Having coached the Bladerider 'B' and 'Junior' Team now, it is interesting to see how fast some of them have developed their skills and their boats in such a short time. I think Mat Belcher (Qld) is by far the quickest learner I have ever seen (being able to pull of 50% of foiling gybes on his second day out on his new boat a few months ago). Yesterday he easily won every race held at Indented Head during their Xmas Regatta. We had 8 boats turn up, but not all were on the water at the same time due to gear failure or rigging a brand new boat. So I think Mat will be hard to beat in the light airs (being 63kgs) and should finish in the top 5 overall (maybe even top 3).
Amac and Bora Gulari (USA) on the other hand have been doing a lot of development on their wand and front foil gearing as their boat speed and skill seems to be at a standard high enough to starting thinking about these things. Bora has sailed on lakes mostly (but has not done any Moth fleet racing yet) and so has been out in the big seas off Black Rock as much as possible to get ready for anything that Wallaroo can dish up. However have no doubt that these two guys will be in the top 3 in most races, if not first and second overall.
Other competitors for a top 10 finishers should include Luka Damic (NSW), Les Thorpe (NSW), Steve Donovan (NSW), Chris Dey (NSW), Andrew 'Brownie' Brown (NZL), Sten-Mark Bachmann (EST), and James McKenzie (NSW). I have no idea how much work any of the top NSW guys have done since the last Worlds, but it is going to have to be a huge improvement from any of them to be anywhere near the likes of Amac now that he finished work on two new prototype KA sails and has done a considerable amount of on water training in tough conditions that even macho Finn sailors cringe at! If i have missed any other serious contenders from this list, it is probably because I didn't know you are going, so don't take offence.
If you don't already know, I will not be competing in the Aussie Nationals for many reasons, but mainly because I think it was important that I put back what I have learnt into the class to help others get up to pace faster and secondly I want to enjoy some time at home with Gin for once. Therefore I won't even be going over to watch, but I look forward to seeing the action unfold on the net like everyone else.
Friday 28 December, 2007 - Dumped!
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Over 18 months ago I was asked by Sean Langman to co-pilot a hydrofoiled speed record attempt. We met a few times, shared ideas, did some drawings and then never heard anything since.
Then the other day on Sail-World, I see that the boat is finished, it has a major sponsor and I have been dumped as co-pilot for some 'lunch-cutter' who sails big boats, flys gliders but never sailed a foiler before. Pretty poor effory by Sean who firstly asked me to help him, didn't pay me for all of my time and then never returned any of emails or phone calls over the last the 12 months. It was not as if I traded teams behind his back or decided to do my development project, however I was warned by a few people about the way he operates, but now I really know, so now you are warned too!
Nearly five months after I ordered my '73 Carrera RS replica, I finally have it registered. It is a bit of relief as I was pulled up yesterday by the cops (I thought it was for speeding - which I probably was), but instead they only pulled me up for not having any plates on the car, which is okay as I was on the way to get it registered. Anyway, it is all sorted now after countless inspections, reports, trips and phone calls and it is good to have 'Kermit' road legal. Not sure about these roof racks though, as I think the seperation on a coupe is too small to fit the Bladerider to the roof. We'll see...
Tuesday 18 December, 2007 - A Collection of Talent
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Nine of the sixteen Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) scholarship holders who had won a World Title this year got together for a photo shoot in the gym yesterday for the local TV and print media. It was quite a big deal as it was the second highest number of World Champions that the VIS had ever produced in one year, and consequently the Victorian Minister of Sport, Mr James Merlino and the VIS CEO, Ms Anne Marie Harrison were there to congratulate us all. Glenn Ashby who is also a VIS scholarship holder was unfortunately not there as he to busy winning the Tornado's at Sail Sydney, but he did get a special mention as holding a VIS record for holding the most number of World Championships being a staggering eight during his career! Somehow I don't think it will end there either.
Sunday 16 December, 2007 - USA Invade Melbourne
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We have two Bladerider Ambassador's from the States here at our house this week. Bora and George are here training for the Aussie Nationals and have two new boats on the water this week. So how have I inducted them into the Australian Sailing scene, we have been watching 'The Challenge' of course. Nothing like the '83 America's Cup mini series to get fired up for a Championships. To top it off, dad converted it to DVD for me so no need ruin the highly collectable and desirable VHS tape.
Sunday 9 December, 2007 - Mic's Head Cam
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Went down to Geelong yesterday with Lockie to meet up with Mic, Aaron and Steve. We had amazing weather and foiling conditions, and so I hooked up Mic with our new Headzone and waterproof video camera (BTW - I saw these for $135 on eBay last week). So I put together a quick video on YouTube from his session below...
Friday 7 December, 2007 - Stiff Rigging
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Got sent a set of PBO stays through the week from Easy Rigging in Holland. The most noticable difference over the wire stays is the weight. They were probably around 20% weight of the wire, but they were also thinner at about 2mm compared to 2.5mm for the wire. Even lifting the rig up to the mast step was noticably lighter. Amac was out earlier in the day in a solid 25 knots, but by 7pm the wind had dropped off to 20 knots and so James and I went out for a blast.
I was suprised that there was no stretch in them at all, even after we finished the 45 minute session. The downside is that a lot more care needs to be taken with the stays as they can easily get damaged if mishandled or bent. Luckily we have some new prodder bags that should look after them in transit.
Sunday 2 December, 2007 - Another Toy For Your Moth
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Got a neat little waterproof video camera at Hong Kong airport recently, that holds over an hour of video on a 2Gb SD card. So on the weekend, Amac and I went down to Blairgowrie to race against Zac and Sam, and mounted the camera on Amac's foredeck with a carbon bow sprit. Already have ideas on how we can improve on this, but it is have a look at the results below so far...
Friday 30 November, 2007 - 'Jo Verne' Record Cash Prize?
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So as reported in the Middle East Boat Owners magazine, our company is apparantly putting up US$5,000 to anyone sailing a Bladerider that can beat my 'Jo Verne' record. Well I know we didn't offer this formally, but now it looks like we might have to! Hopefully we can make the prize money part of the Moth events we are planning in the UAE next year in an effort to get more boats in attendence.
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Also looks like I won't be doing a Bass Straight crossing/race against Alison Shreeve on her Formula now. After emailing her personally asking to talk about it, her manager emailed me to say that he "prefers that she not share the spotlight or be distracted in the attempt". I think the spotlight and interest would only be bigger if two small boats were racing across, but there you go.
Thursday 29 November, 2007 - Crocodile Moth
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Got back to Melbourne with no dramas last Saturday (even though it took 12 hours instead of the normal 10). Is it good to be home and stable again. Went down to Black Rock last night with Amac to give a Rob Gough from Tassie a go on Amac's Bladerider. Rob brought Chris Dey's old boat (AUS 9306) and has been out a bit, but after his sail on Amac's boat, he said that he wished he never went out as it would be hard to go back to his older design boat. With two Moths down in the Apple Isle, I don't think it will be too long before there are a few more there soon.
FYI - Amac's new boat is actually the first production boat, rebuilt after it fell apart on Graham during the last race at the Garda Worlds - but you wouldn't know it now! Amac stripped all the clear coat and paint off the hull and then glued the deck back together, adding some reinforcement in key areas. He only put one layer of clear coat over the top once finished (keeping his hull weight down to about 8kg), but with the less-smooth 12k carbon (which is really irrelivant these days), his hull now looks like the skin of a crocodile. Nick-named 'The Croc', Amac's new/old boat might start a new trend to un-finish the hull to save weight? For the sake of 1-2kgs of paint and clear carbon (up to 6% overall rigged weight), I would certainly go for it. Gotta have a bit of green paint in there to match the car tho!
Friday 23 November, 2007 - Green Machine
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So after over 20 years of waiting to own a 911, I finally have one. I love these cars, but never would have thought that my first one would be as good as this one. It is very smooth on the road, plenty of grunt but will 10 percentify it if possible when I get back home along with trying to find some racks to cart the Moth around on top (while my other car is being used by the Estonian Team for the Nationals in early January). I don't mind getting a speeding fine on the water, but it will be hard to avoid them on the road with over 240bhp in this green machine!
Tuesday 20 November, 2007 - Sailors Radio
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Will be getting interviewed on Sailors Radio in Sydney on Saturday morning and will be delayed broadcasted at 9am around Australia on Community Radio (8am in Sydney). You can podcast the episode on their site if you are going to miss it. Lasts weeks segment has a great interview with Phil Jones (Yachting Australia CEO) and discussions about the ISAF Council's decision on the 2012 Events.
Monday 19 November, 2007 - Gotta Love the IOC
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Just read some of the text from a document made by the IOC (In the Olympic Programme Commission Executive Board Report, August 2002) to all Olympic Sports (including Sailing) about recommendations for all future Olympic Events, but it is obvious that the ISAF Council has completely ignored anything they have said.
"Similar events…..should be avoided" - Like to know how they explain the difference between the Men's Single Hander & Men's Heavy Single Hander and the Men's Double Hander and Men's HP Double Hander?
"Global public and media interest in a sport must be considered as key elements… for these are fundamental elements in the success of the Games" - Can't see it being wise excluding the Multihull or keeping in both Keelboats for that matter!
"Weight category events should not be allowed, except for the combat sports and for weightlifting" - I'd like to hear how the Finn Class can argue that sailing their boat is a combat sport or why they are so special they are excluded from this recommendation? If the Finn Class or any ex-Finn sailors on the ISAF Committees had any balls, they would show support to remove this Men's Heavy Weight Dinghy Event and go head to head with the Laser for the one Men's Single Hander Event. We all know that will never happen though!
Thursday 15 November, 2007 - 2012 Swimming Program Changed
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I have just heard from FINA that the Olympic Swimming program has decided to follow the 2012 Olympic program of Sailing and will now only offer Freestyle Events at the Games in 2012. They think that all the other swimming strokes are not relevant any more as most people prefer to do Freestyle.
I have also heard that Cycling are now going to cancel all Mountain Biking, BMX and Track as they think they are too fast and dangerous and prefer to just stick to the Classis Road Races as it is easier to manage bikes that are all similar in design and not too extreme. They also believe that the new BMX will only take away the spotlight away from the traditional Road Race.
Athletics have also said that they are considering not going to do any more Field Events, and instead are just going to do Running Events from now on as there are not as many people doing Field as there are track these days.
Looks like Sailing might be setting the trend after all!
Monday 12 November, 2007 - High Performance Sailors Union!
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So it seems like I am not the only one not happy with recent decisions made at the ISAF Council meetings. Most saw this coming a while ago, and hoped that recent speaches made by the ISAF President might have influenced the Council to think more about the sport of sailing rather than their own interests. Which makes me think why are the NMA's making decisions about what classes should be in Olympics, as they are only doing what is good for them? If each International Class Association had one representitive on the Olympic and International Classes Committee, then the Council would think twice about how many International Classes statuses would be issued in the first place, but more importantly the Classes could decide which Events should be in the Games. With one vote each, I doubt there will be as much support for the current Events structure.
However as the Council will never allow this to happen, the only way we are going to get reform in this terrible state of affair is if the ISAF Executive Committee dictates the Event structure to the Council. In the end I would hope that the Executive sees that the Olympic Events would be best represented by each discipline that the sport has to offer. For example as per the most reasonable suggested structure I have heard so far is: Windsurfer, Single-Handed Dinghy, Double-Handed Dinghy, Catamaran, Keelboat and Foiler Events, with the more popular disciplines getting both a Mens and Womens event each while the Cat and Foiler clan will be happy with one Open Event each, ie 10 Events in total. I am sure there will be plenty of Council 'vote buying' as usual, but at least this way they can only lobby for one Event, not like now where the Laser, Finn and 49er can submit their Class in two completely different Events.
In reality this may never happen, so the only solution is to join heads and form a Union to lobby to ISAF or against ISAF direct to the IOC. Who's in and who wants to lead the charge?
I don't know if anyone else has ever asked these questions, but why is there no Mens/Womens Light-weight or Womens Heavy-weight Dinghy Event? What makes the Mens Heavy-weights so special that they have their own Olympic Event? I know that the Men's Heavy-weight Dinghy defines the sailor weight and not the boat, but does it make any difference? They are both bloody heavy! Anyway there is only one boat that is going to get this Event isn't there. Bloody ridiculous!!! If the Finn is such a 'nice' boat to sail and the class is so strong, why can it just go up against the Laser in the Men's Dinghy Event? Surely it will win. Just writing about this makes me sick!
Friday 9 November, 2007 - The Death Of ISAF and the Olympics
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Today will be now known as Black Friday. ISAF have just killed two high performance boats fom the Olympics, the multihull and the Womens HP double hander, leaving a very sour taste in the mouths of all cat sailors, or anyone that sails a HP boat for that matter. Looking from the outside in, not only will it look pretty stupid having boring and slow boats in the Olympics, but the consistency and naming of the Events is ludicrous!
I really do feel sorry for the cat sailors though, as now they have nothing to aspire to. Instead I am quite certain they will form their own International Catamaran Federation and disown themselves from ISAF. I can't help but think that a International Foiler Federation won't be far behind. Or maybe we should just join heads and form the International High Performance Sailing Federation? ISAF should really do everyone a favour and change it's name to the European Low Performance Dinghy Sailing Federation, because really, that is all they seem to care about these days.
Personally I have nothing against the Finn or the Laser, but what annoys me is that there are two boats extremely similar, so similar that a skipper can easily jump between boats and do well in both. I can only wish that the ISAF Executive force the ISAF Council to choose only one! Leaving the remaining event to not only be High Performance, but also an Open event (as with the Multihull gone there is now 6 Mens Events and 4 Womens). In fact during the Events committee, one of the members from France/Belguim proposed such an event to be included to be voted on with the other seven Mens/Open events, and wouldn't you know it, he was shut down within a minute so there was no chance it could even be considered. Just goes to show that as much as people like the Foiler Moth, they know it is a huge threat to their pet dinosaurs and refuse to give it a chance.
So what next? Just for a laugh, I think next year we will submit our Bladerider in as the Men's 'Heavy' and 'Even Heavier' Dinghy Events and see what happens. Don't worry Finn and Laser fans, your bath tubs will be safe, but I look forward to seeing what they define as a 'Heavy' Dinghy. Here is what I think it should be:
Absolutely must not sail faster than the wind
If it sails faster than the wind, add more weight to the hull and mast
Must not be able to lift the boat with less than 10 people
Must cost more than 20,000 Euro
The average age of the class membership must be more than 70 years old
The class selected must only be sailed in Europe
The class selected must begin with the letter "F" and end in "N"
Or to make it less complicated, maybe they should just rename the event as the 'Heaviest Mens Dinghy', that way no one else will even be able to submit their boat, and if they do, ISAF will have to have a weigh-off. The heaviest boats wins!
Seriously though, I have lost all respect now for the ISAF Council to make decisions that are the best for sailing, rather than what is best for their own country or interests. I will have to seriously consider whether it is even worth submitting our Bladerider now to get international status. We don't have to as we already fit within a International Class Rule and the Moth Worlds will always be the premier event. Worst of all is that we would have to pay ISAF's annual class and boat registration fees, therefore allowing Council members to fly and shack up every six months at five star venues. No thanks! I think I would much rather do our adminstration and organise grand prix racing along with the cat sailors.
Thursday 8 November, 2007 - Buckley's to No Chance
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So after a few hours this morning, the ISAF Events Committee decided on how they were going to vote on which events will and will not be in the Olympics. In short they decided that both of the keelboats did not deserve a spot, but more likely that there were more people there not wanting any of the other events to be removed. I still find it strange that the naming of their events is so inconsistent, ie Men's Heavy Weight Single Handed Dinghy. This just means that there is no other boat that can possibly go up against it (except for maybe the OK dinghy) so the Finn spot is extremely secure. Even if this Single Handed Dinghy was an open event for a semi-development boat and not so restrictive that it has to be 'heavy' (or do they mean that the sailor should be heavy?), there is no chance the Bladerider would beat it in a vote, as the support for this dinosour in ISAF and the IOC is overwhelming.
It was suggested to me that in an 'ideal' sporting federation world, it would make sense to do what say the cycling federation would do and have events each for road, track, mountain biking and soon BMX. So this would make sense to the outside world if say the Olympic Event structure was something along the lines of say windsurfer, single handed dinghy, double handed dinghy, multihull, keelboat and then the new BMX (aka 'foiler'). Maybe in 100 years we might get there, but for now we have to settle for stupid event names to suit the equipment that they want to be in the Games. So the only chance a foiler will get in the Games is if we add another back an eleventh 'Open Event' in 2016. I certainly won't be losing any sleep over this and instead will look for other opportunities to get foilers on TV and into the spotlight for the sport of sailing. With the help of ISAF's patron to sailing Mr Gary Jobson, that opportunity might just be the X-Games in California. Only time will tell.
Wednesday 7 November, 2007 - So Close
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So I didn't win last night, but then again I was never going to win. I was just happy to get the recognition and getting to meet so many rock stars, celebrities and royalty. Gin and I were lucky enough to be sitting on Prince Frederick's table and won't be long before we can get him on a foiler. You can download a podcast of the night on the ISAF site to see what you missed.
Tuesday 6 November, 2007 - Big Night Out
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Last night Gin and I went to the ISAF Hall of Fame Dinner. Was a pretty special night with plenty of red carpet rolled out and photographers awaiting at the Estoril Casino entrance for the VIP's to rock up. There was no shortage of VIP's, which included Princess Anne, Prince Frederick of Denmark and King Harold of Norway. We had a pretty good seat up near the front and was entertained after dinner by an amazing aerobatic display, many of whom I saw as potential Moth sailors. The highlight of the night was to recognise sailors who had achieved amazing results in their career. There were six inductees, including Paul Elvstrom, Dame Ellen and Sir Knox Johnson. Once it all wrapped up, it was an honour to have a short chat with the great Paul Elvstrom and his daughter. Both of them commented to say that they had seen video of the foiler Moth's before and were hoping that one day we would be in the Olympics.
Still trying to rest today as I am still have this head cold and hoping to shake it off before another big night tonight. Had breakfast with Ed Baird this morning, but have not seen any of the other nominees around so far.
Sunday 4 November, 2007 - Yet Another Flight
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After only a few hours sleep, I had to get an early morning flight from Dubai to Rome. So now I am stuck for a few hours in Rome Airport trying to rest up before getting on another plane to Lisbon. Looking forwarding to having tomorrow off to rest before a big week of sailing talk.
Saturday 3 November, 2007 - It's Official!
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Got an interesting email today from the World Records Academy. Firstly I am on their site now with an official World Record and secondly was strongly advised to modify my blog entry from yesterday otherwise I may not be ever let into this country again. With my revision, I should now hopefully be welcome back with open arms.
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Went down to Abu Dhabi today and did another demo for the Emirates Heritage Club crowd. Got a few people flying and might have sold a few boats and have another regatta lined up next year as a result. Could be a big month of foiling in the UAE March next year.
