Wednesday 1 July, 2009 - My VRX is For Sale

It's time to put my VRX on the market and hopefully lock in a buyer before I head off to the Worlds at the Gorge, as it costs too much to bring it back. No doubt I will have a new boat to play with in a few months anyway. If interested, or know someone that is, let me know.

Tuesday 23rd June, 2009 - I See It, But I Don't Believe It

When out for a blast on Saturday in a gusty 15-25 knots with the V8 and one of my alloy rear foils on. However the half-meter waves were coming straight down the bay from the North and the wind was offshore from the North East, and if you have sailed a foiler Moth in conditions like this, you'll know that it is really easy to fly high and fast upwind sailing straight into the waves, and not so fast or high sailing across the waves.

So I was not suprised to be cruising upwind against the waves that day averaging around 14-17 knots, however as the wind built to 20-25 late in the session. I remember hiking my guts out to hold the boat down in one gust and glanced over to see 19 knots on the Speedpuck.

Never have I gone that quick upwind, so assumed it must have been something to do with the conditions or maybe all those hours running and in the gym over the last few months have been paying off.

So I downloaded the data from that session and seperated all the upwind and downwind tracks to confirm what I saw, and noted that I actually topped out upwind at ridiculous 20.5 knots and averaged a stupid 18.36 knots over that 10 second period.

Check out the screenshots to see the tracks and stat's of the four upwind legs for the evidence. BTW - That red bar is the period of the highest 10 second average, also showing the point of peak speed.

Thursday 18 June, 2009 - Not So Close Call

Funny story from local Mothie down here in Melbourne who was out sailing last weekend, but may not be so humerous to any animal activists reading this...

"I was sailing upwind in about 15 knots and felt a huge thud!  I looked under the boat and I had a penguin wrapped around my main foil, so I stopped the boat and it started to swim off, spitting out blood and little fish.  It didn't last long after that. I felt terrible."

Many of us have hit fish and birds before, but no penguins yet.

Monday 15 June, 2009 - Close Call

Dave and I had a late sail on Saturday afternoon that nearly involved the Air Wing (Police Helicopter) or at least some rescure boat to assist, after Dave had spent a good 5 minutes in the freezing cold waters off Sandringham.

Apparantly some people at Sandringham Yacht Club saw what was going on about 800 meters off their club and called Black Rock to report the trouble, as none of their Moths were silly enough to be out sailing at dusk in mid winter.

Thankfully Dave got out of the water and was able to tack his heavily raked boat in the solid 20 knots, and head back to the calmer waters and winds closer to shore.

Wednesday 10 June, 2009 - 28 knot Club Application

Nathan and I went out off Woollarha today in a very gusty 20-35 knots and knew that we were going to be pushed to our limits. After a quick stop back on shore to take off some lift on Nathan's front foil flap, we were back out there to see if we could break anything and push the boats as fast as possible.

Suprisingly nothing broke and consequently Nathan clocked 27.6 knots (peak) and 26.74 knots average in the extremely cold conditions average while I equalled my personal best of 27.89 knots (peak) but scored a new personal best 10 second average of 26.93 knots.

This is not far behind Arnaud's 10 second average record of 27.4 knots (unless Bora can provide proof otherwise having posted some pretty quick speeds apparently in Hawaii).

I got a bit excited as my on-screen display was 28.1 knots (peak) and 27.3 knots (average) but might have to wait for my entry into the 28 knot club this weekend where the forecast is looking pretty windy again down in Melbourne. The warmer water at Hazelwood Pondage will probably add 1-2 knots to the top speed too!

Tuesday 9 June, 2009 - Hurry up and Wait

Got out on Saturday for an hour or so with six other Moths off Black Rock, but the wind was on and off for most of the day so it wasn't ideal. But we all lined up a few times and everyone got a feel for their pace against the others.

Then Dave I headed down to Hazelwood's Annual Sauna Sail regatta at 6:30am to get in three races down there and have a crack a 30 knots, but the wind never came in and so I never even put my boat in the water. Waste of a day and four hours of driving really!

Monday was a public holiday here and so went down to Black Rock again where Scott and Amac had just got off the water after an early morning session. Dave and I went out in about 12 knots where it built to around 20 knots from the North West.

Before the seas got up too big, I clocked a new upwind top speed of 17.9 knots using the V6. Then after battling the short steep waves downwind a few times, it was time to head in and face the envitable disaster of trying to get the boat back on dry land where the strong on shore breeze makes Half Moon Bay look like a washing machine. Luckily nothing broke though although I did manage to rip my dry suit somehow. Not happy!

