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.

broadland mothing...

Right. 400meters or so wide, around 1 mile long, 4ft deep, complete with navigation posts, 100 or so boats sailing around and a constant flow of tourists driving rental cruisers down the river... oh and a sail up tree lined dyke to get out onto the broad. perfect moth conditions!

Spent the bank holiday weekend up in Norfolk sailing at the Punt Club regatta, has been a couple of years since I had taken the moth up (had the shire horse (bladerider) and cookie with the V4 up previously) and figured it was time the dazzle moth came up for a blast...

-Whiteboats racing (they're all white, a class rule...)

The great thing about sailing on Barton Broad is the fact that the club sits on a raft in the middle of the broad (lake) which is surrounded by reed-beds and only accessible via a short sail up a dyke...(watch it...) River sailing in moths is a seriosley underated discipline, keeping alert for 180degree windshifts and rogue gusts ready to flip you over under the bows of a passing wherry - top training recommended for anyone serious about their mothing.... perhaps some outings on the thames...hmmn... having finally battled the dyke and reached the broad I was confronted by a very gusty westerly breeze (possibly the worst direction as you end up having to broad reach everywhere with little or no escape options for when it all goes wrong...!)

Oh and there were loads of other boats everywhere too....

-Brown Boat (they're brown, but not always...see how the classes are named around here...very sensible...)

-River Cruisers / M2 ??? ;)

Ended up hurtling around intermittently between gusts and obstacles , did finish a race but spent too much time low riding to live up to the handicap... Amazing how much faster and more lively the ninja is than the old BR (which actually felt quite manageable on the broad). Very good boathandling, future forecasting and reaction training , combined with the dykes make for a top mothing location, worlds anyone??? Amazingly didnt break anything (or anyone)...

- great all of the other boats have disappeared.....

-is it a tack or has the wind disappeared???!

Did I mention you can moor your moth on a mudweight too.....ahh the joys! oh and the brass band playing on the roof of a Wherry.... Barton regatta - August bank Holiday weekend 2012. see you there!

-Wherry , White Moth (appropriate)

Queen Mary update

Well its been another great weekends sailing on London's lake garda.  Summer has finally arrived and brought with it some breeze, 30 degrees and bags of sunshine.  On Saturday myself, Doug, Leigh and Paul got out at various times during the day.  Leigh is really getting to grips with his Ninja now and seems to have all the usual routines nailed, would be great to see him doing more circuit events.  Doug also seems to have also shifted up a gear after tuning a few areas of the boat and was going really well on Saturday until he had a disagreement with a mark which lead to a fairly spectacular capsize and some broken spars.   

Andrew is fast getting through the usual new boat issues with his FrankenNinja, even going as far as building his own adjustable wand which looks quite neat (watch out Phil!).  In between launching himself during club racing on wednesday he was looking very quick almost pulling off a few foiling tacks.  I think we'll be seeing some good things from him in during racing at Stokes.

Recently it feels a bit like the fleet at Queen Mary has been thinning out with Jon relocating his Mach 2 to Weymouth and Ben now moving back to Wales but I think numbers are fairly stable with around 13 moths at the club.  We've had a few new boats join and also the welcome return of Adrian in the legendary Nemesis, will be great to see him putting us all to shame again in the light and shifty stuff.  So all in all I think we're in pretty good shape for the Nationals and will hopefully be able to give the HISC lot a good run for their money.

I took my moth home to Torbay last weekend to sail in Babbacombe Corinthian's club regatta, the place I originally learnt to sail in an oppi (low rider).  Was great fun sailing in one of the most picturesque and shifty places I think I've ever sailed. The final race of the regatta is a pursuit race for the club's Silver Dinghy trophy which was good fun, even if I did get slightly dizzy from repeatedly lapping Tasars....The conditions were just right for the moth - 13-16 knots and flat water and fortunately no capsizes meant I won the race.  It was only in the bar when looking at the previous winners of the trophy that I saw that that its actually a fairly significant piece of UK Moth heritage having been won previously by none other than a K Ellway - designer of the Ninja!  

Some photos of from club racing at Queen Mary

The Silver Dinghy trophy, where the Ninja began? 

Moth West

finally the dazzle moth has hit the water! (about time too, a combination of work and too much sanding have been holding this back for too long...!) Headed down to Cheddar for the first outing to join the bristol crew along with DJ and Richard .

Following some intial teething problems (well, my having drilled the gantry pin hole in the wrong place...) and some rapid repair / modification at the hand of squadron leader Cookie the boat behaved beautifully now all I need to do is remember how to sail properly again.. Did manage to pull off a couple of flying tacks too...(I was perhaps more surprised at this than anything else though I think it will be a while before they will be intentional rather than fluke... )

Thanks to Darren for the pictures and Mike and Emma for putting me up and all their help with the boat. Not sure if this sums up the mood properly, perhaps a bit crass, though some of the sentiment is there, well most of it....! - video....

So, just what does a dazzle camouflage moth look like?

Well, here you go, colours are all on, though there is still a bit of fairing to do over tape lines then polishing or lacquer (not sure yet) ... nice!

Looks a bit Jeff Koons (unintentionally...) but without the weird gradients in his scheme, hope he doesn't think he owns the rights to this though too...!

the trouble with multicoloured paint jobs......

a few photos showing progress so far... (I think I could have finished a couple of single colour spray jobs by now, but where's the fun in that...)

essential ingredients for a mean paint job - battleship plans, tape, sander, marker, and plenty of tea

final layer of filler.... good colour.....

taped up...

so far two of the four colours are done, hopefully have some time next week/ weekend to get back to norfolk to get the rest finished, soon time to go sailing!

for those light wind days....