You can't keep a good boat down..

I visited Somerset this weekend, ostensibly to collect my Polo which has been rotting outside Aardvark HQ for the last month (yours for £200 – 10 moths TAX and test!), and unsurprisingly ended up watching Martin re-launch 4048 with its funky new wing bars. He got up and foiling in the 6-7 knots of breeze, and the new wing bars looked like a great improvement.

Alan followed, and scared the wind away, so the two of them drifted in and called it a day. Many complaints about the breeze, but more jealous looks from those of us who are boatless. Pictures below….

3 Years...

Take Flight has been sold to Martin, from Bristol, where she has already been treated to a (much needed) new trolley, and ‘pimped’ dropped wing bars. They look f**king cool too..

Anyway, no-one wants to read a boring tome detailing every story from the last three years, so I’ve condensed it to these handy facts;

Total Mothie miles travelled: 8000

World Championships: 1

European Championships: 1

National Championships: 2

Decent results at the above: 0

Club races: 0 (which may account for the above results..)

Foils Broken: 0

Foils Lost: 1 (Replaced by Shiny Aardvark canting jobbie)

Value of fittings stolen by pikey topper squad kids: £140

Rigs bought: 1 (KA MSL 11)

Wing bars broken: 3

Compression Struts broken: 1

Races thrown due to stupid lack of preparation: Too many to count

Friends made: Too many to count

Lessons learnt: Too many to count

Fun had: Lots!

So I didn’t sail as much as I should have, but travelled to some amazing places, did some amazing sailing, and made friends for life. Take Flight became possibly the most modified Moth in the British fleet (now on her fifth iteration, if you count rig changes). I hope Martin has as good a time with her as I did.

And the reason for this post, well expect a suddenly flurry of bloggage as we go onwards and upwards with GBR3192 (confusingly, a newer boat than 4048..) courtesy of Aardvark Technologies…

In pictures

First Time...

Well, it was today. After the abortive attempt on Saturday, and with my Naval Architecture Dynamics exam safely out of the way this morning, flat water and a perfect 12 knot north easterly were far too tempting for Sam and I. With an audience of interested house mates launching went as well as can be expected - several attempts but the idiosyncrasies of Mothing quickly came back to me.

Damn she felt tight. With the new carbon racks firmly locked in, and the ability to pull on a decent amount of rig tension without destroying the front bulkhead she felt like a different beast- different, and better. I was having too much fun reaching up and down to care she wasn't lifting - back to that in a minute. Meanwhile, Sam and I swopped boats, to see if he could diagnose the problem. With a well set up foil and rig combination, Sam's boat literally flew! Easy as you can say 'Foils' she took off and happily sat about a foot above the water. Confidence inspiring and safe, never felt like she was going to pop out. I even attempted some 'Veal Heal', which increased the speed seemingly ten-fold, and the fear factor equally so, as the body gets closer to the water screaming past! Sam eventually caught up and persuaded me to swop back, having reached the conclusion, verified by those on land, that the rudder was pulling down, due to miss-alignment. Still, it gave an impressive rooster tail!

Nick, a good 420 sailor, then took the boat for a sail, and although he had a multitude of problems launching showed that any competent sailor, given flat water and a steady breeze, can sail a moth. He had no real problems, sailed up and down a few times and came in. Carbon rigs, and the extra stability from the foils (at slow speeds) have defiantly made the step to moths easier, as far as i can tell.

Unfortunately the session was brought to an abrupt halt by several non foil related failures. However, even this could not damp my sprits, and i think it was cold enough to come in anyway!

Overall impression - Awesome. The best experience was foiling through a group of seagulls, who took off as they do, and I preceded to fly side by side with one for several seconds, in complete silence. Time in the Gym is a must though - the amount of hiking involved makes laser sailing look pathetic.

Worth every penny.

Sam and I launch

Launching problems..

A quick introduction

I'm trying to learn to sail a foiling moth (www.int-moth.org.uk). She used to look like the yellow boat in the picture, but has recently been transformed by Linton of Full force boats (www.fullforceboats.com) into a golden bling machine...

Tried to go sailing yesterday

..but it took all day to get the boat rigged. Lost the mast foot on the way too. Sam sailed two races, foiled about in one, but the wind droped off too much in the second. Pity. Going again on monday though.

Finnished! (Nearly..)

The foils

With the new deck

Boat in the workshop