madmothist

Happy Xmas

2011-12-26T13:14:00.000-05:00

The 2nd day of Christmas and it's John Lennon's turn...

Hope all is well in the moth world.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T10:15:00.000-05:00

Try-Foil weights

2011-11-06T10:30:00.005-05:00

After MARKLA posted the weights (estimated) for his Slino design, I thought I'd come up with comparable weights for Try-Foil. The boat, built in 2007-08 has undergone a number of modification and has been generally stored outside (but under the cover of a tarp.) Weights were measured by the bathroom scale method (stand on digital scale with and without holding various components and find the difference in the weighings.) Repeat a few times to get consistent results. I figure a max error of +/- 1 pound

Hull, paint, gantry (and foam non-skid, mainsheet blocks, take-up bungees, wand pivot block) 33 lbs (compare with Slino's 26 lbs)
Wings, tramps (and foam flotation, vang and cunny floppy blocks) 23 lbs (compare with Slino's 22 lbs)
Foils, tiller (M2 mainfoil & strut, homebuilt rudder assembly) 14 lbs (compare with Slino's 19 lbs)
Rigging, standing, running, mast, sail (and boom) 18.5 lbs (compare with Slino's 29 lbs.)

Slino total (est) 43.33 kg = 95.53 lbs
Try-Foil total (measured) 88.5 lbs = 40.14 kg

I believe that's a true total. I'm not sure why the large discrepancy in the weight of the rig. I'm using a standard fat Burville mast and KA sail. The boom is a large section carbon tube (the same I use for the outer rack tubes) and was built be Ted Vandussen. Standing rigging is 3/32" wire rope. Spreader and prodder are home-built. The two primary vang purchases are some Sailing Bits thimbles. It would be interesting to see how these numbers compare with others (either production or home builds.)

Archival records

2011-10-22T18:42:00.003-04:00

After the latest low-riding event in Rye, I got to thinking about the old days. Then today while clearing out some old files I came across a couple of clippings from an old (very old?!?) Yachts and Yachting. Year was probably in the mid 70's, a time when I had built a Stockholm Sprite and a Mistral. I was attracted to the Mistral because of its advertised ability to effectively carry heavier helm (14 stone.)

Yep, I'm a dyed in the wool home-builder. Those sailing production boats might never know the joy of flying your own creation...unless you're John, Amac or Cookie.

HPDO

2011-10-15T11:39:00.006-04:00

Well, I've finally caught my breath long enough to post about last weekend's HPDO. Yes, after some long nights I did manage to sleeve and repair the rear rack bar and drive up to make the regatta. The weekend saw light breezes, except for a bit before the first race Saturday, and after the last race on Sunday (go figure...) All the racing was held in low-riding conditions, and some in near windless drifting just fast enough to counter the tidal current.

See pic of a typical start here http://www.photoboatgallery.net/p317630384/e3c35e3b0

Results are here:http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=478 Peter won and I finished 2nd. If I didn't have a breakdown prior to Sunday's two hour delayed start, I probably would have won, but Peter again showed the ability to string together finishes with non-lettered scores, even though he did get a TLE in the first race. The conditions were challenging for the RC as well, with a large sailing yacht drifting into the anchored RC boat mid-way through Saturday's last race causing the finish to be moved to the weather mark (and sending folks who didn't score the finish as per the rules: always finish from the direction of the last mark.) I had thought the old "button-hook" finish was well by the wayside, but not according to the folks who were recording the placings. At any rate, it didn't affect the final results.

Both Matt and Anthony bailed on Sunday's racing (Anthony literally when finding water incursion after Saturday's low-riding) leaving the 2nd day's competition to Peter, me, Bill and Spencer. I thought I'd be smart and use a wooden rudder sans horizontal for the light winds on Sunday. Actually, it worked fine for the three hours we spent waiting for the first gun only to have a G10 gudgeon shear off thirty seconds before the start. I was towed in by Dave Ellis (former sailing master of St. Pete YC and the founder of the classic moth mid-winters series.) I did manage to make the next race with the original rudder. I'll probably re-build the wooden one with a beefier gudgeon for use in the future.

Overall, the event was fun. The hospitality by Peter and Adrianne was outstanding. The dinner Saturday night was scrumptious (and I won a $50 gift certificate to APS for my story-telling.) The beer by Heineken was plentiful and cold. The photography by Photoboat.com resulted in some great shots (primarily of Matt before the racing on Saturday.) The drive was long (and not something a 57 year old guy should pull off by himself,) but won't stop me from attending next year.

