Rohan Veal - 2003/04 Australian Moth Championships

2003/04 Australian Moth Championships
3 January, 2004

Lake Cootharaba in Queensland (near Noosa) was the host of the recent Australian Championships which proved to be ideal conditions for Moth hydrofoiling. Although the lake was shallow, the water was flat and wind was around 15-20 knots every day.

I ended up winning the last eight races on the foils by between 3-9 minutes to take the overall championship from ex-World Champion, Chris Dey from NSW and Rob Fish also from NSW.

The regatta started off with some 25 knot squalls and consequently the first two races were abandoned. The next two races were started in quite fresh conditions of around 20-25 knots, and probably should not have even started anyway as there was some major gear damage done to a lot of boats in the two races due to the extreme conditions. However we raced anyway and I chose not to foil due to the conditions at the time. In hindsight, I believe I could have foiled in those conditions, I just didn't know it yet. So I ended up with a 3rd and 4th in the first two races, not bad considering the two leaders in both races had at least 10kgs on me.

The next eight races were all basically the same, 15-20 knots with gusts up to 25 knots from the south-east. My winning margin in all races varied depending on how well second place was doing or by how gusty it was. With the gusts, it made it a little bit more difficult to foil consitently upwind where most of my margins were made, however downwind did not make much difference. I ended up completing most laps in around 7-14 minutes, which meant the races were over fairly quickly.

In the last eight races when I was foiling, I managed not to capsize once, yet I believe I had 4 capsizes in the first two races when I did not use them. I also took the GPS out in heat 9 and recorded a new maximum boat speed of 20.2 knots. However in the final heat I got onto a rather big 20 knot gust at the top mark which could have carried me down to the finish line, but had to reach to the gybe mark instead and doing in excess of 20 knots while doing so.

Interesting to note also that after the regatta was over, it was worked out that on average I was sailing similar speeds around the course to that of a 49er, 14' skiff or 16' skiff. Didn't feel that fast, but I suppose I was going quick.

Did not really need to change much on the boat during the regatta, apart from playing around with rudder packers, rake, proder length and rig tension. However I noted that they really did not make much difference at all to handling or boat speed.

It was important though to ensure that there was minimal lower rudder packers in place, otherwise it would create too much lift at the bow. I also found it comfortable to maintain a lot of tension on the control arm shock cord. This ensured that the main lifting foil was not lifting too much. What I think what we need to work on next is a set of t-foils that have less drag at the wing tips and is more managable in steep chop.

Got back to Melbourne on Monday night after a bloody long drive down the Newell Highway. Glad to be back now tho so Gin and I can start to look for a house to live in.