Sad, but true..

She's been a fantastic boat, but now available to you..

Axiom v4 for sale; Paranoid Android, GBR3192

Absolutely, perfect, better than brand new condition. I collected her from Mike last night and she looks fantastic. Finished in Saab fusion blue metallic, with new graphics, and all marks removed, she's had the following work since the worlds:

New high modules wing frames, extended rearwards for outstanding torsional rigidity, with new large diameter front bars, and larger aero profiled compression struts.

New trampolines to suit, along with new running rigging, toestraps, and a fully spliced kicker using new Hercules Red Eye thimbles!

New high modulus skinny mast and latest Hyde sail, both only used 3 times at the worlds.

Refaired foils, including the famous bat-wing rudder which I have NEVER seen ventilate even in mid winter.

New stainless foil control systems for ultimate robustness, with the latest geometry to keep the boat flying high and safe.

All hardware is Harken and less than 10 months old.

The hull is strong, very, very light, and watertight.

Any inspection welcome, this is like a new boat, but without the teething problems!

Top speed so far 23.1 knots, can you do better? Possibly the moth bargin of the year for £6500.

I'm in Amsterdam next week for a trade show, so if any Europeans are interested I can offer free delivery to the Netherlands – but the van leaves Sunday night, so you'll need to be quick..

Offshore

So this weekend I was supposed to be heading to Bristol to float around Axebridge with Cookie and Emma, but a zero wind situation scuppered that.

Somehow, I accidently went 'Offshore' (read, orienteering around the channel) yachting on John Merricks 2 the RYA TP52 instead. Whoops.

It turned out to be really good fun; if you’ve got to go leadmining, do it on one of these. Plus, it was great to sail with 13 young talented sailors, with no egos in sight and lots of drive. There was a really great atmosphere on the boat, you can’t fault it. Getting line honours (and beating the Artemis IMOCA60) helped too..

There was even a decent breeze, eventually. Not much compares to tight reaching at night in 17-18 knots of breeze. It’s so far removed from Mothing, but at the same time plenty of the skills are transferable – lots to learn, in both directions. Thanks for having me guys. More please!

Top Gun 2!

Ok, so it takes a lot to merit a new blog post. We've a had a worlds, lots of sailing, yadder yadder.

But...

Tom Cruise to Star in Top Gun 2! According to 'A Source', in the Highly reputable Sun Newspaper:

"The idea is Maverick is at the Top Gun school as an instructor - and this time it is he who has to deal with a cocky new female pilot."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/wenn/20080721/ten-cruise-to-star-in-top-gun-sequel-c60bd6d.html

Happy Days!

More Sailing Please..

What is it about this class, that means one can spend a difficult week sailing (or not..), and come back more enthused than ever? I guess that's the eternal magic of the Moth.

We've learnt our lessons from the worlds, and already the preperations for next time have become. The plan? More group sailing, more social sailing, more fun (more gym time..). Its going to be fantastic.

My new Product the Hercules Red Eye sold well. Watch this space for a range of hop -us for the moth using it, inculding pre spliced ready to fit kickers, and DSK75 lightweight shrouds. They'll soon be available at http://www.hercules-sailing.com, just as soon as I get the website online and running..

Windy Weymouth

Winnnnndddyyy, windy, windy
Not Going Sailing,
windy windy,
going slightly crazy,
windy windy,
chasing seagulls
CAAAWWWW

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..