See Matt flying high here: http://www.photoboatgallery.net/p317630384/e2529bf68

And contrary to Matt's opinion as he was watching me low-riding faster and deeper than he could, I don't think it was because of the design of the Hungry Beaver as a "fat bottomed girl" but rather because of the tucked pin-tail that my boat has. Bill Beaver based his Hungry Beaver on Mark Thorpe's Hungry Tiger, the last low rider to win a worlds. So maybe the BR, the M2, and the Assassin all have more transom drag in low-riding conditions. So here's to Queen and Emma's original Fat Bottomed Girl.

CARNAGE!

2011-10-01T15:46:00.002-04:00

I guess it had to happen sooner or later. Once the foil issue is completely sorted, and the gantry is made bulletproof, and the tramps are re-sewn, then the next weakest part has to give. My rear wingbar gave out sailing in an ocean regatta where there were 4 foot seas and 10-20 knots of wind. Luckily a rescue r.i.b. got me back to shore. I'll attempt to sleeve the pieces but my best guess is that I'll need another tube custom made.

I'm not sure why it broke. The rear cheese slicer may have been too tight. I had just reinstalled the rack to put on the resewn tramps and may have tightened down on the U-bolt a bit too much, although I realize it only serves to hold the rack and hull together. I also may have introduced some stress cracks by pounding on the tube with a rubber mallet the last time I disassembled it. At any rate it looks like the HPDO is a bust again this year.

I'll continue to gaze at the picture of a glory moment taken two years ago by the Photoboat folks. To all those sailing this year, I hope the conditions are just as good.

Norfolk Yacht and CC Regatta

2011-09-08T22:05:00.000-04:00

Five classic mothies met in Norfolk on Labor Day weekend for the NYCC annual regatta. The breeze was non-existent for an hour and when it finally came in a little we launched at Susan's urging to get something going. We sailed one race on our own, picking nav aids and an anchored barge for rounding marks, then the race committee came out and set a proper course for three more races. It was only the moths and the Hampton O-Ds, the remaining classes staying at home, either to continue cleaning up from Irene or to attend the ODU football opener. The absence of the dozens of Optis, a staple during prior years, was rather eye-opening and disappointing.

Mike won, I finished 2nd, Walt 3rd, Greg 4th, and Susan brought up the rear. Certainly the light and shifty conditions were not to Susan's liking, who was looking for the steady 8-12 that she loves. I mounted the camera on the stern quarter of Try-Umph and got some footage to show the conditions. Video to come...

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-26T16:32:00.000-04:00

Awning furled, deck chairs lashed down, guy lines on the live oak tree and four moth boats stashed in the garage. I had already broken down Try-Foil to remove the tramps so I could get them repaired so it was the easiest to store. Try-Umph is to the left, Shadowfax (a Magnum 2) is to the right, and Susan's Aftermath (a modified Shelly) is on the dolly.

This time tomorrow we should have 65+ mph sustained winds and up to 12 inches of rainfall.

Oh joy.

Input needed

2011-08-10T16:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, to all the M2 owners out there...

My push-rod wand mechanism is different from the Mach2. A couple of pix are below and the relevant dimensions +/- are as follows:

Rod attaches 30 mm from the pivot point and results in a 34 degree swing in the wand to achieve the 24 mm horizontal throw at the bell crank.

Wand length is 92cm fully extended (vertical distance below the bottom of the hull when vertical) and 74cm when shortened up (as it was this past weekend)

The ride height adjustment simply lengthens or shortens the push rod and will cause the max flap up wand position to occur either with the wand vertical (high height) or at a bout a 45 degree angle (low ride height.)

Am I in the ballpark???

Managing off wind sailing

2011-08-09T17:41:00.001-04:00

At the Ware River regatta we were presented with lots of breeze and some short steep chop. The downwind legs were interesting. If flying too high the rudder would occasionally ventilate or stall and result in a crash. My approach was to shorten up the wand and to drop the ride height. I'm not sure that's the best approach, so more experimentation is needed in those conditions. At any rate, I complied another video of the weekend's sailing. The battery died before things got really extreme so I didn't get the pitchpole on video.

Ware River Regatta

2011-08-08T15:07:00.030-04:00

With apologies to Zallinger's "March of Progress" and the WRYC T-shirt artist, I offer the next step:

August 6th and 7th saw five moths meet for the annual Ware River Governor's cup regatta. It was the largest gathering of moths in the middle Atlantic area to date.

