23.1

Lots of sailing recently, not much blogging. Possibly the way things should be? Last weekend was the Axebridge open, great fun and well attended by all, thanks to MC for organising! Managed to get out in Poole with Rodders Monday, and Thursady. Moth sailing is the perfect antidote to a day at work. Cracked foiling gybes on the first session, which I'm over the moon about, even if I am a bit behind the times, as the fack seems to be where the cool kids are at. James and I had three days practise at Weston at the weekend, although I didn't get much sailing in Saturday/Monday for a number of reasons (mostly self induced). We had a very valuable session on Sunday though, with a real mix of conditions, and some interesting chop. For me training with James is excellent as he is far more disciplined than myself, forcing me into proper tuning runs etc which are enlightening. Plus I did another PB of 23.1 - not lacking in top end, just need to work on the marginal stuff! Ed and Myles were out in their new F18 too, still working it up but it should be fun to race them over the comming months! Lots of good pictures on Adam Mays blog, and The Bristol Moths blog.

The power of the Internet..

I just had a look at the traffic logs for my blog, and it turns out I've had two seperate referals from people searching Yahoo with the terms 'Mary Wanking'. What could they have been looking for? And how dissapointing to end up here..

The big two-oh

This ones for Toby..

Had a fantastic sail on Saturday with James in his prowler. Despite initially hiding from the howling 35 knot breeze, we got bored enough to launch as the wind dropped off later in the day. It was a really interesting sail, managed to do a (few) good tuning runs - there doesn't seem to be much between the Axiom/Prowler - I maybe had a touch more height, but I have a bad habit of sailing high and slow so that could be part of it. James was all over the corners though, whereas me, not so much...

Also finally hit a recorded 20.9, which possibly makes me the slowest person ever to enter the 20kt club.

It was pretty choppy and messed up in Southampton water, the Axiom coped fantastically- I only really had one avoidable pop out, which to be fair I saw coming a way off. I did have my biggest ever crash when the kicker came uncleated whilst blasting off wind as hard as possible - the result was the tiller ripped from my hand with amazing force, me thrown one way and the boat sailing the other. It must have been impressive as both the rescue rib and James came over to check I was fine!

I don't have any good pictures, so you can have these boring ones instead..

Queen Mary by Twilight

The results of an evening boat work session. It gives you a warm feeling about the world when you realise that even Queen Mary Resevoir, Staines, can look this beautiful.

Shrove Tuesday..

So I had my first session of my new training regime today - the Weymouth worlds Aerobic and Nutrition Course (WANK).

I've employed the services of a Personal Trainer to come up with an exercise program, and help motivate me to keep pushing, as I don't know the first thing about how to get fit.

Its the nearest to death I think I have ever been.

Cycling, cross training, push ups and core stability, followed by free weights, left my poor, soft, office weakened body in a state of shock which took me about 40 minuites of sitting down, and 12 pancakes to recover from.

Heavy Industry!

This amused me; talk about overkill - the lathe in our works being used to drill out my control rod fitting yesterday!

You can just see the tiny plastic and carbon fitting being held in the centre of the chuck.

Bloody Mary

Moths 1st and 4th (of 260), beautiful weather and a great turnout of 12 Moths. The Bloody Mary failed to live up to its reputation and was a wonderful event. Better, however was the dinner me James and Tim had in Farnham afterwards. That was some tasty Fish Pie!

In with the new..

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally swapped 4048, the very first boat to have production foils from Full Force, for a newer, younger and better looking model. Please welcome, all the way from Banwell, GBR3192 ‘Paranoid Android’. Maybe I should have learnt my lesson about having the first of a new design, but she’s the first customer Axiom 4 to come from Aardvark. Finished in a splendid Saab Fusion Blue Metallic, she certainly looks fast!

Mike has spent long time thinking about this boat, and has really concentrated hard on the detailing. As expected from someone who develops his designs at a faster rate than anyone else, he’s also taken on board lots of lessons learnt in Garda, to bring together a package which is lightweight, strong, and fast and should be very reliable! A few great examples are the through deck control rod – not a new idea, but now neatly recessed into the board box so it is impossible to ruin one’s sail before it has even started with a well aimed kick! The integral Gantry support is nice, and a neat step keeps it away from the water at marginal foiling speeds.

The foils are Aardvark’s own design, with a cool 3D profile including neatly swept winglets on the flapless rudder – a design Mike had been using when the Bladerider was but a twinkle in Amac’s eye! The main foil has an interesting shape, and should have plenty of power thanks to the long lever arm on the flap – which is very neatly hinged, and has a nice free range of movement.

The standard manic last minute rigging completed at Aarvark HQ (after a hearty steak dinner courtesy of the Sidcot arms!), and a good nights sleep the Android was treated to a Champagne launch at a very chilly Axebridge. A crowd gathered, of course, doing little to ease the stress for owner, or builder, as the rig goes up for the first time and all the parts are asked to fit in anger!

Not to be put off, everything went together perfectly; with lessons learnt from Mikes own Axiom put to good use. Emma duly performed as Mistress (no, not one of those Weymouth based ones) of Ceremonies, sprayed the champagne and we were off. Capsize recovery is laughably easy – the geometry means the boat genuinely almost wants to right itself. Things were not looking good as I drifted in 4 knots of wind, but luckily the breeze humoured me, and piped up to a more reasonable 7-10 knots. The boat flew well in this, ride height was incredibly positive – she would rise to a set high, and no amount of idiocy by the pilot was going to upset that. As expected, Alan’s prowler seemed to have the slight speed edge when lowriding, and possibly early take off, but that could easily have been technique as much as anything else. However, the low centre of gravity, light rig (the Hyde sail is notably lighter than a KA – now if only they could sort out their Cam supply!) and flat wingbars of the Axiom 4 made manoeuvres an absolute breeze, and sailing in the marginal conditions a lot more fun than usual.

The ForeTrex suggested a top speed of 14.9 knots, which while far from the 23(!) Mike hit on his first sail, is pretty good going considering the breeze never topped 10 knots.

More wind is needed to truly evaluate the performance, so “I'll tell you tomorrow...but it's looking good so far.”

Photos..

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