Thursday 1 November, 2007 - New World Record
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HH Sheikh Mohammed (the visionary ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the UAE) had this fantastic idea to build huge sand islands off shore the shores of Dubai to resemble a map of the World and then sell each of the countries off to those that had enough money to buy a country. And so of course the yachties here have an 'around the world' sailing record, or known locally as the 'Jo Verne' trophy (named after the guy invented it). As of yesterday the record was held by a VX40 at 1 hr 42 mins. I was keen to have a crack at it, so we rigged and launched Glenn's new boat at 3pm and Chris (another new Bladerider owner) escorted me around in a RIB. The course is 20NM and in about 15 knots, I was guessing that I could do it in 90 minutes. I had one swim around the back after losing concentration for a split second whilst having a glance at a palace recently built on there, but still managed to come home in 1 hr 29 mins and 37 seconds, making a new 'around the world' record. I am sure that time will be beaten one day soon, but now there is talk about having a regatta here in late March next year with one day dedicated to as many attempts as possible around the world with prize money for the fastest time and a bonus for anyone that can sail around the world in 80 minutes. More on this later.
Tuesday 30 October, 2007 - Off Again
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Off to Dubai tonight for four days for some Bladerider PR work, then on to Portugal for the Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards. Wish me luck as I think I am going to need it being up against such a talented bunch of sailors! more...
Monday 29 October, 2007 - If Only?
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Andy Rice's 2012 events and classes online research is stiring some interest and consequently has provided an early opinon of his thoughts. If only it was that easy. more...
Saturday 27 October, 2007 - If Only?
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All this flack and questions coming to me about the registration of patents in any open class is getting quite annoying when I know very little (or nothing) about what was actually applied for and what are the implications are for members of the Moth class. The first time I knew about what the patent was for was when someone alerted me to it on the IMCA UK web site (where else of course!). In reality it is probably nothing that any weekend warrior needs to worry about it, but rather it seems that our company was just protecting itself from other mass producers from using the same ideas without seeking permission first (however I sure they could get around the patent if they really wanted to or simply just ask to use it they were extremely uncreative). Patents are fairly typical practice in big business, but this is taboo in the Moth Class.
My only experience with patents in the Moth class was back in 2004 when I was approached by a company that said they maybe able to patent the complete hydrofoil system that John Ilett developed. However as this system had been used in the public for over 12 months at that stage, they were unable to get the patent through for him. If word of this got out back then, I am sure there would have been some revolt from IMCA members, but most were anti-foilers back in the old days and so most would probably think it was a good thing that foils would be in limited production and not take over the world. How times have changed!
In an ideal world, any issue like this should be handled on email by the IMCA President or Executive, but some prefer to let the whole world know about potentially damaging issues first, then ask questions later. Maybe it is just me, but personally I prefer the more professional 'Daily Sail' approach where they actually email or call to ask for comments first on a matter, even if you know nothing about it, and then write the article. That way, they have both sides of the story, which I am sure is the first lesson taught in journalism school.
In all seriousness, our company should have been more proactive in the first place by preparing a statement to IMCA letting the members know the details of the application and the implications to members of doing so, but this didn't happen when it should have and consequently I have been told that those responsible will respond to the those that are responsible as soon as possible.
Tuesday 23 October, 2007 - Back Home
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No racing again on Monday as we had 20-30 knots most of the day, but we did manage to get down and do a presentation on the Bladerider to the Youth fleet that were racing around the corner. Then we came back to Takapuna and noticed the wind had eased enough to make our way out and do some more demos for the on-shore crowd and give the guys some more tips. Plenty of interest over here!
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On the way home now back to Melbourne where it looks like we can finally get back on the water as Amac has rebuilt Graham's old boat.
Sunday 21 October, 2007 - Another Moth Record
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No racing today as the wind was pushing up to high 40's, so we stayed ashore and did a presentation on the Bladerider to about +60 people at the Yacht Club. It was well received and even got to meet 77 year old Hal Wagstaff (ex-Moth Class World President) who also designed many Moth's during his time. He was even kind enough to bring copies of all his old Moth memorabilia, including a personal letter and photo from the crazy man who has sailed his Wagstaff designed Moth in the Antartic waters in 1965, which also happens to be the furtherest south that a sail boat has ever sailed (77 degrees to be exact).
Saturday 20 October, 2007 - Blasting Around the Cans
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Three races were scheduled today, and they had planned for us to start with the RSX fleet. We went out early to re-tune the boats but the wind had picked up soon after and was a bit too much for first timers to be racing in, especially in tight fleet racing where it would be easy to get out of control doing 20 knots downwind and smack into a Laser. So the other guys went in and I stayed out to battle some of the best RSX sailors in the world in about 15-20 knots. I had the edge on them upwind with more height and more speed, but a few of the top guys were able to catch up slightly downwind. However I held them off in the first race quite easily, but by the second race I was buggered thanks to lack of fitness and training over the last few months. I still managed to win the race, but it was a lot closer than the first as I had a good battle with one of the top ranked locals. After that I thought it was enough showing off, so I let the other guys have a blast around, including the 2007 World Optimist Champion, Chris Steel. It seems as though we have hooked Chris along with a number of other locals and won't be long before there is a nice little fleet here. They are already taking about having a Worlds or South Pacific Titles here sometime in the near future, so can't wait for that as the venue here is fantastic.
Friday 19 October, 2007 - Top News
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Spent most of the day assembling and reassembling three Bladerider's to get ready for racing on Saturday. On Andrew Brown's boat, I thought we would try adding 2mm of packers in the back of the front foil to give it a bit more angle of attack, hence a bit more lift, but it wasn't too long before I realised that it was a bit too much! The boat stalled at any speeds over 15 knots, or at any sight of air bubbles in the water. However we had Darren's boat out that was set up pretty good, and was enough to get plenty footage for Channel 1 that appeared on the National News as a leading sports story the following night. Fat chance of that ever happening in Melbourne. Will try and get the footage on YouTube later on.
Thursday 18 October, 2007 - Welcome to Auckland
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After the shortest International flight I can possibly do (4 hours), I arrived at Auckland Airport and was greated by Darren and Holly (our local resellers) who took me our for dinner at a local restaurant. A few hours later we went back to Holly's brand new Pathfinder Ti, only to find the window smashed and stuff stolen from the car. Luckily I left all my gear back at the house.
Wednesday 17 October, 2007 - Off Again
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Flying out to New Zealand tomorrow for the first foiler Moth regatta there ever. We are expecting four Bladeriders and a few other foilers, so it could be the first time in a long time where so many Moths have raced against each other in the country. Won't be long before their IMCA association is back up and running again along with a National Championships some time soon. Will be expecting some wind this weekend, so have packed the MSL10 but also taking two more MSL10's across the Tasman with me for Darren and Andrew (two new Bladerider owners).
Wednesday 10 October, 2007 - Back Home (Again)
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Had an overnight flight home to Melbourne and missed my free bump up to Business class thanks to a plane full of about 200 Japanese school kids on a joy ride to Australia. They were all dressed in shirts and ties for the overnight flight, and yet at 2am in the morning, they were all still up with reading lights on, wired up with too much sugar whilst playing computer games. Can't help but think that Greg Wise (Mothie in South Australia) would have had a blast hanging out with all the girls after his photo session at a local school during a lay day of the 2001 Worlds in Japan. That one web page on the IMCA Australia web site, created the most amount of traffic ever thanks to a lot of people searching in Google for "Japanese Schoolgirls" for some reason. Now I am probably going to be Googled by the same deviants...
Monday 8 October, 2007 - Japan Nationals Day 3
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At 3am in the morning, a low pressure system moving up from the south hit us with 30 knots making the seas extremely rough by the morning. The race committee cancelled all racing for the day by 9am and so I won the regattta with another string of firsts and Naomi was crowned National Champion for the first time ever in 30 years of Moth racing in Japan. Not bad for a 58 year old! It was lucky that I encouraged him to stay on the water for the second race on the first day, as he had an issue with his trampolines, was quite windy and was ready to head in. However he stayed out and got some another good score on the board to keep him ahead of long time Mothie and multiple National Champion Masa Ogura.
I am back in Yokohama now at Naomi's house for the night and then will hit the electronic shops tommorrow with Mr. Furuya (another long-time Mothie) to see what new techno goodies I can find, then on a plane home (again).
Sunday 7 October, 2007 - Japan Nationals Day 2
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The sun seems to rise very early here, or maybe that it is normal everywhere, but at home Gin and I make every effort to block out the morning sun to sleep in as late as possible without being interrupted by that annoying solar radiation. So I was up at 7am (even though it felt like I slept in until 10am), and got some breakfast made up of the usual rice and some seafood sides. The first race of the day was postponed on shore for an hour due to bugger all wind, but eventually we made our way out and were confronted with about 2-4 knots from the SE (same direction as the waves this time) but 3-4m of rolling swell. This made it even more difficult to keep the boat upright let alone fly.
There were two low riders in the fleet and they pulled away to round clearly ahead on most marks on the first lap. But by the second lap, we had about 5 knots and was enough for me to fly enough downwind occasionally to get the win from the two low riders (who were well clear of the other foilers - none of whom were foiling at any stage). However today was far from an easy because I would have travelled more than twice the distance compared to anyone else, as I was flying downwind but with the same VMG as the low riders sailing on a square run.
We were in late for lunch made up of... you guessed it, more rice and seafood, but it was short lived as we had to get back on the water for another two races in the afternoon. However I did have time to jack the front foil AOA (angle of attack) up one degree to see if that would help fly a little easier in these difficult conditions. By the time we got out, the swell had picked up to over 4 meters at times. Some of these waves were so huge that if was in the trough of a big one, I think that my mast would barely (if at all) clear the top of the oncoming crest. Can't help but think that this swell has rolled all the way from the Typhoon that passed the south east of China last week. I now know what the 2001 Moth Worlds were like had I of decided to come rather than save the money to buy a new boat. I think I made the right decision back then, as these conditions can be frustrating at times.
On the bright side I did learn that as the swell approaches you, you lose pressure in the rig as I can only assume the wave is pushing you away from the wind. However once over the crest, the wind pressure builds enough to allow me to barely get on the wing bar, or in the case of the lighter locals, start hiking. If flying at the time a waves comes at you, you then need to compensate by moving your body weight inwards or bear away and wait for the wave to pass and suck you out back to sea and give you the pressure back. The wavelength of the swell today is sometimes as much as 100m, so you can just imagine the amount of pushing and pulling going on under the water. My other theory is that the wind is pushed upwards away from the water's surface as the wave comes at you, and then sucked down as it rolls away. I am sure there is another reason and I am sure someone is going to email to tell me too.
So by the start of heat four, I now knew how to sail fast in displacement mode upwind and consequently rounding a lot closer this time behind Masa who was low riding in a Hungry Tiger. Once off the breeze a bit, I waited for the next wavepeak, then had enough pressure to fly most of the way to the bottom mark. I also managed to fly a bit upwind on the next leg, but my VMG was slower than just pinching in displacement mode, so I decided to stick to this strategy from now on. I then flew around most of the last lap to get another close win. Masa sailed extremely well to get a clear second ahead of another low rider.
I just knew that the start of heat five was going to be a disaster when everyone crowded early around the boat end of the line in a huge swell and bugger all wind. I was lenient to one of the local foilers who barged in on me at the boat end, and he returned the favour by capsizing right in front of me on the line. After I was able to finally get the boat free of his foils, I crawled off the line in second last noticing a nice long scratch on the hull thanks to my new friend (thankfully I was able to rub it out and make it less noticable when I got in). Even with a disastrous start, I still somehow managed to round the top mark in first and flew most of the way downwind to take another win on a shortened course. (check out the gallery for some photos)
BTW - if you have called or sent me a text, I won't get it till I get back home, as it seems like that tri band GSM phones are already out of date here. Not sure if there is anything (or any need to go higher) above quad band, but if there is, Japan will be the first.
Saturday 6 October, 2007 - Japan Nationals Day 1
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It was an early 5:30am morning rise on Saturday to allow enough time to drive the three or so hours to Choshi on the south eastern penninsula of Japan. I slept quite well thanks to yet another huge dinner the night before, however I awoke at about 3am to my bed shaking softly back and forth. At first I thought that the bed must have been on rollers and I made it roll backwards and forwards in my sleep, so I tried to rock the bed just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but the bed was rock solid. It was only then I realised in my daze that I was located on the top floor of an apartment building and Japan has frequent earthquakes. How frequent was my next question, and found out in the morning that this one was only a 2 or a 3 on the richter scale but last week they had a 5. Hate to be around for a 8 or a 9!
The brand new clear carbon with lime green trim boat (it looked sensational) of Mr Aoki went together quite well apart from a 1/4" nut being used in one of the front wing tubes which strip the head off the bolt. However a simple 6mm retap fixed the problem. Choshi Marina has a large tarmac rigging area, which is a bad thing for the carbon wing frames of our boats, as they get seriously scratched when the boats get tipped oved to fit the foils. Launching off the slippery ramp was fairly straight forward however once out of the marina, we were greeted with a rather typical 3m Pacific Ocean swell and about 15-20 knots.
Only half the fleet started and finished the two races for the afternoon as it was quite difficult conditions having the huge swell coming almost directly against the very gusty wind. There was no need for me to push a brand new customers boat too hard, so I coasted around for two wins, nearly lapping the entire fleet in both 22 minute races. Naomi sailed extremly well in his early model Bladerider to claim two very comfortable seconds. I think all the practise at Garda must have made this feel easy.
One of the most amazing feelings that I have had when foiling was when sailing upwind today on starboard tack, heading back towards land at the same speed (around 15 knots) as the massive rolling swell. Bascially you could use the energy of the wave to surf just ahead of the peak much like in the same way that the crazy Laird Hamilton figured out on a foiling surfboard.
We were ashore and derigged by dusk, allowing yet another huge feast of rice and fish to begin. Most were fairly tired after a long and windy day, so we all seemed to get to bed before 9:30pm, helped by a night cap of Japanese rice wine. I was sleeping in a tent without a pillow, but I didn't care as I was buggered!
Friday 5 October, 2007 - 2012 Events?
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There has been some angst from the cat sailors in the UK (and probably around the world as well) about the RYA's (in GBR) proposal to the ISAF Council to only recommend eight events for 2012 (excluding the Catamaran completely however) and therefore leaving the other two Events up to the ISAF council to decide on (wise move). It is fairly obvious about which Classes will hold positions in those eight key Events, but what is not known (and won't be until November 2007), is what will be the other two events?
If it were me, I would be trying to keep the events more consistent based on this proposal. For example why does an event have to be defined so specifically as a dinghy or catamaran? Why not have a 'Low Performance' (I am sure someone can come up with a better name that that) Single and Crewed Event and a 'High Performance' Single and Crewed Event for both Men and Women, leaving the remaining two Events for the Men's and Women's Sailboard? That seems fairly logical doesn't it?
This would allow each event to be defined by speed or yardstick making the defination much clearer for an Event. That way every class has a chance to fit into an event (as long as they are an International Class of course) and then leave it to the ISAF Council to vote on the most suitable Class to fit that Event as usual (based on availability, cost, members, media appeal, interests, growth, etc).
There are not many that agree that the keelboat has a place in the Olympics (as the Star has been removed before in 1996 and then put back in for 2000), but this way at least the Star can be compared to against the 470 for the Men's Crewed LP boat, much the same as the Finn can be compared to against the Laser in the Single LP Men's event once again. The contest between the Yngling and the 470 in the Womens Crewed LP Event is a no brainer, much the same as the Radial to fit the shoes of the Women's Single LP spot. Obviously the boys in the Tornado and 49er need to battle it out for the Crewed HP Men's spot (that will be very tough), while testing for the Women's Crewed HP Event still remains inconclusive. Sounds fair I think, as it is about time each of these classes were put head to head to find the 'most suitable' boat, rather than having so much overlap and the option to fit into another Event if their first option fails.
So this just leaves the HP Single Men's and Women's Events. Hmmm....
Well at least this way, the Bladerider, RS700 and the Musto Skiff will be at least given a chance to try out for a spot, and I am sure the RS600FFFMMK1 (this stands for 'RS 600 Full Force Flying Machine Mark 1') will be keen to get some air time so to speak. In addition, Julian has already mentioned that the Bethwaite camp will also be pitching something as well if there is a chance, while I am sure Laser will throw something in there just for fun. What a trials event that would be! I am not talking about the on water action, how about all the stuff that would go on behind the scenes. Would love to have the cameras out for that one.
So what about a Women's Single HP boat? Is there such a thing? Why not??? Why should the guys get all the fun. I am sure we would try out the X8 in there along with a mini version (X7). Julian will of course come up with something as well and no doubt we'll have some other new and independent boats never seen on the water before.
It may be possible that our boat may not actually be the suitable for a Men's or Women's Single HP Event, but without opening up this event structure, how will we ever know? I am sure sailor weight will be an issue here as usual, but this could be taken into consideration when choosing a Class for an Event, ie ensuring that there is a boat to sail no matter how big or small you are.
Anyway, I can only hope some of the members on the ISAF Events Committee read this and take this thought into the meeting on the 7th November, as the current Event structure for the 2008 Games seems a little strange at the moment with the Laser Full Rig being an Open Event (ie Women can participate as well if they weigh +80kg and are fitter than all the guys sailing these boats in their own country). Realistically though, I think I may have just wasted an hour writing this entry.
Thursday 4 October, 2007 - Ewok Village 2000
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After a 10 hour flight to Tokyo, I was suprised to see how empty the airport was. No queues anywhere and Naomi (our reseller) was there to drive me back to his place for dinner and sleep. Weather here is quite similar to Sydney, ie humid, clear skies, no wind and warm, but apparantly that is unusual for October (must be global warming). So after some work in the morning, I was escorted to the 'old town' where we went to see the largest outdoor Budda in Japan. This bronze statue is over 1000 years old, however 600 years ago it was wash away by a Tusanami, but it is back now more reinforced than before. That night we had dinner at Masa's house (another long-time Mothie), however every meal I have had here is about three times as much food as I would normally eat! I can't help but think they are trying to fatten me up so I am slower in the light airs this weekend.
So I asked is this normal to eat so much all the time (as I noted walking around town that I feel like Chewbacca walking around a bunch of Ewoks in Endoor, so how could you eat so much and not be so tall or big), but apparantly they are only doing this for me. It is very nice to taste so many different and new foods for a change, but I think I have put on 4kgs in two days. So then after eating all this food, you obviously have to go to the toilet, and that is an experience in itself. Unlike in Italy where you squat over a bowl embeded in the ground, here they have a toilet that looks like a spaceship. There is buttons, knobs and hoses everywhere, but all the controls are in Japanese, so I just steer the hell away from all that. I am sure one of them will send you back in time tho if you really wanted to, as I am sure I saw a flux-capacitor in one of them. So we are off early tomorrow morning to drive the 2-3 hours to Chosi where we start racing that afternoon. About 15 boats are expected, which is normal for Japan, however I would not be suprised if I get my arse kicked in the super light airs by all the local fly weights (some not on foils either).
Tuesday 2 October, 2007 - Off Again
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Flying to Japan tomorrow morning for their National Championships this weekend at Chosi. Will try and post reports of the event as they happen.