Off to Sydney tomorrow to get one last training session in with Nathan at Woollarha, before he heads off to Europe for the 29er Worlds.

Wednesday 3 June, 2009 - Mentally Handicapped

I think I might get in early and apologise now, as it looks like I might have screwed the Aussie Moth yardstick for everyone again after last Saturday's effort.

They put us on the old foiler Moth yardstick of 83, which put me in stupidly in front by over 15 mintues on corrected time in the overall results. However if they used the current Foiler Moth handicap of 79, it still would not have made any difference as I worked out than even if they put us on 70, I think I still would have won on corrected time by about a minute. Mind you, I reakon I lost about a minute with bad tacks and gybes, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

So I am not sure what the Foiler Moth Yardstick is going to be for 2009/10, but I would not be suprised if it is in the low 70's or even high 60's now. This would then put the Foiler Moth in the same league now as the A Class (71), F18 (70), 18' skiff (68), Taipan 5.7 with kite (67.5) and Tornado (65). Looking at these numbers though, I think the 18 footers should be around 65 with the Tornado and we should be around 68-69.

Personally I am not looking at yet another massive drop in our yardstick as a bad thing, as it should be a challenge for us to try and win mixed fleet races rather than just annoy other classes all the time with walk-away victories.

Sunday 31st May, 2009 - Like a Frightened Turtle

After being sick again last week, it was good to get back out on the water (in Rob's VRX again as mine is still in Sydney) in a nice 10-17 knot off shore Sou-Easterly at Black Rock along with Dave Barnes on the very first Prowler and Martin on his new aquired used X8 from Sydney.

The air and water temperature is starting to get quite cold down here which means two things, the shrinkage factor is quite high if you are one of those that prefer to put your foils on in the water, and secondly the foils cavitate frequently when foiling!

I can deal with the first issue by wearing a Musto Goretex drysuit, however the second issue is unavoidable, and it only makes it worse when you run into obstacles in the water such as jelly fish and weed.

So we started the four lap race with three Moth's, a very strong fleet of 14's and one Hobie Tiger (not sure where he came from though). I thought we might have a good race with the Hobie, however they seem to struggle to keep up downwind.

Somehow managed to contain rudder cavitation quite well, but Martin did not have the same luck when I saw him doing about 18 knots downwind with the biggest rooster tail I have ever seen coming from the back of his rudder and completely unable to shake it off. It wasn't long after that he had to retire with a broken vang also.

So after about an hour of racing, I had done my last lap had to head back to the finish line, however by the time I got to the finish line, I noted that I was literally on the arse of Lindsay Irwin who was comfortably leading the 14's. This meant that I had lapped virtually the entire 14 fleet, and done something which I had never done before.

I am starting to feel very confident with these new North V8 sails now, as even in reasonably moderate conditions and cold water I still managed a few spurts of 16 knots upwind and 22 knots downwind. Mind you I was using a brand new rear foil design CNC'd from alloy and it did feel more slippery than normal. Only time will tell if all this hard work has paid off.

Monday 18th May, 2009 - Running around in Circles

For the last few months I have been running with a local Athletics club to try and regain some of my lost fitness over the last 18 months. The only problem is that that I am more than three times the age of some of the runners there (but mostly twice the age) and were literally running circles around me in the first few weeks. However I have been coming good recently and am slowly working my way up to the 'young guns' of the squad.

To top it off, I have been looking at joining a gym for weight training now that my core fitness is starting to come good, and on Sunday night somehow I won a three month gym membership at a local gym at a silent auction/fund raiser at our local Life Saving Club. Perfect timing!

Sunday 17th May, 2009 - Right On Track

Got two days of training, tuning and adjustments in Sydney with Nathan before he had to head overseas for 49er racing late last week and we both seemed to be very confident now with our equipment, set up and boat speed.

On the Friday afternoon it was a good 20-25 knots, and while Nathan and I were using the North V6/CST 353 and V8/SS 'Skinnyboy' respectively, we noted average upwind speeds of 16 knots in the gusts, peaking at 17 knots with our slowest speed around 14 knots. We also both could not believe how well the V6 sat on our rigs and how comfortable it felt even with +30 knots apparent on the nose. We will certainly be using these sails in the Worlds when the wind gets up.

Downwind we peaked out at about 25.6 knots average I think, but the cold water temps meant that super high speeds were not going to happen on that day. Might have to wait a few weeks to try and clock over 30 knots at the annual Hazelwood 'Sauna Sail' regatta where water temps should be over 25 degrees, cold air and super flat water. Can't wait!