While rigging up we were visited by Ted Causey, who won the moth world championship at Ware River in 1976. Pic by Lin McCarthy.

The breeze was up on Saturday (topping off in the mid 20s with big waves) and we only got in 2 races with some attendant carnage. I won and Bill Beaver took second. Gui Vernieres, John Zseleczky and Mike Parsons rounded out the fleet.


John, Mike, Bill, me and Gui. Pic by Lin McCarthy

After Saturday's second race Bill heard a crack on his strut during a capsize and decided to end-for-end the strut hoping to save the foil. The top (or then the bottom) still decided to part ways while sailing back in. Needless to say he didn't sail Sunday but will surely add to the carnage album.

With Saturday's big breeze, Mike launched and shortly returned to shore figuring that discretion is better than having to repair various bits and pieces. Gui was pleased having a fairly long session in some wind and having nothing break. Neither John nor I had equipment problems, except for the loose nuts at the end of the tillers. We all agreed that whoever managed the offwind legs the best would end up on top. Gui, having his sailboard to play on after Saturday's racing, estimated the puffs in the upper twenties (he was using his 6.5 sqm sail.) The waves on the 2nd race were larger than anything I experienced at Weymouth or at the Gorge -- maybe 2.5-3 ft max. We figured the southeast wind had a fetch of about 20 miles rolling in from the mouth of the Chesapeake.

Me at speed on Saturday. pic by Lin McCarthy

Sunday dawned with still some breeze left over but it had veered to provide flat water. But by the time we got to the starting area it had dropped to sometimes marginal foiling conditions. Lin McCarthy on the RC boat got a nice shot of Gui during one flyby.

Since there were nine classes to grind through the sausage making starting sequence, we decided to bail out and just have some self-started races up to a mark and back. Sunday's sailing was fun even if it didn't count. We got lots of comments, especially from the junior Opti sailors.

I edited a video of the first race and am working on the second tonight. Still pics as I get them. The full set from Lin McCarthy is on the Yahoo! site

Sail or Blog?

2011-07-30T10:32:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a whole lot more sailing than blogging so here's a consolidated report.

With the Harbor Springs regatta off the schedule, I wanted a chance to sail in fresh water so Susan an I loaded up the boats and headed about an hour and a half south to the Chowan River in North Carolina. The pictures above shows the foiler and Susan's classic on the trailer and a close up of the Squirrel-cam arrangement. Over two days they wasn't a lot of wind but I did manage to get airborne for about an hour each day. Snippets of the video recorded on the first day are below. It's fun being able to sail in a bathing suit and not worry about jellyfish. The freedom without the constraint of the wetsuit made my movements aboard much more graceful. Only 19.5 knots max, but fine in the moderate conditions.

The second day I took off the camera mount and placed the Velocitek forward where I could see it. What a difference! Being able to view the boat speed through the jibes made three is a row possible. Maybe there is hope!

After returning from North Carolina it was back in the salt waters of Willoughby Bay. I started to play with the Velocitek's ability to download tracks. One session is shown below. The speed statistics include some anomalous readings - max of over 32 knots and a average of over 27 kts. You can be sure that they are not real!

I've also been trying to hit the weather window just right to get nice conditions. One day last week I launched at 9:30 and got the best two hours of the day. I like the website that provided this display. It also has the ability to display forecast conditions for the next few hours. During the summertime it's a question of whether the seabreeze will overcome the pressure gradient or not...

One day I tried another camera mount. The wind started marginal then continued to drop out. The most excitement was watching a least tern dive bomb a seagull. I wonder what was the cause of the tern's consternation?

On the racing side, I competed in a regatta on July 30 at ODU. The handicap fleet had just a handful of boats and they scored me using a Portsmouth number of 65 (my recommendation.) While the breeze was up as we were launching it dropped throughout the day. Needless to say I couldn't sail to the rating and finished out of the money. It was useful to have timed starts, mark roundings, figuring laylines, etc. There was another race at Ware River the following week and I'll have a separate post for that.

Sail, break, repair, repeat.

2011-07-16T17:45:00.001-04:00

Two days ago the rudder's horizontal got a little loose so yesterday was spent reattaching it with a bigger 1/4"-20 bolt and some WEST System Six-10 adhesive. Today I hit the water again and ended up with a broken pushrod. The pain in the neck is that the piece that broke is the 10-32 left hand thread I use for the ride height adjuster. So it's another quickie order to McMaster in Chicago for a couple of bolts (one to replace the broken piece and a second for a spare.) I did manage to collect a new piece of video with the speed readout much clearer. The breeze was less than Thursday and my top speed was almost as great. I've added some subtitles and music. Enjoy. I still gotta work on the jibes and remember to attach the tiller centering bungee...