Monday 1 October, 2007 - New Foiler Town
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Spent the weekend in Brisbane with Mat Belcher (Australian Olympic 470 helmsman) as he just received his new X8. So we sailed on the beautiful waters off Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron and it just happened to be the weekend of the Queensland Youth Championships. Pretty poor turn out compared to the youth fleet in Melbourne, but those that were there were treated to a great display of aerial manouvers (some good and some not so good) by Mat and myself. We concluded Saturday with presentation to about 40 sailors going over all aspects of the boat in an effort to help build a fleet up there over the summer. Mat will be down in Melbourne training before the Nationals and will be one to watch at the next Worlds considering he clocked 20.8 knots in 17 knots of wind and was pulling off about half of all gybes airbourne on only his second outing.
Wednesday 27 September, 2007 - 2nd Time Lucky?
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Another cat out of the bag (been holding onto this one for a while now), but I have been shortlisted for Rolex ISAF World Sailor of the Year again. Quite an honour no doubt, but more so is that I never would have thought I that I would ever be shortlisted again after 2005. They have covered all disciplines again making the decision just as hard for the ISAF council to vote for a winner.
So have I got a chance? My good friend Magnus seems to think so, however I am just not sure what I would do with a watch worth more than my car! Seriously though, I don't think that our little flying boats are seen in the same light as a one design class or the multi-multi-million dollar super yachts. So as stated before, I think my chances are slim to none. Nevertheless, looking forward to another trip to Europe and a lavish awards night with no expense spared thanks to Rolex who now pay for everyones ticket on the night.
Monday 17 September, 2007 - Drowning in Red Bull
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For the last few years Red Bull have been looking after me with a few free cases wake up juice of every now, however recently for some reason I have been getting two slabs every month (got another two today for instance). Of course I drink the stuff regularily as it is bloody good gear, but 48 cans in 30 days is a lot more than the recommended daily intake. What are they trying to do? Kill me?
Thursday 13 September, 2007 - Rush Hour In Sydney
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Not many know that I owned an Australian delivered 1966 912 over the last year, but decided to upgrade to something a bit newer and faster. So last month I ordered a 1973 Carrera RS replica (on email), using a 1989 3.2lt 911 donor car from Japan, but custom painted in my favourite Porsche colour... Viper Green! Heading up to Sydney tomorrow morning to test drive one of these baby's and see how it goes. Will be hopefully finished in October, but I can see this ending up being a long wait. Somehow I think a lot of our Bladerider customers will know what that is like.
Wednesday 12 September, 2007 - Like a Pro
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ISAF have just reclassified me as a Group 3 sailor which means I am a professional sailor now. Don't know what the hell that means, or if that it is good or bad. I certainly never would have thought that it was possible in the Moth Class, but there you go.
Wednesday 5 September, 2007 - Jap Nats
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So it looks like after 5 years of being invited to Japan to attend their National Championships, that I am finally going. It only happened because our reseller (Naomi Tachibana) there had purchased a new 'green' boat from us that is beign delivered next week and the owner cannot sail in the championships. So I got the invite (again) and my flight is booked. Can't wait to get on another plane and do it all again, but I am looking forward to visiting the country for the first time as they certainly capture the Mothing spirit. Not sure if my Japanese will be up to scratch, but I am sure I will get by.
Tuesday 4 September, 2007 - Ego Explosion
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I'd been away from all forms of communication for a long weekend (which will I am beginning to enjoy), however came home to about 100 emails, mostly regarding late deliveries of boats or parts, so not very enjoyable. However it is was nice of a friend all the way across in Sweden to alert me to Magnus Wheatley's RuleBlog69.com site where he had something very positive to say that helped lift my mood.
While I was extremely impressed with his comments, I don't want anyone to get their hopes up for me as I'll be very suprised if ISAF even short list me again for their Rolex World Sailor of the Year, let alone pick someone as controversial as me as a winner of their prestigous award. You'll note from their previous winners that they have a history of only ever choosing an Olympic, AC or around the World sailor for their top yachtie spot, so the day that a non-Olympic dinghy sailor wins that award, is the day that the Finn gets a redesign and is put on foils. Nevertheless, if pigs do fly, you'll know where to read about it.
Tuesday 28 August, 2007 - The Cat's out of the Bag and Foiling
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Ok, so I can now let the 'cat' out of the bag and mention on my blog that the real reason I was up in Toronto, Canada a couple of weeks back was to test sail Fred Eaton's foiling C Class cat. It was a bit last minute, but seeing how I was in Detroit, it wasn't too far to head up. So how did it sail? Well I thought it was a lot smoother, stable and slower than expected, but it is still very early days in development. They have done a great job though and have based their development on the Prowler foils, cable and wand mechanisms.
There were a lot of improvements that could be made obviously based on my experiences, but most did not have the time or budget to complete before the C Cat Challenge begins. I cannot comment on how it will fair against the other C Cats as I have never sailed one before, but it certainly has potential, especially if the crew have experience in sailing it in all conditions. In terms of sailing trim, I sailed it much the same as a foiler Moth, ie 'Veal Heel' upwind, a lot of mainsheet and tiller trim. I am not sure if they were a bit scared at first seeing how much I was healing or steering the boat to get it going fast or high, but Fred later commented that he felt comfortable handing the boat over to someone who familiar with this kind of setup. However the rig was a bit daunting at first (as I had never seen a solid wing sail up close), but once on the water you forget about it and crave more power and more speed all the time. Top speed upwind in about 10 knots of breeze was about 13 knots and downwind was about 18.7 knots from memory. I would have love to have gone out in more breeze to see how fast the thing would go though. The foils ventilated a few times when riding too high but actually when this happens, it is not as sudden and violent as on a Moth, it is a lot more graceful and slow.
So after a few hours, we came back ashore and noted that we broke one of the centerboard t-foil joins (probably getting the foils too high). As a result I gave them a lot of suggestions for improvements and Fred tells me that some have been implemented already with a noticable difference. All up though, I really enjoyed the experience and would love to be involved in a project like this again. We'll see what happens.
Saturday 25 August, 2007 - Welcome Back
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Quite a good flight and sleep back home on Qantas, but as usual, we got stuffed around and delayed at Sydney Airport. So after a few weeks of not keeping an eye on any Internet Mothing, I give Scott a call to find out all the goss that I have missed only to hear that the biggest news is that he is changing teams and getting a new Prowler.
It was a bit of a shock, but I don't think we could have done anything to keep him on board with us as his mind seemed made up a while ago thanks to all the stuffing around he had with dodgey equipment leading up to Garda. For some reason he also seemed concerned that Amac was not going to be involved with Bladerider team any more. Not so, as one of the reasons for Amac's move back to steer KA is that the windsurfing and Moth sail development had been neglected over the last two years due to his 100% attention to the Bladerider project.
Now the Bladerider is proven and it seems as though all production boats are coming out virtually flawless, there is very little that he can actually do as a designer. However I can guarantee that he will be working on a new MSL13 sail very soon for his Bladerider and will be using the Aussie Nationals as a test platform for the 2008 Worlds. Once again you can be sure that it will be radical and very fast!
So the question has been asked numerous times now, will the X8 stay as a one design or will we releasing a Mk2 boat anytime soon? Well considering that our hull, rig and foils are now well and truly sorted, the only changes I can see that we will be making will be a few assembly and quality control improvements. Our priority for now is to concentrating on getting as many boats out the door as possible (McConaghy's should have made at least 150 by the end of the year). But depending on what developments Amac comes up with over the next few months, you might see a Bladerider Mk2 release not too far away (nothing that any existing X8 owners wouldn't be able to easily and cheaply upgrade to though).
The only thing that is certain that the Moth Class is far from being stale and near dead as it was back in 2000 when I got into the class. With two builders going flat out trying to meet demand and Moths being delivered into new locations each month, the 2008 fleet should be everything that I had hoped for.
Tuesday 21 August, 2007 - Heading Home Tomorrow
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Today we head back to Johanesburg, but not before packing up Roy's boat in the box that it came in (which took less than an hour), and hoping that the airline will except it as exccess baggage when we get to the airport. Roy's theory is that it is a hell of a lot cheaper to pay the excess baggage and have the boat travel with him, rather than driving the risking his life on the South African roads with a trailer, not to mention the extra time needed to take off in order to complete the drive. So when we land, we have to put the boat back together and then set up for a presentation at a local yacht club. Then only one more sleep until we head back home to Australia via Sydney (and hopefully in the luxury of business class if they accept our frequent flyer upgrade). So after 3 weeks and 14 international and domestic flights, it will be good to get home and rest again.
Monday 20 August, 2007 - In South Africa
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Well it took 2.5 days and five seperate planes to leave our hotel in Toronto to land in Durban, South Africa. We had some very short and some very long stops along the way in Detroit (even got time to visit the Henry Ford Museum while waiting for the next plane), Chicago, London (13 hour lay over) and Johanesburg. Once in South Africa , our Bladerider ambassador Roy Dunster escorted us the whole way, as by sounds and looks of things in certain areas, you do not want to be alone or without a local guiding you. So for the last two days we have been on the water with Roy's new boat off Durban in the shipping harbour. We did a presentation at the yacht club as well on Saturday night to approximately 30 people keen to hear and see what this boat can do. So the future looks good down here for a potential Moth class association, the first for the African continent.
Wednesday 15 August, 2007 - In Canada
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Yesterday we flew up to Toronto to meet some guys from one of the oldest Commonwealth Yacht Clubs in the world to discuss the possibility of building a fleet of Bladeriders. We have already sold one boat to an ambassador up here and there is also a new Prowler up here too, so I don't think it will be too long before we have a Canadian Moth fleet happening. While here I also got to have a close look at the Canadian C Class catamaran challenge. Very interesting! Stay tuned for more news on this. Flying back to the USA tomorrow via Detroit, then Chicago, then flying direct to London with a 13 hour stop over, then flying direct to South Africa to meet up with Roy Dunster, our Bladerider Ambassador down there.
Tuesday 14 August, 2007 - Go the Tigers
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Bora and Holly treated us to a Detroit Tigers Baseball game last night. Never been to a ball game before, but it was exactly what I thought it would be like... lots of drinking and eating donuts, nachos and hot dogs. The game was fairly boring, but the atmosphere and crowd were entertaining. I couldn't leave without taking home a Tigers baseball cap though.
Monday 13 August, 2007 - Friendly US Customs Officers
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We awoke to another beautiful day at Newport and headed down to the NYYC to rig the boats and get on the water once the sea breeze had started to fill in. This time I got on Peter's boat to show the guys on the RIB some light wind foiling techniques in and around the hundred or so boats moored off the the busy Jazz Festival at Fort Adams. We couldn't stay on the water long despite the building breeze as Bora had to head back to Detroit for work on Monday, so we loaded up Bora's Monster Truck and made our way towards Michigan. After a number of stops and the late Sunday afternoon traffic congestions, the drive was looking to be a bit longer than our expected of 1am arrival. By the time we got to the Canadian border at Niagara Falls, it was looking like it was going to be even longer as my US immigration card was lost (more than likely when handing over my passport at the dodgey Best Western Hotel we stayed when at Long Beach).
So upon entering the US border about 30 minutes from Detroit, Bora sensed we were in for a long wait. The US customs officers were clearly not in a hurry at 4am to do anything to help us or anyone that had immigration issues get through as fast as possible. We found out later that the two guys in front of us took two hours to do their paperwork. I couldn't help but think that because they did not look like locals, they were treated differently. This was only reinforced when Bora (from Turkish origin) asked to go to the toilet, that the officer made a totally uncalled for remark and suggested that he shouldn't drink so much alcohol in the future. So after an hour of waiting, I had myself a new green card, but the impossible task of trying to find the old and now lost green card. Somehow I think that by the time I leave the US, they are not going to care about the lost card. To add some comedy to the situation, just before we left, a group of five 20 something Canadian males dressed in black death metal gear and the odd anti-christ tatoo entered the near empty building and could only think that they were going to be in there for a quite a while even if their papers were in order.
It wasn't until 5:30am that we actually made it to Bora's house and in bed for a good nights sleep.
Saturday 11 August, 2007 - Jazz Foiling
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Today we not only had Bora and Peter on their Bladerider's, but also Bill on his Hungry Tiger and Karl on his Prowler. We went out early in the morning only to be hit with a dying gradient breeze. By 2pm the seabreeze had kicked in and we had about 10 people keen for a test sail. It wasn't long before we had everyone foiling quite easily in front a huge number of moored boats off Newport (the home of the 1983 AC) thanks to a massive jazz festival on at the time, so all the newbies provided plenty of entertainment for the spectators. Bora, Gin and I will be driving to Detroit tomorrow to do it all again on the lakes Monday & Tuesady.
Friday 10 August, 2007 - Sunshine to Showers
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After two flights to Providence, Rhode Island (via Chicago from Miami), we were picked up by our New York Ambassador Peter Becker and made our way to the Newport Hotel. The next day I didn't wake up to midday thanks to lack of sleep over the last week, however there was not much to wake up for considering it was pouring with rain all day. This did not stop Peter and Bora (our other USA Ambassador) from rigging up on the huge front lawns of the prestigious New York Yacht Club and then hitting the water to test a new centerboard and swap/compare boats.
Tuesday 7 August, 2007 - Bathing in Miami
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Rigged up two brand new Bladeriders in Miami this morning for out East Coast resellers. It was good to see nothing wrong and nothing missing with the boats and they assembled and rigged with ease. Likes like the factory is finally getting on top of things down there. So after lunch we went for a sail in the shallow bath temperature waters and in very light winds, but still got up foiling on occassions. Tomorrow we will be out again, but hopefully we can get a few kids out as well before the scheduled 6pm summer series race start. After a few cold drinks and a swim in our Hotel pool, we all went out for a very filling and tasty Cuban dinner nearby the local hood. Have to go bacck again tomorrow again as I don't think I have even seen Cuban food for sale in Australia.
Monday 6 August, 2007 - Another Police Incident
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In the end, the foil arrived (but not without American Airlines losing it in the process), and we got over 20 potential mothies out on the water at Long Beach on the Sunday. It was a great day and we didn't get off the water until 6pm. The only incident was that I had yet another altercation with the water police, who said I was going too fast! However our US reseller Randy Reynolds calmed him down a bit luckily after convincing him that not everyone was as upright as I was and some leniency was given. Currently in Miami where we will be doing all this again tomorrow and Wednesday with the locals here.
Friday 3 August, 2007 - Uh-oh!
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The Henken Family Zoo generously drove Gin and I up to Long Beach early this morning, dropping off the kids for Sabot training at Newport Beach on the way. The demo boat only arrived at 6pm the night before (talk about last minute), however upon opening the box sent all the way from Italy, there was no centerboard in there. Uh-oh! Looks like someone forgot to put one in or I supposed to take one and was not told to do so. So we had the boat rigged on shore today going nowhere, but plenty of people coming up having a look and a chat. However late today, we made last minute arrangements with Scott Taber (our Bladerider reseller in Florida), to put his niece on a plane early tomorrow morning with his only centerboard and foil, to land in Orange County around 11am our time. So we should be all set tomorrow for our little test sail and racing against Pete Melvin on his A cat, then up early again on Monday morning for Miami.
Friday 3 August, 2007 - 11 Year Old Mothies
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Gin and I flew out of Melbourne on the 1st August to land in Los Angeles for some promotional work in San Diego and Long Beach. However it did not help that I was sick as a dog and extremely sleep deprived. As soon as we landed, we got picked up in a limo and drove down to stay with the Henken family where Sterling had just received his new Bladerider. So we spent the day putting on his custom hull graphics and rigging the boat up. By 3pm we down at the club with a large crowd of onlookers along with some local press to watch the launch of the first Bladerider in California. Once on the water, all the local juniors were more than keen to have a go, despite some of them only being 35kgs! The highlight for me was seeing 11 year old Chucky Eaton give it a go, and then 11 year old Paris Henken to not only join him on the boat to sail two up, but also get up and go foiling. It certainly seems as though the hospitality and excitiment here in San Diego is nothing short of amazing. Up to Long Beach tomorrow for some test sailing with the locals.
Friday 27 July, 2007 - Mustorific
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I am happy to say that I have just done a deal with the newly formed Musto Australia that obviously distributes Musto products in Australia, to exclusively wear their gear for the next two years. Negotiating the deal with the MD Duncan Curnow was the easy bit, the hardest part was going through their online catalogue to replace all my old sailing and on-shore gear. Bloody hell, I didn't realise how much gear I actually use and have stock piled over the years.
Thursday 26 July, 2007 - Coming Good
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So the back has come good a lot quicker than I thought it would. Hopefully it holds up this weekend as we are moving a bit of furniture around it seems.
Saturday 19 July, 2007 - Ouch!
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After getting back to work the other day, I have been trying to catch up on emails and customer orders (nearly there), and then today I was pushing a washing machine into the back of car (as you do) when I heard a crack in my back followed by extreme and instantaneous pain to move and even breathe!
After crawling to the Chiro, he fixed me up so that breathe in mild comfort and advised that I need to rest for a week as I have ruptured a disk in my verterbrae. Trust me when I say that it is bloody painful!
Saturday 7 July, 2007 - Blogging Out...
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This will probably be my last blog for a few weeks as I should be on annual leave recovering from 12 months of full on sailing and selling. However it seems as though we are getting more enquires from customers every week about getting a new boat and this makes it difficult when I am the only staff able to sell a boat to anyone. So I am trying to maintain a minimum amount of email contact over the next week or two while recovering, but if I don't reply straight away as I normally do, I will be in touch when I can.
For now, sit tight and feel free to read up on all the other blogs and forums about the wrap of the worlds, or maybe they have all gone quite or tired after months of pounding the Bladerider? Or maybe there is more to come as it seems as though the factory is still not meeting delivery deadlines as promised and is frustrating the hell out of me and all our customers. Trust me when I say that I am doing everthing I can (even if I am holidays) to help get these boats out the door.
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But before I go, I have finally edited some video from Garda that is now on my YouTube account. Will put together some more video as soon as possible.
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Not sure what has been going on with my home page recently too, as it has been down for a few days. Hopefully it is fixed now.
Friday 6 July, 2007 - Doing Bugger All
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Havn't done much over the last two days apart from sleeping in till late, walking around the tourist sites, seeing Picasso's early childhood house along with yet another Picasso Museum, sitting on the beach, eating as much Spanish food as possible and buying as much clothing bargins as we can find and take home with us withoiut being over the weight limit (fat chance of that now). Leaving tomorrow to head back to Italy for some walking along the CinqueTerra.
Thursday 5 July, 2007 - Back of Beyond
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Yesterday we spent the day sleeping in til late again and walked around the old town of Valencia. After the legs had decided that was enough, we went to train station to find out how to get to Malaga where Gin had booked our accommodation for the next three nights.