Monday 11th May, 2009 - Bling!

Over the last few months, a few of the Bladerider crew have been working with Composite Components on some new rear foils. Glen came up with three designs and we opted to get the two smaller ones prototyped by CNC'ing some alloy to test them on the water asap.

I can't tell you the results of our testing just yet, but talk about a Gucci bit of kit on the Moth. They also look very cool underwater as the water sunlight reflects off them, almost like a Sailfish swimming underneath your boat. The only problem is the inevitable corosion reaction that is going to happen with the carbon. But for now they are serving their purpose well and giving us a lot of great feedback for our next generation of foils.

Tuesday 28th April, 2009 - Sydney Sailing

Got back from Sydney on Sunday after spending three days training with Rob and Nathan. Well worth the trip as their jellyfish are tiny in comparison to ours at the moment and plus they have good winds (except over Easter), warmer water and smaller waves. It is no wonder why so many people sail up there.

After Scott's incident on Friday, he decided to take Nathan's X8 out on Saturday afternoon to get some much needed foiling time on the water. Marty came down too and we did a heap of one lap races on the Laser course. The wind kicked up to around 20 knots by late afternoon and we ended up tearing around the short course in stupid times, making the Laser's look even more incredibly slow.

Looking forward to getting back up there next week along with some new and experimental gear that we are currently working on, as Melbourne is ridiculously cold at the moment and far from inviting to go sailing.

Wednesday 21st April, 2009 - Cocked Again

Steve and I attempted to sail in the annual Cock of the Rock race at Black Rock on the weekend, but all hope of trying to win this race again failed when we noticed the whole bay being covered in huge jellyfish. With all the recent sunshine and lack of wind, meant that the jellyfish bloom and sit close to the water surface.

This is bad news for us foilers especially in light winds, as it is like trying to run through the middle of a mosh pit at a System of a Down concert! So Steve and I gave up before we even started. It has been a few years now since we have had decent wind for this race, but we should be due for a good one next year.

I'm off to Sydney tomorrow to do some training with Rob and Nathan for the next few days, and plan to leave the boats up there and train for a few days each week over the next month or so.

BTW - Nathan clocked 28.23 knots (peak) and 26.9 knots (10 second average) the other day, giving him one of the fastest peak and average speeds ever recorded on a foiler Moth.

I don't know what day it is in April, 2009 - Where's my Lunch?

It has been well over 30 hours and four planes since I left my hotel in Rio and I am still not home yet. I have had breakfast now at least four times now too and I just want some lunch!

Firstly I had breakfast after a great 9 hour sleep (thanks to some magic pills) from Santiago to Auckland. Then I had breakfast again in the Qantas lounge in Auckland, then once more on the plane to Sydney and finally some McDonald's breakfast when I landed in Sydney.

Now I am waiting for a flight home at the Qantas lounge in Sydney to Melbourne (but refusing to eat breakfast again), but now I just hope that my luggage and myself get there after Qantas announced 1750 jobs to go yesterday and Qantas staff have been known to walk off the job in the past.

BTW - the photo on the right was taken by Andrew Lechte, who is an ex-Moth Victorian State Champion, now working for North Sails in Japan and also Telefonica Blue sail designer. Also on board was Tom Addis who I brought my second Moth from in Sydney many years ago. Small world...

Sunday 12th April, 2009 - Buggie Smugglers

It seems like I made the right decision to head over to Rio rather than go to the NSW States in Sydney, as for the last week we have had mostly good winds and weather, when it should be cloudy with no wind.

On Friday I went out in a gusty 5-20 knots and got in a few runs with a new experimental wand. Then a couple of the Green Dragon guys came out and one Aussie guy proved to be quite good for his first ride. It wasn't long after when a RIB load of adults, kids and crew from ESPN South America came out for some show and tell with the camera.

Once that was over, it was time to hand it over to some locals for a test sail. Clothed in only cock jocks, I warned them that they might need a bit more armour, but it seems as though the Brazils are very comfortable with their basic choice of attire in all sporting activities, including soccer, volleyball and running.

A few of the younger guys then got a ride and picked up the new art of foiling very quickly. Needless to say, I think they will all be wanting a foiler for Christmas. However with the taxes so high here (around 100% of the paid price), it is certainly a toy for the wealthy at this stage. We are looking into alternatives to get foilers here for a lot less, and hopefully we have a solution in the next few months.

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