The beginnings of a long set of tweaks

2011-07-15T18:39:00.002-04:00

For the past week I've been sailing Try-Foil with her new gantry and new M2 mainfoil. These sessions have been the first since last year's debacle at Harbor Springs. The initial settings on the strut and rudder angles were my best guess. I've been tweaking the mainfoil's AoA and have been pushing the boat hard upping my highest recorded speed (as of today it stands at 23.3 kts.) I've also installed a GoPro camera and have taken some interesting video.

My first attempt (sans music) is a sorta homage to the moth pioneer videographers, including my version of the Squirrel-cam, the under-the-transom Bora-cam, and a nod to Gui's North Cacalaki road trip.

The next outing will have the Velocitek much closer to easily read the speed. And even though the turbid water of Willoughby Bay is my home pond, is it any wonder why I'm eager to sail again in the crystal clear water of Lake Michigan up at Harbor Springs?

Gantry #3

2011-06-26T11:09:00.001-04:00

After a couple of weeks playing with my classic (the first coat of paint went on yesterday) I finally got around to working on the foiler. The projects include fitting the M2 mainfoil and re-building the gantry attachment points. After my "agricultural" repair of gantry #2 at Cascade Locks, I needed a new gantry that would not fail. The design does away with the lower bottle screw and instead incorporates the threaded fork for gross adjustments. The top attachment points are also forked, but of glass tube rigorously reinforced with lots of carbon. I also beefed up the saddle flanges from 1/8" to 3/16" G10 plate. The whole bit seems much more solid and cleaner. I've decided to do away with the fairing although after a few weeks of use it may come back.

With the gantry attachment points repaired I can reassemble the racks so I can easily lay the boat on its side. Next up is the M2 strut cassette for the well. I hope to have the trial fit in the next few days and perhaps hit the water by next weekend. Stay tuned.

More Seconds

2011-06-20T07:36:00.005-04:00

Susan and I just came back from the Classic Moth regatta in Brigantine, NJ, a seven hour drive from Norfolk. I was sailing my 14 year old mistral "Try-Umph" on which I had just recently replaced the roll tanks. Susan was sailing her Shelley, "Aftermath." She finished mid fleet (8th out of 15) and I finished 2nd (with a 2,2,1,1,2), just one point behind John Zseleczky. Mike Parsons finished 3rd. That's three guys who have also built foilers in the top three places. The racing was fun and the party hosted by Joe Courter was even better. I can't wait 'til next year. After the racing it seems like the Ware River regatta will have at least 5 international moths so we'll get our own start. As of now, Bill, Gui, John, Mike and I all are interested. Maybe even another couple of guys from the Annapolis area. I'm looking forward to this race in seven weeks -- I hope there'll be some wind.

The replaced roll tanks on Try-Umph were an attempt to improve the appearance and drop a few pound in the hull weight. The original tanks were overbuilt and were completed in eight pieces as described in this link. For the new tanks I removed a lot of the underlying structure, sistered the frames with some foam and laid a piece of 5.7 oz carbon cloth under the section where I sit and hike. The results look better to me.

Also on a second lap is the picture in this month's Sailing World, that Photoboat.com took of me in 2008 at the HHPDO in Rye, NY. Since I guess "All publicity is good, except an obituary notice ," I'm glad for the mention, even if my name isn't mentioned. It does go to show that all moths aren't black, that there are some homebuilts being raced, and that all mothies aren't experts. Thanks Dr. Crash, even if I'm not from Indian Harbor.

Photo by Photoboat.com in Sailing World magazine

Back to the Future

2011-06-12T10:52:00.002-04:00

School and crew season have finally ended and I can now turn back to working on Try-Foil. The goal this season is to fit the new Mach2 mainfoil and strut to my boat. The first challenge is to adapt the lower bell crank pivot to my modified pushrod location which was situated to match up with the old FC mainfoil. My solution is to simply raise the pin location resulting in an effectively shorter strut. I'll also have to beef up the strut where it exits the hull to match the designed exit point, now an inch and a half higher. I'll also have to fit a new cassette for my well to accommodate the new cross section. Hopefully all will be taken care of in the next couple of weeks.