Gin had done some travelling around Spain before and apparantly knew her way around and assumed by reading the 'Lonley Planet' (not to be confused with the book that I am still reading called 'Lonley Planets'), that it was around an hour train ride to get there along the coast, but did not know that the train did run direct there and we would have to go to Madrid first. After trying to talk to a few people in our best Spanish/Italian, it was looking like the trains don't run there very often and would take a lot longer to get there than one hour. There was no ferries that run there either and had no alternative than to hire a pissy little 1.2lt car from Avis (lucky they had one left).
Eight hours later sitting on between 120-160km/hr, we finally arrived at Malaga! Just a bit further than Gin expected and about three times the distance estimated on the map. Lucky I brought my TomTom with me that gave a 'real' estimate of the time to get there and exactly how to get to our hotel, as Malaga is about 1000 times bigger than Gin expected.
Wednesday 4 July, 2007 - What a Race!
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Yesterday was one of the best yacht races I have ever seen. And better still, Gin and I got to see it from the Alinghi family spectator boat! Was great to be there and celebrate with Peter and all my new Alinghi friends when they came in too. Certainly a very rare and unexpected moment that I will remember forever. It was also unusual to be so close to 'The Cup' as well, until it was wisked away by AC management.
Tuesday 3 July, 2007 - Alinghi TV
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During Sunday's AC harbour demo and incident with the water police, Alinghi TV were there on hand to film everything. Check it out here or wait for it to appear on EuroSport this week (check local guides for airtime).
Monday 2 July, 2007 - Alinghi Foiler
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After possibly one of the best and longest sleeps I have had in a long time, we made it down to the Alinghi base to help Peter assemble his new boat and tune up the other demo boat to hit the beach and rig around 3pm.
We pimped up Peter's X8 with some Alinghi stickers of course and looked great on the water. We had a bit of fun with the photographers on the media boat as well, as our good friend Thierry Martinez was there along with a few others including 2007 Moth Worlds photographer Oskar Kihlborg, to capture some good shots of Amac and I fooling around.
Peter finally got to have a go on his own boat once Amac tuned it up for him and suprisingly picked it up very quickly and seemed to enjoy it immensely. A few other Alinghi team members and family also got to have a go and was obvious that getting up and flying for the first time was a lot easier than they expected, despite the rough seaway outside the harbour this time (away from the water police, but we still got told off by the beach police for not rigging up and launching in the designated area).
Sunday 1 July, 2007 - Busted Again
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So we got an early flight from Milan to Valencia to start preparing for the Bladerider test sail and demo tomorrow. Two boats are here, one for Alinghi team member and Kiwi Peter Evans and one new boat for test sailing. So we spared no time checking into the hotel and wizzed straight on down to the AC Port to unpack and assemble them on the front yard of the Alinghi base. Peter had been quite busy recently of course and had not even opened his box yet, so was a suprise to see the 12k clear carbon for the first time. We got the other black painted boat sorted as well and then rigged it up to literally drop it in off the side of the marina straight into the water.
After about 2 minutes of foiling around on the harbor with crowds applauding the first few flights, the harbour police stop me and tell me to get off the water as it is "forbidden to sail in the harbour". So I limp back into the Alinghi base and got the Alinghi guys to make some calls and we were back on the water within 5 minutes, only to be stopped again by the same guy (quite pissed off this time) threatening me with arrest, etc. This time the guys on the Alinghi RIB got involved and dropped a few names and told him to make a few calls to important people. Only then did he leave us alone to blast around the harbour amongst millions of dollars worth of boats for an hour or so. Amac had a go as well and sailed up the channel for the spectators on the shore appartantly getting cheers all the way along.
Back ashore it was time to hose down and wash my mouth out for fear of catching some illness from the fairly average looking and smelling water. Got to meet plenty of new people (that I knew only previously by name) as well today. It was great that even Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth found time to stop and have a chat.
Saturday 30 June, 2007 - Pack Up and Wrap Up (Part II)
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After a rather big and eventful night last night with the Japanese, the Aussies, plenty of beer, and a litre of Lemoncello, I woke with a mild hangover, but still decided to head down to the club to race as planned, but my 10-0 idea was far from being a priority.
With the early start time planned, the Ora was a lot softer giving the class newcomers the taste of fantastic flat water Garda foiling. Simon was in need of some good points to get into third overall, so he rigged his special 'big blue' MSL9 sail while Scott had nothing to gain so he rigged an experimental TruFlow sail. I was feeling fairly unmotivated by this stage and rigged up an old Bladerider sail, saving every once of fibre in my 'special' Moth sails for the next worlds.
With the wind moving around a bit, I was keen to take a big risk with another port tack start. However I got caught out by Amac on starboard, so did a 360 immediately giving my lead up very quickly. I still rounded the top mark just behind Amac and Scott but stuffed my first gybe big time losing heaps of ground then Simon got me from behind on starboard, so round I went again for another 360 penalty turn, losing even more ground on Amac and Scott.
Not used to being back in the pack, I looked at this as a bit of challenge to see if I could get back in the front despite the initial dramas. However after clawing back some time on the next lap to get within stricking distance, I got screwed when a huge bit of plastic tape wrapped around my foils, forcing me the tip over and clear the problem. Hmmm, maybe I should have just stayed ashore?
So by this stage I had given up on the race and cruised around the next lap to close in just behind Amac. However not wanting to ruin my perfect scored card with a fourth, I accidently missed the finish line to score a DNF.
After the race it was finally time to let Simon and Adam have a go on my boat, so we did a bit of a swap and showing off for the TV cameras (coming to you soon on the Sailing Channel I believe).
By this stage I had enough and had lost total interest in competing in the final race and went in to hand my boat over to the new owner who had been waiting two hours ashore for me. Within 30 minutes of me landing, my 2007 World Champion boat was on the roof of the car and on the way to Austria (the one without the Kangaroos), probably never to be seen again.
A few hours later the presentation kicked off at club and was probably the most enjoyable that I had ever been to. There was no mucking around and the top 10 were called out where I received 'The Cup' and concluded the proceedings by showering everyone in Champagne thankfully donated by my new Estonian friends. Australia (the one with the Kangaroos) also ended up claiming the inaugural 'Ashes Trophy' by only a few points from the POM's, so now we have both Ashes in Australian territroy (as it should be).
The Bladerider 'A' team did extremely well finishing in 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th and 9th overall in the results. Not bad for a first Worlds effort and being seriously underestimated by everyone, including ourselves!
Now that I have had time to reflect on the results, I cannot believe I actually just won eight World Championship races straight in a fleet of this quality. I obviously scored eight straight heat wins in the 2005 Worlds as well, but this time around it was much more rewarding considering I only launched my Worlds race boat in April (which was also an early production boat and suffered similar issues as to Graham's boat).
But I think what really makes this win more rewarding for me is the amount of doubt I read on blogs and forums in the lead up to the Worlds by both critics and even Bladerider supporters about my abilities, preparation, experience, killer instinct, lofty PR campaign and boat speed claims to get the title back. However this probably only made me even more determined to suceed, so thanks for the extra motivation guys! I will never forget it.
Scott on the other hand was barely rated by anyone and came into the regatta with the full support of the Bladerider team and no pressure to live up to any expecations. This seemed to have also helped Scott avoid all the 'talk' and sail a consistent regatta to claim the Silver medal extemely comfortably.
Amac could have easily claimed third overall, but his 'gun-ho' attitude resulted in issues in getting around the course without incident. However I am sure he has learnt more in this regatta that anyone else than ever before and without doubt will be serious contender for the 2008 Australian Moth Championships later this year (seeing the Scott, John and myself will more than likely not attend), and despite him being +50 years old.
However I think the highlight for me in this regatta was seeing Graham Vials get up to within two points of Simon Payne on the second last day, even though he was plagued with structural problems with his very early production boat and foils, not to mention having a serious lack of training or tuning against anyone before the Worlds even started. Graham is now getting a brand new Bladerider next week to completely replace his troubled boat (not a bad deal eh?), and will be my favourite to win the UK Nationals.
Notable mention should also go to John Harris, who has only sailed a Moth for a few months and had also been hindered by some foil issues, but came in 9th overall beating Luka who was 2nd in the Australian Moth Nationals six months ago. Just goes to show how the standard of competition has increased in our Moth fleet not to mention the performance of the Bladerider, over the last few months!
The Bladerider 'B' Team was lead by Glenn Raphael (AUS/UAE) also sailed his first Moth regatta, but improved substaintially towards the end of the regatta to perform numerous foiling gybes and finish all three laps on occassions to finish 17th overall. Raimondo Tonelli (ITA) also a Moth virgin was not far behind in 20th overall, even though he suffered gear failure on an old prototype Bladerider.
Other new Bladerider sailors included Carlo Mege (GER) who has only had his boat for two weeks before the Worlds and by the end of the last race, was pacing the number one ranked German around the marks. Sten-Mark Bachmann (EST) also did exceptionally well in his first ever sail in a Bladerider this week as he could barely even start in the first five heats, but finished and improved on each of the last five races with ease to claim the World Junior Title without any competition and 45th overall.
Finally our Japanese Bladerider reseller Naomi Tachibana suffered with lack of weight, youth (he is 58 years old) and fitness, but still managed to get in 52nd overall from the 63 strong fleet.
I will report on some more of the 'other Moth' sailors' performance at the Worlds later on.
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For those Moth video junkies, Jean-Pierre (JP) from Switzerland has uploaded a nice little 35Mb clip showing the faces of the Moth celebreties, along with some great Pommy stacks in 25 knots. Keep your eye on his site for more video to come. I will try and get some video on YouTube too when I have time (or could be bothered more than likely).
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Tomorrow morning we leave early to catch a flight to Valencia where we will see if Alinghi can wind up the series 5-2 and do some pre-arranged Bladerider demo sailing for the Media. Should probably have the order book open and ready when there too. Come say hello if you are around. Look for the boat doing no less than 12 knots!
Friday 29 June, 2007 - NEW WORLD & OPEN EUROPEAN CHAMPION!
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Three races today in 12-17 knots with moderate waves. Heat 6 was fairly boring as not much happened but I won the race by 2 minutes or so from Scott, Amac third about a minute behind, then there was a big gap to fourth as usual.
Heat 7 the wind had built a bit and swung left about 20 degrees so I sneakily waited at the boat end then charged down to the pin all on my own with a minute to go, tacked onto port and had the whole pin end to myself to claim my best ever start, crossing the fleet by nearly 100 meters. The rest of the race was pretty non-eventful and won the race by three minutes or so from Scott, then Amac, then daylight again.
Heat 8 the pin end was favouring again, but about ten others decided to cash in on the advantage and try for a port tack start. I had Sam underneath me, Simon behind me and many others around, but I had the pin and hit the line right on target. However Graham came charging through on starboard and claimed that three people got in his way (not sure who as I thought I was well clear), but better to be safe than sorry, Simon and I did a 360 once we had some room to do so. As a result I had Scott on my tail for the first lap, but pulled away on the next two laps by tacking on the shifts upwind (thanks to my Velocitek SC1) and playing it safe downwind to win by 45 seconds, with Amac back in third and another big gap to fourth (not sure who though). Click here for overall results...
So with eight wins straight in the bag, that is enough to win the series and be the 2007 Moth World and Open European Champion. Two races are scheduled tomorrow in a lighter Ora at noon, but rather than sit out and watch from the side lines, I'll head out again and see if I can make it ten out of ten.
So how does it feel? I don't know really. I am tired after four hours on the water today and six months of bloody hard work and might take a while sink in. I really don't think I sailed that hard the entire regatta, but rather just went for a good VMG upwind and played it safe downwind. Certainly sailing at Black Rock over the years helped as the waves here are very similar to back home.
It is a huge relief however to not only win, but win every race (including the practice races) extremely comfortably. I am probably more happy for Scott to claim a very comfortable second overall in his first Moth Worlds (also not needing to sail tomorrow either). Not a bad effort for having only sailed the Bladerider for since April!
Third place however is still up for grabs with Simon, Sam and Graham all seperated by two points with two drops and all will be in the hunt for the bronze medal. Amac could have been in the hunt too, but got greedy by sailing too full on in some races and destroyed some equipment, however he could certainly be up there for sixth along with Les, John and Adam.
Lastly it seems the Ashes trophy is still up for grabs, but hopefully with Scott's and my fairly neat score card, it should help the Aussies claim another win over the POM's.
Thursday 28 June, 2007 - Heats 3, 4 & 5
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With moderate winds forcasted, those that had a MSL9 put it up for heat 3 scheduled at 1pm. However when entering the water we realised something was different, with all the unusual weather we had recently, the water temperature dropped 13 degrees in the last 24 hours. Most were not dressed and barely survived the first race. I certainly was not dressed appropriately but managed to pull the best start off the boat, stayed dry for the entire race and win heat three by 3-4 minutes. I have no idea of what was going on behind me as there was quite a gap, so you are best to read another blog. But I do remember Scott being first around the top mark, the rest is a blur.
In between races, the cold wind picked up to around 18-20 knots and most were near freezing point. I was still dry so was ok, but then my stay/prodder retainer rope broke with 6 minutes to the start. So I had to tip the boat and setup jury rig with some spare 2mm spectra that I always carry with me for these exact reasons. After 3 minutes in the water, I was near hypothermic, but I managed to fix something that should last the race. With two minutes to go, I dragged myself to the start line to get a reasonable position near the boat end, but my hands could barely grasp the tiller let alone the mainsheet. So the start went and I tacked off to the right to hit the cliffs with more pressure, whilst my legs were going into spasm. Somehow I cleared out from the fleet quite fast but it seemed like I was really only trying to survive in the now very difficult conditions, due to the the cold and building waves. By the time I looked around on the second lap I couldn't even see second place, so I assumed most had hit the piss (numerous times too by the sounds of it). So for the rest of the race I played it safe and just cruised around to claim the win by around 5 minutes (or maybe lots more - who knows) from Sam Pascoe who sailed the last race with no wand! Amazing stuff.
After being told to go back to land under the AP over A flag, it was evident that everyone was suffering from the same hypothermic state as me (except Sven of course who always wears his drysuit), however apparantly I was the only one not to go for a swim during the race hence the big winning margin.
So after a 10 minute hot shower, a power bar, some food and warm clothes, I recharged and waited for the AP flag to drop. So at 6pm we went out again (with more clothes on this time and the high wind sail) to start in around 15 knots. Most were playing it safe and rig their high wind sail if they had one. So I started at the boat again and tacked off to the right, while Scott hit the cliffs on the left. By the time we both tacked we were only meters apart but a long way ahead of everyone else. I rounded the top mark first while Scott pitch-poled not long after getting around close to me. By the bottom mark I had a good lead, but Scott caught up big time on the next work as I struggled to find the right gear and boat speed with the shifty and lighter conditions. However I pulled away downwind again and then a bit more on the next lap to win by a minute or so from Scott. Third was Simon I believe but I could be wrong as he was a few minutes back leading the main pack.
So after five races, we now have a series and Scott is sitting comfortably in second. It seems likely that Simon, Sam and Graham will fight it out for the next few places but I think certainly the wind, water, boat preparation and speed will determine who gets third overall. Amac had a bad day today, so will be pushed back into the fleet for sure, but I think he best is yet to come now that the new foils have arrived. Les Thorpe is another Australia that is also sailing very consistently and will certainly be up there in the overall results.
Wednesday 27 June, 2007 - Racing Cancelled Today (Again)
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With winds getting up to 1 knot and boats speeds approaching 2 knots about one minute before the start, all racing today was abandoned. The IMCA AGM is tomorrow morning at 9:30 and more than likely three races scheduled back to back at 1pm. The forcast tomorrow is for 18-20 knots and pressure will be on those that have not finished a race yet to keep their boats together in the first race to get some much needed points on the board. The forecast for the rest of the week is for more moderate winds of around 15-18 knots.
With the good news about Alinghi winning today, means that racing will still be going on when we arrive in Valencia for the Bladerider demo on the 2nd July. I just hope the boats will be released from customs by then!
Tuesday 26 June, 2007 - Racing Cancelled Today
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With winds getting up to 40 knots, racing was postponed until tomorrow (supposed to be our lay day though), so we sat around to watch Alinghi lose race 3 and then watched three crazy Poms hit the water (and hard) in their Moths in a solid 25 knots breeze. It provided excellent entertainment for those watching on shore.
Plenty of carnage photos from day one have been uploaded here:
Monday 25 June, 2007 - The Bullshit Stops when the Flag Drops
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The boat end was favoured in heat one, and most of the good guys got the boat easily as usual. I however opted to start towards the pin and lost some valuable ground. I tacked off early to get the better pressure on the right and get back up to Scott and Amac (who lead around the top mark), only to drop the tiller and lose some more ground on them. Got around the top mark in third, stuffed up a gybe, then stupidly capsized to let Simon through with Graham right on my tail. What a start to the series! Right... it was time to settle down and start reeling in Simon, Scott and then Amac who had a comfortable by now. I passed Simon around the second gybe mark but I think he might have broken his gantry by this stage, then Amac, Scott and myself proceeded to charge around the course in that order for another two laps. On the third lap, the three of raced down to the outer gybe mark only to find about ten boats capsized all around the mark. Amac got sneeky and tried to gybe through a hole that opened up in the mess of boats, but hit the piss when his short cut was closed off. Scott and I went around the back of it all and tore across the tight reach sitting on +20 knots the whole way until I caught up to Scott on the bear away at the next mark only for him to launch into orbit off a wave and give me the lead. I basically won the race from there by 45 seconds or so from Amac, and Scott was a similar distance behind in third. Fourth over the line was Graham and fifth was John giving the Bladerider's the top 5 places very comfortably!
In heat two a port tack start was favouring heavily and decided to go for it, but with a few boats deciding to start on starboard, I had to duck a few a transoms, but got out quickly on the favoured side of the course into some strong pressure. I rounded the top mark clear in front of Amac, then John, Scott then Les and never really looked back from there to win by a half a lap or so, lapping all but Scott, Graham and Sam in the process. During the 5 lap race Amac and John both broke another foil in the 20-22 knot winds, but Scott and Graham pulled comfortably away from the rest of the fleet to give the Bladeriders the top three again. However Graham had to withdraw his result from the race due to receiving outside assistance within the five minute start sequence. Behind Graham was a huge gap made up of Sam, Les then Adam. Full results here...
I would assume that after the carnage today (of all makes of boats) there will be plenty of repairs tonight and most will be looking forward to the more moderate winds forcasted tomorrow. However I am sure by tomorrow night, the overall standings will change somewhat, but certainly some of the favourites will be hoping for some good results having used one and some of them two drops already!
BTW - Top speed of the day went to Amac with 25.41 knots (new BR record over a 2 second period). Feel free to download the GPS Action Replay tracks of Amac's and my heat one race as well.
Sunday 24 June, 2007 - Flying First Class
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Thankfully the race committee kept us on shore with the AP up rather than send us out again and wait for an hour before starting. Less than 30 boats actually went out to the start line as some must have either thought it would be safer to go out early in the morning for tuning or were still assembling, repairing or travelling. However the Ora was in later than yesterday as was not looking to be too strong (around 15 knots was expected), so those that chose to stay ashore missed a glamour Garda day.
