, I was pretty useless thanks to having my arms pulled out of their sockets giving wakeboarding a try the previous evening.  Jon seems to be getting the hang of the Mach 2 a bit more now after some more tuning this saturday, he's certainly not struggling for straight line speed managing to clock 25. something knots in about 12-14 knots of breeze. 

The fleet at Queen Mary has really come on in the last few months, its good to see that we have a range of abilities with everyone really keen to share knowledge.  It will be interesting to see how Andrew Friend fares in his custom ninja that he is planning to build after taking some time out for studying / working in recent months.  Paul Beard is also getting on really well with his Bladerider pulling off foiling gybes much earlier than I remember when I first got mine.  Theres been some talk of being more organised and having a class start at the weekends which I think is something we'll definitely look into after the Euros.  All in all theres never been a better time for a mothie to join Queen Mary. 

  On the rash vest front, I've put together the below design for those that are interested.  I'm hoping as its the same pattern on both sides this will keep the costs down.  Throw me a line if youre interested in buying one....Also for any internationals feeling left out I can send over the photoshop file if you want to get your own patriotic rash vests made up....

 

Nationals Update

Nationals is going well.  Sailing conditions were great today with a decent breeze kicking for races 4 and 5 and some very close racing.  Arnaud had a bit of drama before the start of race 3 after he broke one of his shrouds where it attaches to the plate.  Back out for race 4 however he had some good battles with Simon who is currently leading the regatta.  Mike Cooke also had more than his fair share of dramas, after looking very quick in one of the races with his new foils he was forced to retire with more breakages.  Will be interesting to see how he fares tomorrow given the forecast for decent breeze.

3 more races tomorrow in 11+ knots, hopefully some more good results for the Queen Mary Mothies.  Heres some photos of the QM Mothies in action:

Thanks to Heather Davies of Fotoboat for the photography.  Bring on the manly breeze for tomorrow's racing!

gone!

so the BR is packed up and off on its way over to new owner Nico in Valencia... Time to get working on the new one then! Exhibition opens thursday then work commences on building / sourcing parts for the new boat (ninja with a few tweaks, and a mean paintjob...!) anyone who fancies dropping by to check out the exhibition if they are in london are more than welcome - open this thursday through untill the 4th july , at the Royal College of art, (next to Albert hall).

QM Update

Well its been a while since we posted an update so I thought I’d put something up on the site. I would blame it on other members of the QM fleet being lazy with the blog, but then realised I hadn’t actually granted them access to post anything. Oops.


The fleet has been gradually growing over the last year or so. We are now up to 13 mothies at the club consisting of 2 x Mach2s, 3 x Mistresses (with various types of plastic surgery), 3 x Aardvarks (with various snouts), 3 x Bladeriders and a Prowler. Andrew Friend has sold his Bladerider and is gradually accumulating parts for his FrankenNinja creation whilst Jon Peates has also upgraded to a Mach 2.

Perhaps a top UK club trophy at the Nationals is in order? Best results combined of top 5 boats maybe? We must have at least 4 or 5 UK clubs that would qualify for that?!

The last couple of weekends have been pretty good for sailing. Last weekend myself and Doug joined in with club racing for a change which was good fun. I think both of us were referred to as Jesus at least a few times as we buzzed through the packs of Lasers on the downwind legs. We also swapped boats which was interesting. Its surprising how different the Ninja felt to the Mach2, the Mach 2 seemed to jump out of the water when it was ready to foil whereas the Ninja was much steadier to rise onto the foils but did seem to get there in less breeze than the M2. Doug’s Hyde main also felt quite powerful so definitely a few avenues to explore when we get the time to swap rigs.

This weekend myself, Mike and Chris opted for a windy Saturday afternoon sail. Chris was looking impressive - flying high and very fast in his Bladerider after spending time over the winter tuning it up. I was struggling to tack as unfortunately my kicker was optimised for Dubai windy – about 13 knots. On the Sunday I decided to head back to Devon for some sneaky practice in Torbay. The conditions were absolutely perfect, and I was having a great time until a pitchpoll resulted in me tearing a catflap sized hole in one of the trampolines. Speaking of which does anyone know of a decent trampoline maker in the UK that could replicate a Mach 2 tramp but with tougher Queen Mary proof material? Unfortunately the reservoir eats trampolines for breakfast….

Dubai - windy and wavey practice day

The British contingent had a windy session with big waves yesterday in Dubai. Adam launched only to bend his push rod within the first 5 minutes, he then spent the next hour and a half trying to get downwind back to the club .... apparently he tried signalling to me a couple of times that he was in distress, however I was too busy screaming like a girl and pitchpolling to notice .... sorry!


Alex suffered a crack to the hull and so had to come in early, however when I briefly sailed upwind with him the boat was looking very high and fast. Tim Penfold returned to shore rigless after tearing out the forestay plate.

