Arriving in Garda

After a marathon 24 hour journey from South West London to Garda via France, Belgium, Germany and Austria we finally arrived on Sunday in Campione.  Despite traffic jams, dodgy airconditioning and not a great deal of sleep much fun was had en route as we attempted to visit a fast food venue in as many countries as possible and spotted some interesting 'accessories' for Leighs boat (below).  Answers on a postcard please as to what the hell youre supposed to use a travel pussy for.  They must be quite popular with our German friends given we saw them in several service station toilets.

The weather, food and general chilled out atmosphere so far has been great.  Richard Westbury and Mike Cooke are having a race to see who can take the longest to rig - its been 3 days for Richard, 2 for Mike and counting.....Mike Lennon made his usual successful start to a Worlds campaign by sailing as far away from the club as he could and then breaking a shroud and dropping his rig in the lake (he did the same at Macquarie).  Luckily class supremo Ricky Tagg managed to somehow tie a knot in his broken forestay, restep the mast and re-rig in the water sufficiently to get Mike foiling back home several miles down the lake to Campione.

Its been very chilled so far, our accommodation in Tremosine is great - nice pool and great views of the lake from our balcony.  The only downside is the quite terrifying drive down the windy clifftop pass to the sailing club which Doug 'McCrae' Pybus insists on taking as fast as he can in his Alpha.  Graham Simmonds has also been providing onshore entertainment in the form of some quite disturbing sex face impressions....somewhat similar to our mascot muddy when waiting for his ball to be thrown.



We had our first day of proper sailing today.  Doug, myself, Andrew and Jason launched into a pleasant breeze.  Sadly Andrew was the first casualty - having sailed upwind he discovered that his boat had too much lift and after numerous cartwheels sailing downwind eventually got back to the club to change his angle of attack.  Rumour has it that Andrew is really aiming high for the Mothapalooza trophy this year - having painted his own boat, applied vinyl to the sail, bought a yellow sailing suit he is genuinely considering painting his face yellow for racing....Overall I think we were all quite happy with our pace, although it was a fairly chilled out session sailing up and down the middle of the lake, dodging kitesurfers.



This evening we are relaxing back at the apartment enjoying some Black Moth truffle vodka looking forward to another great day on the water tomorrow - potential sponsor for 2013 Worlds anyone?

First UK Training event of the season

This weekend saw Mothies ranging from complete newbies to more experienced helms descend on Queen Mary for what was the first UK training event of the season.  Saturday started with a briefing by Chris Rashley on boat setup and technique.  Chris spent a lot of time decomposing video footage of foiling tacks he had taken and talking the group through footwork, steering, heel and speed.  From memory the main tips seemed to be keeping the speed up through the tack, initiating it with the windward wing parallel with the water and moving across the boat quick enough that you were moving to the new side with the boom still on the wrong side of the boat.  For gybing Chris spent some time going through all of the factors that can kill speed whilst gybing such as insufficient ride height, overly aggressive steering, heeling the boat to windward rather than marginally to leeward and not popping the battens fast enough and settling on the new side.

Before hitting the water Phillippe spent some time with those onshore going through setup and ensuring that those new to the class became familiar with pre-flight checks to minimise the risk of gear failure.  On the water we then did several mock races in reasonably light and sunny conditions adhering to Chris' strict rules which forced us to do 4 tacks up the beat and at least 2 gybes through a downwind gate.  As a professional coach Chris does not mince his words and it was made clear at the start that those who broke the rules would be penalised and made to do 360s.  Those that suffered gear failure would be left to drift.  Those that continued to break the rules would be sent in.  No half measures, Chris Rashley does not do rescues, 2 tack beats or as we found out during the evenings festivities eat at his local curry house it seems.

Sunday arrived with a somewhat cold and gusty Northerly breeze which proved challenging even for the more experienced helms in the fleet.  Olivier Vidal agreed to start proceedings with some onshore coaching specifically aimed at breezy conditions before we hit the water with a video camera to capture some of the action during the 5 or so mock races.  Talking new helms through breezy bearaways, reaching and gybing at speed its easy to forget how counter intuitive sailing the moth can be at times particularly in a breeze.  However everyone did really well in the breezy conditions all things considered.  Paul Beard in his Bladerider was probably the most improved sailor over the course of the weekend, pulling off some smooth gybes and some very quick upwind legs.