Once again not many were on the line and was not hard to get a clean start. In the first race, I started at the boat end and made one tack to the very short top mark (thankfully clear of the Plastic Boat Brigade) rounding very clear of the chasing pack. I had a minute lead by the bottom mark and headed to the right side this time to look for some more wind. I tacked on the lay and got a nice bit of pressure from the right, allowing me to come off close hauled and cruise into the top mark doing 18-19 knots! The rest of the race was pretty uneventful and I won the 3 lap race in 22 minutes, a very comfortable 3 minutes in front of a tight pack made up of the three S's (Simon, Scott and Sam). I don't know who was behind them, but it was probably daylight.
Concerned about the wait for the next start I was considering heading back ashore, but the wind was dropping and was curious to know if I could still hold off the fleet with my high wind sail up as it was ideally not suited to the conditions (Amac, Scott and John also had theirs up too). However we only had to wait 30 mins or so and we had a new start sequence under way. I hung back behind the boat this time to hit a hole in the line with speed as these MSL10's take a while to wind up to full speed (around 15-17 knots). So I found a nice hole and sailed high and fast to tack just under the lay line. Scott was probably only 20 seconds behind, but caught right up to me as stuffed my first gybe up. Scott had to make 3 gybes to get around the next mark and Simon had caught up to him by then. I pulled away on the next reach and run to take a lead of around 30 seconds from the pack made up of Simon, Scott and Jason Belben (GBR/Prowler). Over the next lap Simon headed back ashore and Scott pulled away from Jason. By the third lap I managed to extend my lead out by 1-2 minutes, but lost 30 seconds or so near the finish where I stupidly gybed off the creast of a wave and put the bow deep under water! So Scott got a very comfortable second and suprisingly Amac started very late to catch up to and pass Jason to claim third I believe.
So those two races made up the pre-worlds regatta and so during the Opening Ceremony I received the 'First Class' medallion while Scott got the 'Second Class' and Jason Belben received the 'Third Class' medallion (I think the english translation got mixed up a bit there) during the presentation. Top (on-screen) speed of the day for me was 22.7 knots from memory, but I think Amac clocked just a bit more (low 23's).
So what can be concluded for the next ten races based on those two short races in rather typical Garda conditions? Well it is quite obvious the top BR's are higher and faster to windward than any other boat (no one disputes this). However I have read numerous times that the Prowlers are apparantly the quickest downwind. However I really don't know who they are comparing to and what are they basing this information on? Simon and Luka (AUS) are without a doubt the fastest Prowlers downwind, but are they faster than the more experienced BR sailors such as Scott, Amac and myself with our ten-percentified foils? Well since no one has done any lab tests on either foils, everyone is just going to have to wait for the 'real' results to come in. Anyone who thinks they know better, has been reading one too many blogs.
Now that we have all tuned up against each other on the water, had a look at each others boat setup and have checked out how much muscle and fat each of us is packing, I think now is the only time anyone can give a realistic rating on the top Mothies. So here is my thoughts on the other jockeys (but not in my predicted finishing order) just for the punters...
Simon is still quick around the course, but the bar has been raised again and there are a few more out there now that are just as fast, if not faster than the 2006 World Champion. Scott is clearly one of those and I think he has been seriously underestimated by himself and all the British sailors. As stated before, Amac has improved significantly more than anyone has expected (he didn't even get a mention in the IMCA UK tipsters form-guide) and I would not be suprised if he pulls into the top 3. Sam has the weight plus new foils on his side (but seem to stall frequently) however he nearly pulled a second place in the first heat today if he didn't capsize before the finish line letting Simon through. Jason on the other hand has his new and proven Prowler, but he does not seem to like the waves much. Luka has his flatwater downwind speed sorted, but he will need to have a big improvement on his upwind to be anywhere near the top. These six plus myself will fill the top 7 for sure. I can't see anyone else getting amongst this group to consistently mix the results up.
The next pack of six I would throw in Graham Vials (GBR/BR), Mark Robinson (SIN/PR4), Adam May (GBR/M3), Alex Adams (GBR/M3), Les Thorpe (AUS/HT) and John Harris (AUS/BR). So based on this the Ashes trophy will be very close to call at this stage, much the same if you base a 'Manufacturers Trophy' on the best 5 of each team as well.
My final prediction is that by the end of the week, the top BR's will have set a new benchmark for foiling downwind stability and speed. But then again, what the hell would I know?
Saturday 23 June, 2007 - Dude, Where's the Mark?
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Mothies were still rocking up today and putting boats together (many more boats and people arriving tomorrow), and one hour before the start of the first practise race, only a few had put up their rigs as most seemed to have more important things to do. Only about ten of us actually got to the start line on time and we waited, waited and waited for a warning signal. One hour later the start boat put up a code flag 'C' (change of course) followed by our start sequence.
By the time the start signal went, only a hand full of us were actually on the line. Most were tipped over and struggling to get to windward in the building breeze. I started right on the boat, while Scott and John were just underneath me (I think) and Amac at the pin. There was too much else going on to even know who else was around me. By now the wind was up to and over 20 knots at times (apparantly the club said it was gusting up to 28 knots) and the waves were getting quite steep, but still nothing like Black Rock on a rough day. After establishing a bit of lead I began to slow down as I could not find the top mark! Amac peeled off and started to head down wind assuming that he must have gone around the mark already. I let Scott catch up and we were absolutely baffled about what was going on. So we sailed a bit further upwind and crossed into a huge plastic boat regatta that were surrounded by RIB's of all sizes. We thought that we must have gone around the mark by now so we proceeded to head downwind only to launch into the air repeatably through the huge waves. Capsizes were inevitable and trying to navigate around marks and other boats only made it worse.
By this stage most people looked like they were heading in (if they could), so I wandered down to the bottom mark to find Amac who actually went around the last two marks, so we went uphill for a bit until we had to look for the top mark again, but instead I found a small rib with code flag 'M' displayed anchored who was our replacement top mark. So I went around him and left Amac in the distance to complete another very wet lap and then proceeded to head uphill again, only to find the replacement top mark missing and then received some verbal abuse from a stupid Italian Laser sailor who thought he had right of way on Port! So did the dreaded bear away again to round the other marks (completing a few granny tacks along the way) to get to the finish line and see that they had abandonded the race! What a waste of time.
On a brighter note, none of the Bladerider's (or many other boats for that matter) suffered any damage at all. However Adam May (GBR) did launch straight into his front wing tubes and broke them clean off and Per Eskilson (HT/SWE) sheared his mast off at the base. So it was a very eventful day and hope it won't be repeated again for the duration of the regatta.
Friday 22 June, 2007 - Time Traveller
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I think I lost a day in there somewhere? Where did Thursday go? I can't even remember what happened today?
Basically the last two days has been a blur of emails, boat delivery issues, boat setup and boat repairs, and something else that was really important??? Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot that I am supposed to be training for some big race coming up soon too? Can't remember when it starts tho? Must be soon!
Amac and Brett have also been run off their feet with a flurry of repairs and 'Amacafying' foils. John Harris came in grinning from ear to ear and claimed his performance had increased by 40% after being given a amount of 'Amacafication'. Scott received the same dosage from Dr. McDougall very late in the afternoon after testing John's foils on his boat and found the difference was just stupid (just like I have said before).
Measurement of sails started today, and they are using a different method of measurement compared to what we use in Melbourne and consequently the sails measured here end up about 0.1m smaller in area. Clearly one or both method is inaccurate and will be looking forward to standardising this process at the AGM so that there is only 'one' method that we all use from now on.
So from the occassional glance up from the middle of a cockpit full of odd bits of rope and fittings, I look around the boat park and can see that there are probably around 30 Mothies here already (so that makes about another 40 to come). A lot of Aussies rocked up in the last two days which is always good to hear familar sounds like "bloody hell" and "check out the cans on that chick". However with the 'strong' wind today (17 knots), not too many (from any country that is) ventured out onto the water today, probably for either fear of breaking something or conserving their energy for when the racing starts.
However Amac, Glenn Raphael (UAE/AUS), Graham Vials (GBR) and myself wandered out at about 7pm after sorting out measurement of sails and boat repairs, and had a pleasant, but lumpy ride for about an hour or so. Glenn's ride was cut short thanks to another 'dodgily' made foil (better now than during racing). Hopefully this will be the last one to break, as we all seem to be now using the beefed up foils, like all X8 customers will be soon too.
So my main objective over the last two days is to see if I can still outpace Amac upwind and downwind using my high wind sail in the moderate breezes while Amac used the standard Bladerider sail. From earlier tuning sessions with other boats, it was quite clear that we always seem to be very quick uphill, but the high wind sail is ridiculously fast upwind (ie 14-17 knots boat speed) in anything over 15 knots. However Simon Payne seems to be the only one who can be anywhere near Amac and I downhill. Hopefully Scott and John will now also be able to heat up downwind as well. Only time will tell!
Wednesday 20 June, 2007 - Smashed It!
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Today started out rather rushed getting young Sten-Mark (from Estonia) out on the water before the Ora hit too hard, but it came in to about 12-15 knots and did good in the end with some coaching from Lex. So our spare parts finally arrived (just in time) and we hacked into the main foils to replace the dodgey parts were provided before we left. However it seems that I somehow Amac picked the wrong foil this time and had another accident, while mine held up beautifully to clock a new BR top speed record of 25.85 knots (nearly 50 km/hr) and a best 10 second average of 23.8 knots!
Both of these speeds are nearly 5 knots faster than the best results from the 2006 Nationals! For example the average over the first seven heats for the five best '10 second average speeds' per heat was 18.69 knots, today's five best averages was 23.04 knots. Now my maths is not great, but I see that as an increase of around 20% and maybe I actually underestimated the BR improvements over the last six months? So should I be called Mr 20% from now on?
Time for my night-time ice cream now. Have not had one day yet without eating the best ice cream in Italy and am not stopping now.
Tuesday 19 June, 2007 - All Looked Promising, until....
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I started the morning early by rubbing back my foils in an effort to get back the top speed from Amac. The Ora was in very early today by around 9:30am, and built steadily under clear skies and a very warm day of about 30 degrees. So Sam Pascoe and I got out on the water first and did some tuning together by where I clocked a new 10 second average record of 22.37 knots. Top speed was 23.06 knots by this stage and the wind was only just starting to build up when my dodgey main foil snapped in half. It was only temporary anyway until our new ones arrived. Nevertheless I got one record back. Amac on the other hand broke the clips on his new SC1 GPS (as he liked mine so much), so he never got his best speeds on file, but apparantly 'they were this big' (talking like a real fisherman). There was a bit of carnage today on the water too (even though it was less than 18 knots again) with Amac also breaking a main foil and Simon Payne and Sven Kloppenburg (GER) both suffered broken gantries on their Prowlers. So it seems that the Bladerider camp is short on main foils (plenty more coming apparantly) and the Prowler camp is short on gantries. Should be plenty of stuff to burn the Moth Ashes trophy (even after the first week)!
Monday 18 June, 2007 - You Guessed It!
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After a hard run in the morning yesterday followed by many hours of hard sailing, I decided to do some work on the foils and chill out a bit today. It didn't help that there was no wind at all, but by 1:30pm, the Ora suprisingly kicked in to about 18 knots again (maybe more in the gusts and over on the Riva side). But I went out in the RIB with Lex to film Amac, Alex Adams (GBR/M3) and Sam Pascoe (GBR/M3) with the video camera. Got some great shots of the guys crashing, submarining and flipping downwind in the 0.5m-1m waves. Will try and get on YouTube tonight pending how much battery I have left in the camera. So we get back in after an hour or so to find out that Amac clocked a new 'on-screen' GPS BR record of 23.6 knots, and once we downloaded the data in GPS Action Replay, he topped out with 24.38 (beating my ride yesterday by .22 knots) and a 22.05 as the best 10 second average. I won't be letting him keep that record for long though.
Sunday 17 June, 2007 - Another Record
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With the Ora in stronger today (around 18 knots), It seemed I was the only one keen to get out on the water (even though a few more Mothies rocked up today). So with no one to tune against, I thought I would have a crack and get the top speed back. I went out with the MSL10 and did my best speeds initially, but I hadn't finished the repairs on the rudder blade properly and with the small imperfections, it kept pulling the boat to starboard making it difficult to sail comfortably at high speeds. So I came in and put on Amac's rudder to see the difference. Of course it was much better (as I always get the seconds), but at least I know there is something I have to fix for tomorrow.
So after a few speed runs, Lex got out in the RIB with me and we worked on the airbourne tacks some more. I am slowly getting better but still room for improvement. Speed never improved after my first outing as the wind had dropped a bit by then. But after downloading the data from the Velocitek SC-1, I peaked out at 24.16 knots in the first session with the best 10 second average at 21.83 knots (feel free to download the GPX file if interested in having a look). So I will take that as new record.... for now!
Saturday 16 June, 2007 - New Bladerider Record
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So just when I thought I had the Bladerider top speed record, Amac goes and breaks it today when around 18 knots of wind came out of the rain clouds and he clocked 23.46 knots. I was onshore and derigged already as the wind looked like dropping right out late in the afternoon, after we received only a moderate Ora of about 8-12 knots thanks an early build of cloud in the Alps. Therefore based on the other current top speeds around the world, I believe that puts Amac as 5th fastest person in the World?
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We finally had another boat on the water apart from James (Doink), Amac and myself today. Carlo from Munich rocked up with his brand new X8 in his big VW van in the back. James was one of the first Mothies to greet Carlo at Torbole, and if any of you know James, you always remember the first time you meet James. I believe he started the conversation off by noting that Carlo had a big van like himself and the Moth fits in the back beautifully, but James in true fashion added to this by saying that once he picked a girl and there was no room for her in the car as he had his boat in the back, so she had to walk (or something along those lines). His new van is even bigger but this time it has only one seat in it of course.
So after a bit of chin-wagging, we spent a few hours putting the boat together with Carlo and got it in the water after lunch (minus the champagne after a incident when he launched a 470 a while back and the broken bottle ripped their brand new jib). For his 5th time on the water on a foiler, he is doing remarkably well. That night Carlo treated us to an amazing 5 course dinner just out Riva. The food was fantastic, and was borderline on being too much. But we force-feed ourselves as it was too good to resist.
Friday 15 June, 2007 - Bloggin' Traffic
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Just checked my web stat's, and it has just peaked at 594 visits in one day! I don't think I even know 594 people.
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My boat is now sold after I recevied an offer I couldn't refuse from a Markus in Austria. Amac still has his boat for sale if interested. more...
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Downloaded the tracks from yesterday (but couldn't get all of it for some reason), but here is a small sample of the speed statistics showing a peak speed of 22.92 knots (also clocked 17 knots upwind a number of times but sitting on mostly 12-15 knots upwind). It is nothing to get too excited about, but considering it was less than 18 knots of wind and it was a new verified top speed record on the Bladerider for me, I think it was alright. more...
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No sailing today as there was no wind (again) followed by another (but rather big) thunderstorm. So we spent the day doing a few tweaks and repairs to get ready for tomorrow.
Thursday 14 June, 2007 - Tenpercentified!
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I got up early (7:30am - that is early for me, but Amac was up at 4am as usual) for breakfast with all the Germans (who were all wearing their 'trend setting' sandles with socks) to head down to the club with Amac to get out on the water early. However with all the cloud hanging around from the thunderstorms over the last few days, the northerly wind was extremely light. Then all of a sudden the cloud lifted and we got 5-10 knots for about an hour. So I rigged up my MSL9 for the first time since the last worlds and Amac put up his X8 sail. I had the new Amac 'tenpercentified' centerboard on as well (with an extra degree of angle of attack), so was keen to see the difference compared to two days ago where I felt ridiculously slow and unstable. Bloody hell, what a difference! For once I was leaving Amac for dead. So after a few minutes we swapped boats, and then I never got to sail my boat again that morning.
We came back for lunch and then went out again in the Ora wind (this time with my X8 sail up), in about 10-17 knots. Due to some cloud still hanging around the mountains to the North, the wind was very unsettled, but still good enough to have one the best session I have had in a long time. The first reason for such an awesome day was that I think I have finally worked out a method for airbourne tacking. I am not very consistent yet (maybe 1 in every 15), but it is a start considering before today I really had no idea about what I actually needed to do. Any really good tacks that I had done before were just lucky.
Secondly I had one of the new S10 GPS's on today as well (they seem absolutely leak proof now), so I will download the tracks tomorrow to show the many occassions where I obtained 17 knots upwind and a top speed of 21.2 knots. Definately a big improvement since I can't remember the last time I got over 20 knots, especially in such a moderate breeze.
Amac on the other hand looks set to ditch all those nasties that have plagued his boat and results over the last few years and will be entering these Worlds with a flawless off-the-shelf production boat, but turbocharged of course (it is also for sale at a top price after the Worlds if interested). Most of you who know the 'typical' Amac will be shocked to see how fit and fast he is, not to mention his 'unique' tacking style that would be hard to replicate by anyone. His gybes have improved dramatically and much to everyone's suprise, I think will be a serious contender for the top 5.
So after about 3-4 hours on the water, we came in to be hounded by 100 Optimist kids wanting any Bladerider stickers, posters, brochures, lanyards and caps that we had hidden away in our boat boxes. It was like a circus with kids everywhere! So obviously all those fly-bys that we did over the last few days must have worked. I wonder how many of them will go home tonight and ask Dad for an early Christmas present? I even think some Dad's will be going home and asking their wives for early Christmas present as well.
Wednesday 13 June, 2007 - Typically Typical
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Spent most of the day on the computer working on some updates for the Bladerider manuals, and by the time I got down to the club the Ora was in (but only about 10 knots) and dying very fast. Not a very typical day here with a lot of cloud around followed by thunderstorms again in the afternoon. So we didn't even get out on the water, but we fixed a few things on the boat and packed up for an early dinner.
Tuesday 12 June, 2007 - Blog Wars: Episode III
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For those that missed class newbie Paul Brotherton's comments published in another British Tabloid...
"Simon Payne and Jason Belben both look strong going into the Worlds. The main challenge is likely to come from the Australian, Rohan Veal. His high profile and lofty PR campaign will need to be backed up by a clear victory in Italy. His list of excuses as to how he lost the Worlds in Denmark and his clear public conviction to the reasons why he will win this year leave no room for any error this year."
Glad to see that there are a few of us that don't hold back on what they really want to say. I havn't even met Paul (but everyone keeps telling me how good he is), and I like him already! All he needs is a blog and then his 'Moth Induction' is complete (apart from completing a race in 'monofilm cock jocks' - actually I still have not done this yet either).
BTW - For those that havn't picked up on most of my Aussie v's Pom blogging comments recently, it is mostly tounge-in-cheek to build up a bit of hype before the Worlds, so don't take it too seriously.
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And now for some 'real' sailing news....
The day started off with a light breakfast at the fantastic 'Hotel Santoni' (too early for me though as I stuggled with lack of sleep for the rest of the day). I rigged and flew around in the light and gusty northerly wind making the early morning sailboards look stupid with their hooded full length wetsuits and large sails. Water temperature is great (about 15 degrees), just perfect for a long-john wetsuit and light rash top or thermal.