The waves were tricky, long like Saundersfoot but with the occassional hole or messed up chop to trip you up. I think I was getting the hang of them by the end, partly by putting more trust in the boat. With the Bladerider in these conditions I tended to sit right up by the shrouds downwind in waves. The Mach 2 doesnt seem to like this as the nose pitches in, it seems to go much better with more ride height and then aggressively steering to avoid the holes ....

Anyway here is a video of calmer conditions from the other day. Myself and Adam had a great downwind run at the of video averaging 22 knots with a max speed of 23.7 apparently.

Brits bring the rain

Friday night was the Puma party at a really cool beach bar out here called Barasti. It was quite a different pre event party I think for most mothies, loads of photographers taking pictures - some of which were apparently for the Dubai equivalent of Hello magazine - Ahlan! There was a group photo of the Mothies in the podium area which I think JP has a copy of which I'll try to get up here.

Have managed to get a few sails in on the boat now and have also been doing some bimbling so quite happy with the setup. A few of us went out for a light wind practice today, somehow drifting about in no wind seems much more appealing than usual over here.....I think everyone was struggling though to stay up on the foils, I was quite happy with my speed in the light stuff although Arnaud was able to sail a lot higher than most of us.

Yesterday Alex and Mike arrived from the UK and seem to have brought the rain with them. Apparently it only rains about 4 times a year out here so I don't think the drainage is really geared up for it. A bit like the UK with snow I guess. This morning we awoke to flood waters in places - despite it being 30 something odd degrees. Apparently in the other Ibis that Mikis and Phillip are staying in the lobby was under water! Alex also appears to have brought with him some kind of man flu so the plan is to dose him with strong drugs in order to avoid a repeat of Garda for him.

Forecast for the next few days is quite mixed. Tomorrow is light but then Tuesday is looking mental with another storm front coming through with 35 knots and more rain apparently. Perhaps we might be able to foil back to the hotel and save a taxi fare....

Arrived....!

Arrived in Dubai yesterday for the start of week working and sailing when I can fit it in. The club is fantastic - everyone is really friendly and its a very chilled atmosphere - should be a great championships. The UK is so cold at the moment, apparently due a reversal in the North Atlantic oscillation (whatever that is). Apparently this is why Toronto is so warm at the moment and the UK is the coldest in 25 years......whatever the reason I'm just looking forward to some sailing without constantly numb hands and feet.

Yesterday the wind and shipping didnt quite play ball. The Dubai moths went out for a play in some marginal conditions, JP and Arnaud were busy knitting and so could only launch when the wind had totally died to a drifter. My boat has arrived today so hopefully I should be able to get it assembled in time for a sail this afternoon / early evening if the breeze stays.

Today is perfect - steady force 3-4 with a small chop and of course lots of sunshine.....

The rigging / launching area.

The view from my hotel room suggested Bora had been out here for some time.

Puma moth with worlds tallest building in background.

JP indulging in his second favourite past time - sanding.

Arnaud indulging in his second favourite past time - knitting.

Bloody Mary? More like Bloody Ridiculous.

This weekend saw an intrepid band of Moth sailors descend on Queen Mary in what can only be described as an attempt to mimic the exploits of Ray Mears but in a Moth. Actually no, given the conditions it was probably more worthy of the suicidal exploits of someone like Bear Grylls….Anyway the aptly named Bloody Mary again did not disappoint with competitors being greeted on arrival by a slap in the face in the form of a gusty northerly breeze, an air temperature of -2 and a balmy water temperature of 3 degrees.

I've never sailed an event like it. I think pretty much everyone, even visitors, had to defrost their boats with warm water before launching, set their controls for the day and then defrost again in order to de-rig once ashore. It was absolutely crazy, I had to just leave my two piece mast in one piece as it was frozen solid.

So after defrosting, gritting the control rods, filling up camelbaks with oxtail soup and substituting the usual sun block for deep heat seven of us hit the water for the start. I attempted to retire within the first five minutes with the pretty good excuse of my spreaders detaching from one of the shrouds on the way out. Unfortunately however Chris and Mike were ultra helpful onshore at getting me back on the water, damnit. I was swiftly followed by Andrew who's boat had stamped its authority by giving him a fat lip (the tiller extension punched him). Doug, Ben and Alex then returned ashore with various gear failures leaving only Jonathan in his Bladerider RX and Geoff Carveth in his X8 to battle the elements. Jonathan was unlucky with gear failure, however Geoff staged what can only be described as a heroic performance given the conditions bringing the boat back just ahead of the foiling 600s to claim the foiler trophy.

The ventilation on the Bladerider was terrible, Geoff had a fence on his rudder which seemed to help him but I don't think anyone got away with it completely. Definitely time to experiment with a few combinations I think.

Next weekend the temperatures are due to get back to a blistering 10 degrees so its all on for the Steve Nicholson trophy at Northampton, 30th January.....hopefully see you all there.