Thanks to all that helped with the coaching and organisation, especially Jason for his hard work behind the scenes and Olivier / Chris for agreeing to coach.  The feedback on the training event from those new to the boat was excellent.  As per usual the advice for all those new to Moth sailing is to try and go sailing as much as you can with other moths, whether this is at a training event, an open or simply by turning up at a club where other moths are based.  We've all been there.  One piece of feedback from new mothies seemed to be that a number of new helms didnt feel like they were ready to attend an open meeting.  Opens are however a great way to speed up the learning process, most sailors in the fleet are more than happy to share advice on and off the water and the grand prix system means irrespective of ability you are pretty much guaranteed a finishing position.  So the general advice is even if you feel you're not quite ready, come along as its a great way to get up to speed up the learning process and get those early issues that we all had quickly out of the way.

Next weekend the season starts proper with the first sea sailing open in the form of Parkstone.  As usual Rod is promising the usual warm welcome and entertainment which brings us back each year, look forward to seeing everyone there.

Training Weekend & goings on

Lots of activity at Queen Mary recently with some members of the squadron sadly leaving us but also new members joining.  Chris Anstead sold his Bladerider last weekend as he is emigrating to Australia (beware Australian's he has been known to sail extremely hungover and has said he may get a Mach 2 or something whilst down under).  We've had a few Mach 2's join the club & so numbers are pretty steady at the moment.  Doug has also fitted his new Ninja foils and seems to be going a fair bit quicker, even pulling off a few foiling tacks last weekend when we were out.

This Easter weekend myself, Leigh, Andrew and Paul were down at the club at various points trying to get the early season tuning out of the way.  I'm gradually getting through the new boat niggles with my 2012 Ninja and so far I'm pleased to say she seems pretty quick.  She foils early, is very easy to tack but somewhat unforgiving when you dig the nose in - a proper Diva.  Today we competed in the club's new personal handicap series which was interesting.  We sailed an 'M' course in windy conditions, Andrew was the only one to make the start in the first race.  The second 6 lap race was great fun with myself and Andrew frequently swapping places on both the upwind and downwind legs before Andrew performed a ventilation fuelled dismount 2 laps from the finish.  I ended up getting awarded a personal PY handicap of 600 and I think Andrew was awarded 630, will be interesting to see if we can still compete on other course configurations with those.  

Next weekend is the first UK training event of the season at Queen Mary and is a great opportunity for new comers to the class as well as more experienced helms to improve their boathandling, racing and tuning skills.  There will be a number of experienced coaches available to help out with on and off the water advice, and hopefully some video footage so that we can do full debriefs each day following sailing.  Queen Mary is a great place for those new to the boat to learn those essential skills in a safe environment.  Whilst most clubs in the country were blown out today, even with a forecast of 30 knots myself, Andrew and Paul were still out competing in club racing making the most of the 'Garda of London'.  We hope to see as many of you here as possible!

Dinghy Show 2012

Thanks to all that helped out with making the Moth class stand happen at the RYA dinghy show this weekend, particularly to Simon, Neil & Jason for helping to man the stand and Gareth for printing duties.  

Overall I think the show was a great success, as always there was certainly a lot of interest in the class from young to old (the oldest being an 83 year old who is apparently planning to build a bloodaxe foiling moth).  It was great to dispel some of the myths around moth sailing such as you need to be young, short, sub 65kgs and possess an Engineering degree to sail one.  

Next weekend the UK circuit starts with the first event of the season at Queen Mary.  Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned racer we hope to see you there - as we said at the show, attending open meetngs and training is by far the best way to learn.  In the meantime here are some photo highlights of the show.

The most impressive stand in the show.

Comparing a cut down Ninja foil to a small M2.

A bustling stand.

Q:  "What does that thing on the front do?"  

A:  "I'm pretty sure you should know by now Alan...."

Peter Barton scaring children & grown men alike on the Crewsaver stand*

Simon 'Scary face' Reynolds on the Provela stand in virtual form.

Ben 'the guns' Paton

Peter without his make up on.

The crowds loved the moth video, especially when the German Techno music kicked in.

When in China town you should apparently drink orange tea.

The inspiration for Andrew's Dazzle camouflage? 

The 'killer shrimp' from the invasive species stand, exciting class, radical hull design.  

The best part was the Ninja / Mach 2 race on the A406.

*  Please note this may not have actually been Peter Barton and may have in fact been a professional actor.  Until he publicly denies it though we will never know.