Amac and SOS (Simon Owen-Smith) made me up a new foil for training here at Garda, but it was porposing at high speed (later I found out that Amac kept the best foil for himself as usual). So after some two-boat tuning in the afternoon Ora of 10-18 knots, it was stupidly clear that with the main foil setup correctly, Amac was putting 100m on me for every minute sailed downwind. So after some blasting around the Optimist fleet racing, we came in and put Amac's foil in my boat, and sure enough I was smokin' more than a Hippe at Woodstock.
So thankfully Amac stayed back tonight to make me up a new '5-to-10-percentified' centerboard with a new trial layup thanks to Glen 'Cheese' Oldfield in Perth. No sailing tomorrow morning as I need a sleep in, but I will work on a document for Bladerider owners outlining a bit more on assembling and tuning the foils. If you want a copy, email me later in the week.
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So all the Bladerider 'hype' must be working as we are getting at around 3 new boat orders every week now (sorry if you are still waiting for a reply from me). But the big news is that Aussie AC helmsman James Spithill has placed his X8 order for some less expensive (but hopefully more enjoyable) sailing back home in Sydney. You guys should have quite a fleet up there this summer. Hopefully Nico gets time off from his Puma VO70 training to join in as well. Can't wait to see the fleet at SIR's this year (if we ever get invited again that is).
Monday 11 June, 2007 - New Italian Mobile Number
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If you desparately need to call me now that I am in Italy, please use this number as I am not answering my Aussie phone any more for fear of getting another ridiculous phone bill. It is: +39 348 369 4548.
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Boats got cleared from customs today and delivered to the club before we even got there. So spent the afternoon at the club putting them together in the rain and thunderstorms. Lots of Opti kids running around here ATM for a two day regatta starting tomorrow, so plenty of potential Mothies. Will need to do a few fly-bys just to make sure though.
Sunday 10 June, 2007 - Si Parlo Italiano?
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After a great BBQ dinner at Ulf's house on Friday overlooking the achipelago, I had to wake rather early at 4:30am to get a flight from Gothenburg to Milan via Copenhagen. Not long after I landed, I found Amac who landed just after me and met up with our new Italian reseller Domenico 'Mimo' Boffi. After an average (according to Mimo) but very satisfying lunch over Bladerider discussions, we ventured back to Malpensa Airport to find Amac's personal assistant Brett who was landing for the first time in Europe. We then drove to Mimo and his wife Stefani's beautiful and secluded weekend villa about an hour NE of Milan. This was the pefect place to unwind from all the travelling and sailing for all of us over the last week. The majority of today was spent by the pool indulged in a factual/hypothetical and award winning book that Ulf lent me about possible outer space life-forms called 'Lonely Planets'. Not a bad read for those that like to think outside the box/shere.
Needless to say that during the last 24 hours, I have eaten more pasta, pizza and gelato than I should have. But how can you resist? In addition, I have been trying to use my seven years of Italiano that I learnt in school to the best of my disabled memory. It is not easy unplugging all that useless information I barely absorbed before I was 13, but this being my fifth trip to Italy now, it is starting to stick and I can almost pull sentences together.
The main reason why we are staying here in Milan is that our boats are still stuck in Italian customs (again), thanks to confusion from all those involved in the shipment from Melbourne, regarding the payment of VAT into Europe. Mimo suggested a simplier method for future shipments into Europe (if they are not returning) by paying a Carnet of tax to the Australian Customs before sending the boats. This means they should clear customs without delay and we can get sailing sooner! So hopefully they should be delievered to the club tomorrow and we can hit the water ASAP along with all the new 'five-to-ten-percentified' foils that Amac has been working on today. (Please note that this term and any variation of such is now legal protected, so beware of immations!)
Friday 8 June, 2007 - Speeding Infringement
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Today started with the assembly of my boat in the car park, as I did not put it in the water yesterday. The wind seemed a bit more stable than yesterday, so as soon as got into the breeze, I was up foiling and racing the RIB around to the racing area. After about an hour or so of foiling (more like showing off in front of the marina and passing boats), I was stopped by the Norwegian water police. I knew what he was going to say even I couldn't understand him initially. "You are going too fast" he said in english. "The speed limit is 5 knots!" After advising him that we had a special 'unlimited speed' permit from the marina and all ferries had to give way to us, he didn't believe me and made a call to the local meteorologists to turn off the wonderful sea breeze we had so I couldn't foil again and cause any trouble. Bastard!!! So at this time the other guys were just hitting the water and we drifted around for the next hour.
Thanks to Mikkel Thommessen for an advertisement in Seilas Magazine (featuring a photo of Amac for a change), we had a few locals that were keen for a test sail. Karoline was first up and seemed keen-as to get on the water and have a go despite there being bugger all wind. It was obvious that her 29er helming skills had paid off as she was a natural on the boat with excellent balance and maneuverability. She even got flying five times which was more than anyone else did after the wind had died. I don't I saw her once without a huge grin on her face! Next was local 49er sailor Jurgen, who was about 15kgs heavier than Karoline, but still managed to get up and fly a few times despite the sub 6 knot conditions. Jurgen said he was moving to Southhampton in the UK shortly to do a Naval Architecture degree, so it looks like a new enrollment into Foil School.
By the time the 2.4m's had finished their racing, it was our turn to have two back to back races made up of two windward-leewards in what was best described as 'bugger-all' wind. All four of us started well, but Martin was not used to having great big foils underneath him and leaving enough room to round weather marks as to clear the anchor rope. Sure enough he got in a mess and the umpires blew their whistle for a penalty. It was had to dispute this with the rounding mark wrapped around his boat. Some time during the race I snagged some weed around my rudder and found Per catching me up very fast to the finish line. I had just enough of a lead to take the first heat, but Per was only seconds behind. Ulf got third and Martin scored a DFL (Dead F****** Last) thanks to his underwater bouy extraction.
In between races, we got a small puff of wind which was enough for me to have a short fly on one tack and enough time for the crowd on the marina to get a glimpse of the potential of these amazing boats. So the second heat started tighly packed and I tacked off early only to land in no wind and give the lead to Martin. I rounded the bottom mark in front, but he was always hot my heels. However it seems he did not learn from his first windward mark rounding and got stuck again handing second place to Per, who also claimed second overall.
We limped back into the docks for presentation where I scored my first novelty cheque for US$1,000 and Per and I both received a fantastic Seiko watch. That will teach me for buying a new watch only a few days ago. As agreed with the Swedes, I will split the winnings up with them (or rather spend the money on beer in Torbole), as without them, this event and trip would never have happened.
We then had to ferry everything back around to the launching ramp, to start derigging and packing the boats up in the trailer. It was 2am by the time Ulf and I got back to Saro and we needless to say were both extremely buggered after about seven hours on the water and a four hour drive back. Friday will be spent recovering and hopefully a RIB tour of the Achipelago around Gothenburg.
Thursday 7 June, 2007 - The Christening
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Yesterday we drove around for an hour with Martin and Per (two other Swedish Moth sailors) trying to find a suitable location to rig and launch the boats, not to mention Ulf brand new Bladerider. We found the one and only slipway which was littered with rubbish and diesel in the water. It was the worst launch I had ever seen for getting a Moth into the water. We had to assemble the boats in the public car park and then rigged them in the petrol station before being covered with an oil slick when we finally got all three boats in the water. It was rather hot for Norway thanks to a big high pressure system we were in, and therefore very little wind and consequently very little foiling action. However we occassionaly got enough wind to have a fly around and impress the locals in the main harbour. We even got Thea out on Martin's Mistress, but no flying unfortunately as the wind had all but gone by then. After a nice and complimentary hamburger (unlike the Blomstermala restrauant in Saro), a cold beer and about 2 litres of water each for dinner, we headed back for some internet, another beer and plenty of rest.
Tuesday 5 June, 2007 - Viking Test Sail
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Today we had a test sail with chief editor, Joakim Hermansson from Segling Magazine. Joakim had seen a few foilers before, but never had a sail. So we got him on board my old Prototype Bladerider and sure enough he foiled for the first time after about 5 mins of instructions from three people in Swedish and English (very confusing). Needless to say I think he was pretty impressed and was probably even more so when we took him back to Ulf's house to show him a brand new production boat. The article should be out in the next month or so along with a few more new boats in Sweden hopefully. That night (even though the sun was still out), we drove to Oslo to stay with a very nice local sailing family. Thea is sailing in the Women's Youth division on an RSX and mad keen on Jason Polakow. Obviously we showed her some video of the foiler moth and was keen to try straight away.
Monday 4 June, 2007 - Swedish Spa Resort
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After 4 planes and 36 hours of travel have made it to Saro in Sweden (about 30 mins south of Gothenburg on the western coast) and am staying in the Sarohus (a very nice 100 year old hotel). As Gin and I found last time we were in Sweden, their typical foods are extremely healthy and quite tasty, and really makes you wonder about all the crap that we are almost forced to eat back home.
FYI - Saro was royal property in 1750 and became a popular spa resort and summer cottage spot for aristocracy in 1850. It used to be an island, but over the last 30 years the grap has been filled up, mainly due to the rising land (as 10,000 years ago the land used to be compressed by all the ice).
Nowadays there are some extremely nice houses around here overlooking the water and backing onto a national park of where I went for a run around this morning. It is obvious from how green everything is, they have had a massive amount of rain around here recently (unlike in Australia where our water reserviors have dropped below 30% in Melbourne), and consequently the mosquitoes in plague proportions in certain parts of the forest. I stopped on my run to look at map only to attacked by about 20 mozzies within seconds. The only way to keep them off was too keep running!
Why am I here? Because our swedish reseller (Ulf Lindhe) lives here in Saro and he has my old boat here that I need to tune up to get ready for a regatta later this week in Norway. Ulf received his new boat today, just in time for a test sail and boat review by Sweden's biggest sailing magazine tomorrow.
Not much wind today (unlike the sunlight which I don't think I noticed get dark all night), but enough to fly. So after fixing a few things on the boat, I dropped into the local sailors pub for some lunch (which was very average for AU$25!!!) about 50m away from the launching ramp in this very quiet town. The place was dead apart from a few females sitting nearby that happened to notice my inability to speak 'fluent' Swedish and asked where I was from and what I was doing here. It turns out, they were yachties as well (one local and one kiwi) and were in the area checking out the rather expensive housing situation in Saro. So after lunch, they naturally came down to have a look at the boat. It was a shame they couldn't stay longer, as it probably would have been a test sail as well had of they not had to get a flight a few hours later. Didn't really matter in the end anyway, as they will be in Valencia for the Cup finals later this month and will hopefully get them out then and convert a few more chicks into the class!
Sunday 3 June, 2007 - Manufacturer's Ashes
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I am normally not one to read the British tabloids, as generally their articles are based on rumours from what is read on the internet and the latest street talk, in other words bullshit mostly. However they have recently published their annual 'form guide' in the lead up to the Worlds, that is usually worth a read.
Last years effort offered rather very similar odds for tipsters as it seemed as though they thought that any entrant had a chance of winning, no different to a Queensland cane-toad race. This year they has refined their tipping process and narrowed it down to a top six based on a new formula comprising of what each person eats for breakfast, how much hair they have on their head and what colour socks they wear. Unfortunately I have a good head of hair on me, so Si gets their top pick along with someone who I have never met, let alone raced against.
IMCA UK's claim of having one of the few unsponsored Moth blogs is clearly not disputed, however it is hardly unbiased now is it? Nevertheless it provides a good read for punters and a valuable summary for us Aussies as to what the POM's have been up to as so we can find out their weaknesses. ;-)
I can only hope our new 5th gear and the 10% top speed improvement on top of the other 10% I had on the 10% deficiency last Christmas is 20% faster than the top 10% of the fleet over 100% of the races at the Worlds. So what the hell does that mean? Who knows? But if I am right, the BR team are going to hand out a serious case of woop-arse! (How's that for some serious trash talk)
BTW - Now that we have the POM v's Aussie Ashes, why not have a 'Manufactures Ashes' as well while we are at it. You could take the best five overall results of all production built boats along with the top 5 Miscellaneous/own builds just to stir things up a bit. There is nothing like some healthy competition between manufacturers to help build the class and get more Moths on the water!
Friday 1 June, 2007 - Wrap Up & Pack Up
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So the last six months spearheading the Bladerider racing and sales team has been very rewarding with good results and good sales figures (with now over 60 boats ordered), but production delays and the odd manufacturing defect seem to be letting a lot of people down. However McConaghy have now moved into our new and dedicated Bladerider hull build factory and everyone is working double time to new get boats out the door for customers competing the Worlds and Simon Owen-Smith is doing his best to replace any dodgey parts made by our Chinese friends (free of charge of course and without delay).
On the bright side, I am happy to report that the Bladerider race team's downwind speed and stability control has improved significantly since the Nationals. However I feel the need to clarify about some of the recent comments on the SA Forum that were made about my posts over these gains.
There is clearly no issue with our upwind speed, but ever since the last Nationals we have been looking for a lot more downwind speed. It was quite clear to me, that I was ridiculously slow downwind as my top speed was always several knots slower than everyone else (for example I barely ever got over 20 knots during the whole regatta). The only reason why I won the Nationals was due to a much better upwind VMG than Luka, otherwise he would have flogged me as he was clearly the fastest downwind. So over the next few months we sorted a few things out, and we got back some of the downwind speed loss that we had from the Nationals. Upwind speed had not changed much, but maybe we were going an extra 2% faster thanks to better gearing on the main foil, better AOA and a stiffer wand.
So by the NSW States, it was time to compare against Supa-Luka again and see how our downwind performance was going. Of the few times that I could actually compare, I felt as though we were the same or he was only slightly faster, as I never seemed to lose much ground downwind. So I was confident we had recovered quite a bit (around 2-3 knots) of downwind top speed and ride height control since the Nationals. But it wasn't until Sydney the other week that it was obvious that there was still more in the tank.
I have sailed enough of these boat and long enough to know what feels good and what does not (even though I am still accused by Amac that it is all in my head). But it was stupid how fast and stable Amac's boat was in comparison to any Bladerider I had sailed before. I can't compare it to a Prowler as that was too long ago now, but I am sure that anyone would be shocked if they saw this grey-haired Professor doing +23 knots with ease, while I was struggling to keep my boat at a constant ride height and 3 knots slower. I don't need a GPS on all the time to tell me a setup is good or not, but if only we had an S10 on that day, we are confident that it would have been the first a Bladerider had gone over 25 knots!
However when we got back home, Amac launched his boat only to snap this 'magic' main foil after less than a minute of sailing thanks to some Woolaraha concrete launching ramp damage on the wing tips! It wasn't me! So the last few days Simon and Amac have been busy repairing and respraying all of our foils for the Worlds using Amac's 'magic formula', in an effort to get back the extra 5-10% DOWNWIND performance and ride-height control that Amac had in Sydney. For those that don't understand what I mean by this, it means an extra 1-2 knots top speed limit on top of what I had at the NSW States and a ride-height so stable, it is almost not a challenge to sail anymore! I told Amac that it was almost 'boring'.
However the question was asked by Scott, why is there no emphasis this year on recording +25 knots? Although it is nice to have a 5th gear, a good top-end downwind speed is not going to win a Worlds. Our efforts over the last six months are purely based on fitness, strength, improving upwind VMG, downwind steering techniques, ride height/rig stability, new tacking techniques and perfecting airbourne gybes, as this is what we decided is necessary to win at Garda. I also think that if anyone can consistently beat all the Masters (especially Si, Jason and Amac), they will be World Champion. ;-)
How do I rate myself? Very confident! I now know what it takes to win and lose a World Title and have done everything I can to make sure I will win again. But most of all I will be looking forward to seeing 60 foilers charging off the start line (hopefully not in my way tho) and catching up with good friends.
I head off tomorrow night (luckily in Business Class thanks to just enough Emirates Skywards points) for Gothenburg, where I will meet up with Ulf and drive with my old prototype boat and a new X8 to Oslo for a bit of PR and racing along with a couple of other local foilers. Then I had back to Italy where Amac and I will start our two week training at Torbole.
My boat has just been finished with final leak proofing and sponsor sticker job and currently awaiting some wind to give it a final test (after having 30-50 knots all week). Amac and I have a heap of personal race gear to take with us including a stack of spares to use and sell at the Worlds. However just to add to the complexity, we have been invited to do a demo in Valencia straight after the Worlds on the 2nd July. So our holiday has been put on hold for the time being, unless Alinghi wrap up the Cup 5-0 with no lay days taken.
I will update my Blog as much as possible and send our reports to mailing list when racing starts. Until then...
Wednesday 22 May, 2007 - 5th Gear
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We had a bit on from the North again on the weekend. Saturday we were greeted with a good 20-25 knots and most were reluctant to head out, but after everyone noticed the Sabots out training, most did not want to be out-done by the junior fleet, so everyone reluctantly put up their rigs. My boat was still in pieces after another repair job, but we had one of the prototypes down at the club to use anyway. The pre-production boats are obviously not as 'nice' as the new ones we have, but we were quite keen to get out there while the wind was over 20 knots and test a new high wind sail that we got delivered the day before. After stiffing up the supplied battens, Amac went out first but actually spent more time launching the boat in the surf conditions than sailing as he had to scoot off early. So after giving the thumbs up after 10 minutes, I hopped on and blasted around for an hour or so before the start of the last club race of the season. All of the fast mixed fleet boats started together. I scored an unusal super start right at the boat amongst all the 'short batten sails' who always hover and crowd the best positions on the line. :-(
Immediately the boat took off doing 14-16 knots upwind (this was apparently noted by all those watching from the balcony of the club). In addition, this super flat sail was so much easier to handle in comparison to the standard MSL12's in anything over 20 knots. Marty was also fast upwind on his Formula sailboard rigged with a 11.5m, but was a bit late for the start, so I had a bit of head start on him and rounded the top mark bloody miles in front anything else. The foils were a bit dodgey and poorly set up on the boat as we rushed to get out, so my downwind performance was significantly reduced in comparison to Amac's setup last week in Sydney. I was probably a bit scared of doing anything over 20 knots with that foil setup and in those conditions as well, after I had a few stacks before the start. Nevertheless, I held Marty off a the bottom mark each time, but suprisingly pulled away each time upwind, especially in the big gusts where I was not as quick as Marty, but sailed much higher and hence with better VMG. On the last lap, the wind began to fade along with my 5th gear, however I held off Marty by a less than 15 seconds to take the win.
So we were fairly pleased with the results and will be looking forward to testing them again this week if possible. My boat is back together now, but we have had no wind under 35 knots all week so far, but Friday is looking good for our last sail before we pack the boats and they get sent on Monday.
Monday 22 May, 2007 - Higher Performance Finally Found!
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Has been a while since my last post, and think that was mainly due to being flat out trying to get four boats ready to take to Sydney for the weekend for some training and tuning with Scott and John. On the friday only Amac and I ventured out in the 15-25 knots, as the other guys had to work. Saturday was a similar breeze and we blasted around doing lots of drill and small course racing with Lex. Over lunch Amac made decided to go on his gut feeling and made some special modifications to my main foil (that he was now using as I had his) and to free up the push rod friction as much as possible. The result was amazing! We all sailed the boat and felt it was way beyond anything that we had ever expected in terms of downwind performance along with a completely smooth ride. If anything it was probably 5-10% faster than anything we had experienced before as well. If only we had our boats set up like this at the last few Moth regattas we had been in! So we came in and took measurements of everything as so we can now make all of our boats the same for the worlds and hopefully send all boats out of the factory like this as well. For those that have boats already, we are working on a document that will reflect all this. Stay tuned.
Monday 7 May, 2007 - Passed In
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So my boat didn't reach the reserve on eBay, therefore it wasn't sold. However if anyone is interested in making an offer on it, let me know now, otherwise I'll sell it when I get there.
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Bugger all wind here on the weekend (again), but I did manage to fly out to the start line on Saturday and gave ex-mothie Gary McLennan a go before the wind totally pissed off. Gary seemed to enjoy the ride while it lasted and said that they are a lot easier to sail now than 20 years ago thanks to a lighter and more powerful rig, plus the extra stability under the water from the foils. Sunday was bascially the same, so we used our time wisely to measure some sails, all coming in right on 7.99m or 8.00m.
Friday 4 May, 2007 - Big Seas Dramas
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With the full moon out at the moment, high tides and the strong Northerlies pushing water into Black Rock, I have never seen such high water in Half Moon Bay where we launched to go out today in about 20 knots. It didn't help with the big seas either, crashing into the rock wall and then bouncing back into the oncoming surges. But we eventually made it out (thanks to having retractable foils) and blasted up and down the shoreline. Twice the edge of my rudder foil clipped a huge jelly fish at speed and pulled the tiller extension out of my hand forcing me to tip over to windward. Bloody annoying!
So on the way back in, we struggled once again with the the shore break and getting the boats on the trolleys. I got mine on first and then I went back to help Amac and he left his main foil in the boat. Sure enough, it came out when the boat was pounded by the waves and he lost yet another foil. So we spent the next hour wading around in the cold waters of the bay, looking for a black and red hydrofoil on the bottom of the water (as the centreboards don't float). Even the police dropped in to see what we were doing and tried to help. By this stage, we were both freezing and I got in for a hot shower while Amac put on my Musto Gortex drysuit, along with some goggles, snorkle and fins. After 30 mins of floating around, Brett found it washed up on the beach about 100m away. Lucky as we are already low on main foils, and we won't be getting any more in the next week or two, as apparently they are making hulls faster than foils in the factory.
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So my boat on eBay is a bargin at the moment at AU $11,600. Have had quite a few bids so far, but nothing recently. Better get in fast as there is only 2 days left!
Tuesday 1 May, 2007 - High Wind Training
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Amac and I went out for a short blast in a 25-30 knot Northerly today. Not the most inviting conditions, so we only rigged one boat as we only had an hour to spare. Amac went first and I jumped off the pier 20 mins later to have a go. I havn't loaded up the downhaul that much for a while, but the mast took it well. The bear away was a bit daunting at first, but it wasn't that bad at all once you got the hang of it. I didn't have the GPS on, but a few bursts of speed would have been over 25 knots. It was a bit risky staying out there on my own once Amac left, so I went in after only about 20 minutes or so. Well worth the effort and will have to do it again some day.
Sunday 29 April, 2007 - Cocked Again
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So we had the 'Cock of the Rock' at Black Rock on Saturday, which is basically the club's mixed fleet handicap race to find out who is the fastest at the end of the season. It looked promising for Amac and me as we had a great North Easterly around 10-15 knots with flat water - perfect conditions for whipping some 14' skiffs! However by the time we had started (about 30 mins late and after all the slower boats went off the line), the wind had gone and left us lowriding slowly behind the 14's. Looking up the course, the wind started to fill in from the right so I headed over that way with the 14's leaving Amac out on his own on the left. We finally got wind over 6 knots and started to fly, so it wasn't long before I worked my way in front of the leading 14'. From then on the wind built to around 12-14 knots and I pulled away while Amac had a battle around the course with the leading 14'. After four laps and 60 minutes of racing, I crossed the line about 9 minutes ahead of Amac and nearly 10 minutes from the first 14'. So while it was probably the biggest flogging I have ever given the 14's, it will probably also mean a revision of the Foiler Moth yardstick again. Sorry about that! results...
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Looks like we have a nice little holiday shack down on Ninety-Mile Beach now too, and to top it off Amac has brought a neighbouring block. So we'll have to get ourselves some Blokarts to keep occupied when the wind gets up, as it would be near impossible to launch a Bladerider off the beach and get out through the surf break.
Thursday 26 April, 2007 - Going, Going... SOLD!
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Just for something different, I have listed my boat on eBay at a starting price of $1 as I have been getting quite a lot of emails recently from people wanting to buy a second hand Bladerider after the Worlds, so my boat is going to the highest bidder. more...
Wednesday 25 April, 2007 - Anyone Lost a Penguin?
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Just realised that I have not posted a blog in a while. Firstly racing at Black Rock on Saturday was bizzare, after no wind for 3 weeks, we had a solid +18 knots hit us in the morning while I was taking Megan DeLange out for a test sail. We were lucky enough to see a small pod of dolphins during the sail, and even more commonly seen recently, some lost penguins chirping with their heads above the water, hoping to find their pack. So hopefully we will have yet another Radial female conversion soon as she seemed to enjoy it despite the weather.
The afternoon race started in about 15 knots and very choppy seas, but once the rain came, the wind died, leaving sloppy conditions to drift home in. It was not worth the effort to sail an extra 200m to the finish line (as it would have taken another 30 minutes to get in), so I went straight in after rounding the bottom mark. On Sunday I went down to Blairgowrie to see how Sam and Zac were going with their boats. It was a late session, but worth it, as we had a good 10-15 knots and dead flat water. They both seem to be doing really well consider not sailing much recently. Zac will be a hot tip for a future World Champion I think.
Had today off, as it was ANZAC day here, so Gin, Beki and I took a drive down the East coast to a very remote beach. It now seems as though we will probably be spending some time down there (away from boats), as we have found a great holiday house about 200m from the beautiful 90 Mile Beach, and at a super cheap price. However I can't afford it, but I have money in sitting in my superannuation fund that it is not doing much and now thanks to changes by the government, that now allow you to manage your own super money and buy rental property. It also comes with two other 600m blocks of land next door on seperate titles that we don't want. Anyone want to buy a beach block for $40k?
Saturday 14 April, 2007 - That Time of Year
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Attempted to race today at Black Rock, but it is getting to that time of year where the wind starts to shut down, so Sam, Amac and I raced from the start line into shore at speeds slower than I could have walked. At least we were sailing three times the speed of the wind ;-)
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Ripped that video that I took from the last heat of the NSW State Championships, where Alan Goddard flips his boat on the start line, while Scott tears off the startline in his new Bladerider at the boat end and puts in over a 100m lead after one minute of racing. Amac starts poorly off the pin but comes back with blistering upwind speed to catch Chris Dey just to windward.
Thursday 12 April, 2007 - More Press
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Yep, Thierry's done it again and got more double page spreads and a front cover in Italy. Not bad for one days work! more...
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Some photos from the NSW States thanks to Steve Yarrrington. more...
Tuesday 10 April, 2007 - NSW States Championships Wrap-Up
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So I am back in Melbourne now after easily winning the NSW State Moth Championships. I would have won every race by 2-10 minutes, except in the first heat, we were doing a new course and the last lap was a dead run to the finish line, but I kept going around to the outer gybe mark and back into the inner gybe mark until I realised that Luka was heading straight to the finish in front of me. So Luka finished second overall (and crowned the new NSW State Champion), Amac was third, Chris fourth, Les fifth and Pete in sixth & Scott in seventh.
Like Scott, I launched a brand new boat on the Friday morning as well, although Scott broke his centerboard in the first heat and had to borrow a less 'tuned' version, hence only finishing seventh overall. Had of this not happened, I would think he would have been up with me. We had 'a bit on' in the first two days with squalls frequently hitting us. Unfortunately I had a few 'tramp issues' with my boat over the first four heats, but they were quickly fixed with the help of Amac. Despite this though, the boat was unbelievably fast in all directions around the course this time and in all wind conditions as well. It almost felt too easy at times to fly and obtain ridiculous VMG's. In one heat in particular, I think I was at the finish line, while the chasing pack were over a kilometer behind.
I didn't sail the last heat (mainly because I wanted a rest before my 12 hour drive home), but I got some good video of Scott dominating the last heat (using my centerboard this time). The start from Alan Goddard is a classic, as he managed to flip the boat vertically in the air right on the line. Will try and get it on YouTube asap (pending I can find some video editing software that is able to get video off our new Sony HD widescreen camera - any ideas anyone?).
Whilst driving home, I made the decision to have this Christmas off with Gin (seeing that the Easter holiday is normally our time away from boats), so it is highly unlikely that I will be attending the Moth Nationals in South Australia later this year. Like everyone else, I'll be looking forward to seeing who is going to be the next National Champion over the internet and hence caretaker of all those perpetual trophies that the winner receives. Good luck!
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If you havn't already seen it, the Moth class won the 'Best Race Boat' of the 2006 Sailing Anarchy Awards over the Farr 40. Not a bad effort considering hardly anyone in the USA has seen one on the water, let alone any fleet racing. Can't wait until we actually start sending our Bladerider's over there. If only!
Wednesday 4 April, 2007 - Lots of Driving
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Driving up to Sydney this morning (11 hour drive from our place) for the NSW State Championships, so I won't be back until Monday night. Amac is flying up there tonight, while other Bladerider sailors include John Harris and Scott Babbage. They have nearly 30 entered from what I have heard so should be a good turn out. Will try and send race results and updates from my phone to my mailing list while there.
Sunday 1 April, 2007 - First Race
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Went out for the first race at Black Rock on Saturday against Amac, and we couldn't be seperated the whole race in the lumpy 15 knot conditions. I must admit I was a little rusty having not sailed properly there for over 6 weeks but he has improved a lot.
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Glad I don't live in Sydney and have to put up with ridiculous water management rulings like this. more...
Friday 30 March, 2007 - New boat arrives!
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Finally got my new production boat on Wednesday afternoon. We launched it yesterday afternoon in fairly average conditions at Black Rock (ie big seas and 20 knots), but all went well. All the ropes and wires stretched out as usual under the huge loads on the day, so only a few adjustments to be made for racing on Saturday.
Tuesday 27 March, 2007 - Back on board
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Have have a few days off now and have got through most of my emails finally. Now just waiting for my new boat to arrive so I can get back on the water.
Thursday 22 March, 2007 - Bladeridered Out
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After about six months of 'seven-days-a-week' non stop Bladeridering around the globe and back home, I am due for for a week off. So if you are one of the few hundred people that is waiting on an email from me, I'll get back to you next week. If you have ordered a boat and want to add something to your order, want to make a payment, need spare parts or are wondering how long before you will have it in your hands, please refer to the specific contact information is on the Bladerider web site.
Monday 19 March, 2007 - Back in Melbourne
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Back home. Very tired. Going to bed...
Saturday 17 March, 2007 - Test Sail
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We rigged Glenn's new Bladerider just outside the Dubai Boat Show and went for a blast in the harbour, just in front of DIMC (Dubai International Marine Centre). The wind was up and down, but I think we got a fair bit of attention. Glenn did great on his first outing as well.
Thursday 15 March, 2007 - Back in Dubai
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Gin and I had a free upgrade to Emirates business class from Milan to Dubai thanks to some spare frequent flyer points. It is going to be hard going back to economy now. So we got in after midnight, but took nearly an hour to get through customs due to massive queues (probably thanks to 24 hours of cancelled flights last week). It wasn't until 3am that I finally got to bed, and 12 hours later we were at the Dubai Boat Show.
Wednesday 14 March, 2007 - Cuppacino and Gelato Land
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Have just finished our stint at one of the best Yacht Clubs in the world, Circolo Vela Torbole in Italy. Apart from spending twelve hours each day giving out as much Bladerider information, posters and stickers to as many people as possible, it was also was a gourge of fish, pizza, pasta, cuppacino's and gelato (actually all the special gelati places were closed as it is too cold apparantly). We had a pretty full on first day (which was supposed to be the quietest day), with a national TV camera crew, a top Italian photographer and plenty of people to look and try the Bladerider X8. Most of those that tried the boat did exceptionally well, so it looks like we may have converted a few more and they will hopefully come to the Moth Worlds at Torbole in June. There were also numeous 420's, 470's, Finn's and Optimists training on the lake for a uncoming regatta, so it was pretty funny seeing their look on their faces as we all wizzed past in silence, as I would assume that most had never seen such a small boat fly past them at such speed in such little wind. Carlo from Munich had one of the best rides at the end of the last day, where it was only around 6 knots of wind and he clocked 16.6 knots on his GPS (16.1 knots as a best 10 second average). Not a bad effort for his third time out.
I must say that the facilities, launching and sailing conditions for the Moth Worlds here later in June will be better than anything I have ever seen before. We should be expecting a 15-20 knot Ora each day and extremely flat water in comparison to the conditions back home at Black Rock. Finally a big thanks to Simon Payne for the Musto Goretex drysuit. Can't tell anyone how good it was to have in the 8 degree water temperature. I felt sorry for anyone wearing anything less. Off to Dubai early tomorrow morning (via 2 cars, 2 trains, 1 bus and 1 plane). We should be there at midnight hopefully. I had word from Glenn in Dubai who was showing his boat at the Boat Show there, that there was already a 'fair bit' of interest already even only after a few hours of the show opening.
Friday 9 March, 2007 - Off Again...
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We head off again tonight from Stockholm to London where we will stay at the Hilton Heathrow, sleep for a few hours, catch an early morning bus around to Gatwick Airport, then fly to Verona, then catch another bus to Torbole where we will stay for a few days doing some on and off water training.
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Got my SMTP working again thanks to Klas who emailed me out of the blue and suggested that I get a Gmail account and use their SMTP to send all my mail through them in Outlook. Works great now, as they use a secure port unlike my home email account. i had to dig around in their support notes to find it though.
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Cool new Bladerider video put together by a neighbour of mine back home, that we have been showing at the Boat Shows...
Thursday 8 March, 2007 - The Great Vasa
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So we arrived late into Stockholm after our train was cancelled due to an accident on the line. Apparantly the train hit a pedestrian. Yesterday we ventured into town and went and had a look at the Vasa Warship. Truely amazing how big it is, how old it is and how they recovered it with little damage to the hull after nearly 400 years underwater in the Baltic Sea.
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No ice boating today as it is raining and no wind. Not much we can do about that, so Gin has gone to the big Ikea store and I am inside the hotel all day replying to the million emails that I have. However the problem is that my SMTP is blocked by the ISP here and so none of my emails can be sent through Outlook at the moment. So if you are waiting on an email from me, I will have to send them all from London when I arrive there late Friday night. From there we will leave for Italy (early) on Saturday morning and will be there for a few days.
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Have added a movie below of the dog sled ride from Tuesday...
Tuesday 6 March, 2007 - Minus 18 degrees and dropping
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Last night we stayed in the Ice Hotel in Northern Sweden. This place is amazing! They carve blocks of clear ice out of the local river in April and then store them in a freezer over summer, and then bring then out in October/November to build a huge complex for guests to sleep in overnight. During the day it is a museum as some of the rooms as designed by interior designers and sculptors and are quite special. We had a designer room called 'Still Water'. At night you sleep on an ice bed, with a thin matress, animal skins and then a bloody thick sleeping bag closed up so that only a small hole in the top allows you to breathe. It was around -5 or so in the room, but waking up at night it is quite wierd as we felt like we were underwater thanks to the design of the room. After a nice breakfast we had a booking to ride on the dog sled. The dogs were anchored down but were howling and jumping around to make a move as soon as possible. There was a mix a breads, mostly Huskies, but none of Beki's cousins were there. Sorry Bek! The ride went for about 1.5 hours, but it was not enough work for the dogs as they were jumping up and down any time that we stopped. It was great fun tho. Can't wait to do it again.
Monday 5 March, 2007 - London Dinghy Show
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The London Dinghy Show is over for another year and it seems as though interest in the foiler Moth's and Bladerider is still growing. Numerous stands around the show had Moth pics and videos playing non stop as way to attract attention to their stands. We were on the Ronstan stand and had a new two minute video playing over and over, along with Graham's new boat on display. Over the two days we handed out over 1,200 posters, countless stickers and around over 500 brochures. I did a few interviews as well, including a video overview of the Bladerider with the guys from The Daily Sail. We even sold a few more boats, even though we wern't really taking any orders. Aside from Bladerider promotions, it was good to finally meet Ellen McCarther as well. Heading off to Sweden (very) early tomorrow morning where we will stay in the famous (and very expensive) Ice Hotel.
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It was my grandfather's funeral in Melbourne today. He died last week due to a prolonged illness while we were in Dubai. He was 89 and my last living grandparent.
Wednesday 28 February, 2007 - Fast Boats and Fast Cars in Dubai
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Have been in Dubai for the last few days sorting out the Bladerider display for the Boat Show here in two weeks while also trying to organise some racing here in 2008. Unreal location with fantastic sailing conditions, but unfortunately Glenn's boat won't arrive until next week, so we'll have to wait til we get back here before we can go for a sail. So today we took the afternoon and went for a test drive in a demo 997 Turbo, thanks to one of Glenn's mates who works at the Porsche dealership here. If anyone knows me well enough, they know how much I love 911's, so this was just sweet! The Turbo has 450bhp, top speed of around 300km/hr and cost about AU$330,000, but they are much cheaper here considering there is bugger all tax on cars. So we got up to around 170km/hr a few times along the motorway and then headed to Wild Wadi's Water Park for some waterslides. So it was a good afternoon, but not long enough. Tomorrow we are off to London to help setup the Graham's new Bladerider and setup for the London Dinghy Show.
Saturday 24 February, 2007 - Definately Improving
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We have a special Moth friend out from Japan, Naomi Tachibana, out visiting us in Melbourne to sail on the Bladerider. He loved the boat and can't wait to get his. In the afternoon, Amac and I raced at Black Rock in typical frontal conditions of 15-22 knots and 1-2m (short) waves. To say the least, we had a 'bit on'! Upwind was ok, ie 12-14 knots of speed, but downwind was crazy. The foiler Moths are too fast sometimes so it requires a lot of control in these conditions, to the extent where the fastest way downwind is upright at all costs, even if it means slowing the boat down a bit and keeping it on the water as often as possible. Consequently I had one swim in each race. Amac had plenty. However it seems I have worked out how to sail with excellent VMG downwind now in these conditions, and as a result, I kept the 14's behind me and won the first race by over 3 minutes and the second by about a minute. I don't think I have ever beaten them before in such conditions, and on their favoured windward/leeward courses, let alone by such margins. Things are definately improving!
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We got the front page of the Daily Sail (again) thanks to Thierry's handy-work. Great shot!
Hmmm, I raced the 14's on a Twilight race on Thursday and beat them all by a huge margin (more than ever before), mainly due to fitting the new wand mechanism and tiller worm screw adjustment for the rudder foil (as used on all the new production boats). I wonder how long before they lower the yardstick even more to somewhere around the A Class catamaran handicap?
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On Wednesday, one of our Bladerider customers, Peter Kohloff from Germany was in town, so we went out for a sail in 12 knots off Black Rock. We were out there for around half an hour, but he was so excited that he was forgetting to breathe and was buggered only after a few runs! So word of warning to any newbies, remember to breathe...
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Gin and I leave for Dubai and Europe on Sunday for three weeks for numerous Bladerider promotions, so go easy on the emails while we are away. However one part of our trip is to Sweden where we are staying in an Ice Hotel for a night and then heading down to Stockholm for some DN ice boating (weather permitting). If you havn't seen the DN's, check it out below...
Monday 19 February, 2007 - Club Racing Again
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Had a pretty full on weekend that started early on Saturday morning coaching the Sabots at the Lidgett Trophy at Daveys Bay Yacht Club. Apparantly they had to cut the number of kids down to 150, as there was just too many last year. I then raced off to Black Rock for a club race, but by the time I got there, they had all started in a fading Northerly of around 5-8 knots. I rigged the boat and was on the water in 15 minutes and joined in with Lindsay on his 14, doing their second & third lap. After doing a few laps the breeze dropped to non-foiling conditions, so I headed back in before it went to glass. Sure enough it did go to glass, so I was derigged and changed before any others were ashore. Lucky me!
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Simlar weather conditions were predicted for Sunday, ie high 30 degree temperature with strong 20-30 knot Northerly in the morning, fading off in the early afternoon, and then no wind by 3-4pm. Amac was back from China with a new machined wand fitting to replace on my boat, so we fitted it and sailed up to Sandringham for their club race at 2pm. I nailed the start to roll straight over the top of the 14' fleet into clear air, then tacked off towards the top mark. Amac wasn't far behind, but we had cleared off quite fast upwind in the dying pressure of around 10-12 knots by this stage. I launched off a wave after my first gybe and went over to windward, however I recoved reasonably quick even with the boom sticking up in the air, and the bow pointing downwind. I had a fair lead by the top mark on the last lap, but we now had around 6-8 knots and meant that I was going to have to have good VMG to beat the first 14' home. So I sat in the boat and steered aggressively to sail as low as possible. I crossed the line for the win by about one minute which I thought was pretty good for such light conditions. Amac was not too far behind the first few 14's, but we thought it would be best to sail back to Black Rock before we got stuck out there with no wind.
Friday 16 February, 2007 - New Victorian Moth State Champion
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So even though I was first overall at the 2007 Skandia Geelong Week, I didn't end up winning the Victorian Moth Championships which was part of it. Due to all races being counted for deciding our title, Ned was first overall, but since he is not from Victoria, Zac was crowned Victorian State and Junior Champion. Not a bad effort for his first regatta in his new boat. All we have to do is find the trophy for him, which is lost somewhere inside Amac's house.
Thursday 15 February, 2007 - Happy Snaps
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All the best photos from last weeks photo session with Thierry Martinez are now on the Bladerider site.
Tuesday 13 February, 2007 - Oopps
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I had Alex (British Moth sailor) over at my place on Sunday and was hoping to go for a sail, but with the 30-50 knots we had on the day, it was a bit much. But on Monday the wind had backed off to 15, so we were good to go. However with the unusual strong easterly we had the day before, it seemed to have pushed all the water at the other end of the bay, so the water level was extremely low. We stuck in the shallows just off the shore where the water was a bit flatter to start off with, giving him instructions to stay close to me, as there were reefs everywhere, and the low water meant that some would be close to the waters surface. After 30 mins on tipping over, he finally got the hang of it, having not sailed since the worlds, and then took in front of me and stright into a rocky reef doing about 15 knots! He got flipped off the boat pretty quick and stoof up to check the damage. Suprisingly there was only a few chips and stratches on the main foil. No hull damage at all! I couldn't believe it. So we kept sailing, swapped boats and went out to sea in the waves. Alex had not sailed in the waves before, so it was a new experience, but he managed quite well, even though he had a few big stacks. So on the way in, he scared the hell out of me again as he was on my boat and sailed astray into another big reef, only to capsize just beside it. But I had the biggest scare when I found out that he had battened hiking pants on. Basically this is a big no-no on the thin outer carbon wing tubes, like the Bladerider. As the point loading on the carbon causes it to crack and then break in half. So the boat coped more punishment today than Amac could dish out in a week and it still held up. Amazing... Now all we need is some more of these boats on the water. At least a 1000 more!
Sunday 11 February, 2007 - Racing again
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Amac and I raced for the first time in a long time at Black Rock club race. It seemed strange as it was only the second time in about 8 months that I had raced there. We had a bit on start off with, ie 20-23 knots and massive and typical Black Rock seas, but it soon eased off to a moderate 12-18 knots. We started with the 14's and I pulled away with great upwind speed over the waves. One 14 caught up to me towards the bottom mark in the building breeze, but I clawed them back on the next windward leg and then some. Amac dropped back on the last lap, but I managed to claim the win from the first 14' by only meters (even with a capsize to windward, mid gybe), so was quite happy to see things going so well even in such rough conditions.
Thursday 8 February, 2007 - Back in town
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Back in Melbourne after an overnight flight from Hong Kong on Sunday. Plenty of emails to catch up on since getting back, but it just keeps piling up in my Inbox. It didn't help yesterday taking the day off to go to down to Blairgowrie to do another photo shoot with Thierry Martinez. This time he brought his scuba gear and shot 2m underwater looking up at our foils with the sun in background. Some great shots that I am sure will appear in a magazine someday soon.
Been flat out since getting here. Basic routine is get up at 6:40am, breakfast at 6:50am, leave by 7am, factory by 7:30am, 30mins for lunch down the road, leave factory at 6am, battle traffic for 30mins and hopefully make it back alive by 7pm for dinner, back on the computer to attempt to download and emails and make contact with Amac/Gin over Skype/MSN, go for 1 hour run on treadmill, shower, and finally bed by 10pm! All the hard work that has been done over the last few months has really shown too. There are numerous hulls now at various stages of construction. Boat number five was being painted today and it looks bloody unreal! You'll have to wait for the photo shoot with Thierry Martinez in two weeks though to see how they have turned out. Not only is the finish so much better, but they are significantly lighter than the prototypes they we have been racing on recently, and I am talking kilograms lighter!!! Those McConaghy boys certainly know their shit.
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If you hadn't heard already, l'Hydroptere clocked 47.2 knots recently! Go boys!!!
Sunday 28 January, 2007 - 23.8 knots!
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Clocked a new top speed on the Bladerider over the weekend at Geelong Week of 23.8 knots as best peak (twice) and a best 10 second average of 21.9 knots. Still plenty left in the tank though I think. On top of that, it looks like I won the Victorian Dinghy Championships and the Victorian Moth Championships without sailing the last two races. We had to head home for a 21st on Saturday night, so don't know what I missed out on, but it looks like they didn't race on Sunday due to bad weather so lucky me! Off to China now, so internet/email will be limited over the next week while there, so go easy on the emails please.
Wednesday 24 January, 2007 - Racing Now
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So I am racing Skandia Geelong Week now! Looks like there will be plenty of wind too!
Tuesday 23 January, 2007 - Getting there!
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Don't know where the last few days went but in short:
Sailed last Friday in bugger all wind with Amac & Lex in the coach boat, and learnt a lot of new stuff about sailing the Bladerider in light airs - as I have never sailed in anything under 12 knots before in the boat (this will all be summarised on the Bladerider Support Information in the coming months).
Spent the whole day Saturday landscaping my front garden so I was totally buggered after lifting heavy volcanic rocks, ripping up the lawn and moving a heap of soil followed by a trip into town for a Musto invitation to drink free beer and wine. Thanks Duncan!
My birthday bash was on Sunday and had at least 60 people turn up at our place to drink and eat the 20kgs of lamb we had on a spit roast. I brought around 6 slabs of beer, but only about 1.5 was drunk so now I have a stack of beer at home, not to mention all the beer, wine, spirits and champagne that I got as gifts from friends and family. Everyone must think that I am an alcholic or something? To the contrary, I hardly drink at all! The best present came from Virginia of course - a set of personalised number plates for my '66 Porsche that I have had restored over the last six months. All I need is a tow bar to tow the Moth and I'll be set!
Looks like I have sold the A Class finally. The Mk5 hulls have dropped a lot in price recently due to all the new hull shapes being designed of late, but at least it is sold.
Sailed with Amac (two boat tuning) last two days off Black Rock, and have improved boat speed and handling about 10% since the Nationals already. We have documented everything so that we can setup all boats the same from now on making it easier for beginners to get going with minimal effort. The big different has come from the gearing and stiffness of the wand. However we have also reduced the amount of travel and play in the linkages making for a much smoother ride. It is so smooth, that we are not needing to make any fine tuning rudder adjustements whilst sailing at all! Have also been experimenting with rake a lot too. Interesting to see the effects with big changes in rake and rig tension today on the water. Gin took a heap of video, so will try and get some on the web soon.
Booked a flight to China on Sunday night after Skandia Geelong Week (I am not racing tho) to get these production boats fitted, rigged and sent to their new owners. I have no idea how many have been made or how long they are going to take to be delivered tho.
Thursday 18 January, 2007 - Blind Foiling
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Went out for the first real session with my new coach Dr. Lex Bertrand yesterday in a building breeze of 10-18 knots in typical big-short-steep waves at Black Rock. He had me sailing upwind (doing 12-14 knots) with my eyes closed for up to 30 seconds at a time. Not hard when you have no idea how high you are, what heal you have and what direction you are heading. However I managed to get the hang of it and even recoved from hitting the water to a near stop and getting back up on the foils up to 14 knots again. Without the recent changes to the wand, I would not have been able to do any of that. I came in after a few hours and gave the boat to Amac for a sail, who then went out in what was now 20-25 knots with 1-2 metre breaking waves and absolutely flogged the boat doing some massive stacks in the process, and yet the boat survived with no damage (again)! I think it is safe to say that we have resolved any structural issues with the boat.
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Finally got around to dumping all the tracks from my Velocitek S10 during the 2007 Nationals into GPS Action Replay. I have a report summary of the max, 500m and 10 second average speeds from the first seven heats (including Invitation Race). Interesting to note that even with my dodgey centerboard that I was using, I still clocked 22.6 knots as the best max, 18.5 knots as the best 500m average time, and 20.6 knots as the best 10 second average. Not that bad considering. The Poms have launched a new GPS speed league recently, but will have some work to do to get above Sam by the looks of it, but I am still holding onto the top peak speed though! ;-)
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Also got myself a new HP scanner/fax/printer/copier for a ridiculous $160!!! I don't know how they can sell them so cheap, but I do know how easily someone can buy one. So I can now scan the press articles that I have accumulated over the last few months from various places around the world. more...
Wedesday 17 January, 2007 - Member of the 30+ Club!
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Somehow I managed to turn 30 today without too much effort. If only 30 knots was so easy! Gin has planned a big party at my place on Sunday afternoon for lunch. I think there is a lot of people coming...
Tuesday 16 January, 2007 - Something different
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Went out again yesterday at Geelong with two boats with slightly different wand configurations and main foil. Amac and I swapped on the water and it was obvious that we had one set up a lot better than the other (shame my boat was not set up this way for the Nationals tho). So we have basically just confirmed Amac's initial thoughts on the wand setup and will do a bit more testing through the week to check a few more things before we start setting up the production boats with a wand. Four time Australian and two time World Moth Champion, Emmett Lazich, was also down at Geelong in winning form this time in a 12' skiff at the Interdomion Championships. We managed to give him a ride on my boat and couldn't get the grin off his face the entire time. Somehow I think he will be back in the Moth very soon. In return for the ride, I got on his 12' and had a blast on the helm around Corio Bay with his crew Cam. We tipped a few times for stupid reasons (ie on the wire to windward with the kite up and no wind and not used to two tiller extensions). Neat little boat and would love to have a bit more of a crack in one in the future I think. Shame they don't sail them in Melbourne.
Monday 15 January, 2007 - Two More...
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Graham Vials is up and running with a blog now too, and I also forgot about Team Q-Foil that I came across in Google last year as well.
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Took the boat down to Geelong and gave Mic a sail yesterday. Awesome conditions so heading down again today.
Saturday 13 January, 2007 - One More...
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Make that five aussies with Moth blogs. I forgot Bruce McLeod's in Sydney.
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Finally finished my boat off after Amac stripped it bare and I palmed some of my gear and fittings to Scott who has borrowed AUS 9351 (Bladerider 1) until the Sydney guys get their boats. It was blowing hard at over 20 knots (typical rough Black Rock conditions as well) and after three attempts to get the wand setup, I went out to meet Stian Tuv from Norway training on his Laser for Sail Melbourne. They were a fair way out, but caught them pretty quick as we had made some small changes to the wand, push rod fittings and rudder mechanisms make the ride a bit smoother despite the conditions. We swapped boats out there and Stian took off and left me plodding along in a full rig Laser. I havn't hoped in a Laser for a while, but I couldn't believe how much weather helm there was, how slow it was and how ugly the sail was. What crap boat! Stian tried to go downwind on the Moth, but had a few swims and decided to wait for me to catch up to him upwind. Most people think we always fly downwind in ugly conditions, but in fact we do the opposite and try and keep the boat on the water. It might be slower, but it is a lot safer!
Friday 12 January, 2007 - Busier than a one-armed brick layer in Baghdad
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For what was supposed to be a quiet week, I have been flat out all week trying to catch up on emails (so be patient if you are still waiting for me to get back to you), doing Bladerider work, cleaning up after Xmas (still), doing about 10 loads of washing, landscaping the front garden and custom making a new wardrobe in our spare room. On top of all that, I had to put my boat back together today after Amac pulled it all apart to make jigs for everything. Still got some things to make and do before we go sailing tomorrow at Black Rock, so it is going to be a bit rushed. But we will be hopefully taking some Norwegians for a sail if the weather is good. They are over here for Sail Melbourne in the Lasers. They probably won't want to go back to their plastic boats after a ride on a foiler.
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Just found out that another Aussie Mothie has set up a blog. Brent Pearson won the National Junior title on a home made boat (with KA rig of course). Along with Scott, Luka and myself, that is now four Aussies moth blogging, not to mention a few others popping up from, Great Britain, Estonia, Holland, France and Switzerland. Good work guys!
Bloody hell, that was a long drive home. We left on Thursday night straight after the presentation night around 10pm and got home at 8:30pm on Monday night. Will have a few days off now and get back into it later this week.
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Two Channel 7 News reports from the Championships now on YouTube. (Video 1 & Video 2)
Saturday 6 January, 2007 - Hard Core Bladerider Testing
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On the drive down the east coast of Australia back home, we stopped into Lake Macquarie where a number of Sydney 49er/18' sailors were there wanting to have a go on a Bladerider. These guys are without a doubt Australia's best skiff sailors and the boat got absolutely punished (even more than Amac would or could have). Suprisingly the only thing that broke was the 4mm dynemma bridle! If that didn't pass the ultimate test, I don't know what will. Anyway, check out the video on YouTube as it says it all...
Thursday 4 January, 2007 - Australian Championships: Heat 10
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Didn't bother sailing the last heat today. Must be getting old! Robo and Luka had a good race and came down to the winner of heat 10 to decide second and third overall. Luka got through in the end by a narrow margin. Bad luck Robo. Might have to give up those fags and practice your taking a bit more I think. I have got some Channel 7 News reports to upload on You Tube as well when I get back to Melbourne. Driving to Lake Macquarie tomorrow (all day drive), then sailing with Nico, Scott and John Harris on Saturday. Then driving home to Melbourne on Sunday by the looks of it.
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Click to download 'unofficial' overall and individual heat results after all ten heats. (XLS - 76Kb)
Wednesday 3 January, 2007 - Australian Championships: Heat 8 and 9
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Had a bit of wind to start heat eight as the forecast was for SE 20-25 knots. After the usual 200m walk out to the tip the boat over and put the foils on, I got up and foiling and immediately dropped back down into the water. I was trying a new foil section as the other one I was using had a lot of issues with it, and was a long way from being as fast as it should have been, and thought that there was a bigger problem with this one. However after a quick inspection, I realised that a bolt from the wand linkage was gone, making the boat useless to sail. So I took the foils off to head in to fix the problem and decided that would be my first race drop. Chris Dey, James McKenzie and Sam England also had issues with their foils, but were serious enough that they could not be repaired in a short time. Once I was back out on the water waiting for the guys to finish racing heat 8, there was some big wind changes and gusts of up to 25 knots but for some reason the race committee decided to abandon the race. Lucky me! The race started again and the wind was pumping in strong by now making for some fast racing (Robo posted a new PB with 23.4 knots max). I lead Luka, Robo and Steve comfortably around the course for the three laps, even finding time to hit a 50cm long fish quite hard doing 14 knots upwind, and turn around only to see it jump out of the water with its back broken. So crusied on in to take the win and fourth National Title by around two minutes. I decided I had enough racing for the series and handed the boat over to Amac to finally have a go. I watched from a RIB to see Robo take a heat win from Luka meaning that there was still only one point seperating the two for second and third overall. Amac finished a way back from the two, probably due to lack of time on the water recently.
Tuesday 2 January, 2007 - Australian Championships: Heats 6 and 7
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Two afternoon races today in a moderating 7-12 knots. I started well and had a good lead by the first mark. Robo had some issues upwind and capsized three times to windward and was back in about sixth behind James McKenzie who is sailing really well on 'Flying Lime' with new tapered foils. Luka, Steve and Chris were in the chasing pack and closed in on me by the bottom mark with better downwind speed. However I had much better height upwind and pulled away to extend my lead by a few minutes after the last rounding of the top mark. Now in a relaxed mode, I lost concentration downwind, launched the boat in the air, got flipped over the front of the boat and ended up with mud all over my foils. After taking my time to clean the mud off as to not lose any speed downwind, I got back on and cruised home for the win from Luka who was a few minutes back, followed by Robo about two minutes behind. At the start of heat seven, Robo and I started near the boat and foolishly sailed to the left side of the course and missed all the wind, leaving Chris and Luka to pull away with a big lead. I managed to claw Luka back and rounded not far behind Chris at the top mark. The boys managed to pull away downwind again to open up a 200m lead by the bottom mark. I picked this back up pretty quick upwind and rounded first around the top mark in front of Luka. Luka and I held apart until the final gybe towards the finish line, where he had better speed and rolled right over the top of me about 10 metres from the line to get the win by a boat length. So far I have had 6 x firsts and 1 x second, leaving me with a good margin from Robo, then Luka. Just one more good race needed tomorrow afternoon to claim my fourth National Title. The intention then is to hand the boat over to Amac to race against the fleet in the final two races, as so he can see what it is like racing the Bladerider against other designs for the first time, rather than just designing, building and testing it in front of a computer.