But first up is a re-decking of Try-Umph, by 1997 mistral classic. Next weekend Susan and I will be heading to New Jersey to sail in the 20th annual Brigantine moth regatta organized by George Albaugh, a CMBA stalwart and class historian. Susan will be in Aftermath, her Shelley, and I'll be sailing the mistral. With the past few years focused on travel with Try-Foil (in '08 to Weymouth, in '09 to Cascade Locks, and last summer to Harbor Springs) we hadn't made the trip to Brigantine, one of Susan's favorites, in quite a few years. So I'm looking forward to the racing and socializing after a week of boat work replacing the roll tanks.

As an aside, George recently posted on his blog Mid-Atlantic Musings some historical material about mothing in the 1950s. Included in recent classic moth discussions was the moth hiking board (seen in the pic at the top, courtesy of George Bailey) a controversy that caused them to be banned at the 1950 IMCA AGM. Seems nothing is new under the sun as we consider the solid wing sixty years later. Interestingly enough, George relates that Warren Bailey won the 1954 Moth World Championship in his boat MACH ONE. Isn't it a small world?

Here's the video by Clayton Fuller that George posted:

Added Value?

2011-03-06T22:15:00.004-05:00

From Scuttlebutt:

(March 4, 2011) - The submission deadline for the all-deciding ISAF mid-year conference beginning of May in St. Petersburg is approaching fast - in fact it will be 12:00 UTC on Monday, March 10. Here are some quotes from well know members of the Sailing Community that highlight why Kiteboarding should become a part of the future Olympic Sailing Programme.

...Jerome Pels (ISAF Secretary General): "Foiling Moths with wing masts and kiteboards are the answer" (in response to a statement from Pierre Ducrey, Head of Sports Operations at IOC, regarding "added value" that sailing needs to provide to the Olympic Games)....

This answer to the added value question will result in a twofold increase in cost for those wanting to achieve Olympic gold. The difference in cost between the kiteboard answer and the wing mast moth answer would be at least one order of magnitude. While the ISAF may think this is good for sailing, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be good for the class. Besides, would an Olympic designated moth be a one-design (hopefully limiting costs) or keep the development aspect?

It seems a pot of trouble if you ask me.

Equipment matrix

2011-01-17T11:27:00.001-05:00

I sorta missed the compilation of an equipment matrix for the competitors at Belmont. I know it's a lot of work, and somewhat like trying to herd cats, but can anyone give us who weren't there some insight as to the equipment used? Obviously a lot of M2s and KA sails. Where was the first non-M2? How many BRs? Assasins? Ninjas? FCs? Homebuilds?

What other sails besides the KA kit? I was intrigued to see a white sail used by Michael O'Shea in at least some races. What else raised the eyebrows? Any large chord masts? I thought I saw a wooden boat in a pic or two.

Curious minds what to know.

Doug's gear table for the Europeans is linked here for reference.

Why do you sail the moth?

2011-01-15T10:29:00.001-05:00

From Chris' blog.

I think the title question is an interesting one. So why do I sail the moth? Unlike the vast majority of current sailors my motivation is rooted in my youth and my college sailing experiences. Yeah, I built and raced International moths in the 70s and back then adopted the ethos of home builder. But that class of ply hulls and box wings (even tho I used a double luff sail) is way different from the present foilers.

So what is the draw to the foilers and why do I continue to tilt at windmills? Yeah, there's a handful of homebuilders in the US but I seem to be the only guy doing the traveling (not to Dubai or Belmont, but I sailed at Weymouth, Cascade Locks, and Harbor Springs.)

I found a short piece I wrote over three years ago and it still rings true:

"Seduced Again"

Anyone who has sailed long enough has had that experience of “Wow! This is what it’s all about.” For some, including me, the experience includes an adrenaline rush brought on by speed and power. Big boats sailors get it, dinghy sailors get it, multi-hull sailors and sailboarders get it. I’ve had that experience on all of those platforms. I recall the first time the speedo broke double digits during a breezy downhill spinnaker run on the J-33. Of course, included are the numerous times I was whooping with delight on the heavy air broad reaches on my Laser. Or on the canoe, blasting to weather, hiking off the end of the sliding seat. Surely, hitting twenty knots with the weather hull kissing the tops of the waves on a NACRA 5.2. And definitely sailing a short board with the hull seemingly in the air as much as it was in the water as I skipped across the surface of Willoughby Bay. But all of those experiences happened back in my younger days. It’s been almost twenty years since I’ve heard the siren’s song. Six weeks ago she grabbed my attention with a whispered “shussssssssssssh.”

      The occasion was the classic moth nationals in Elizabeth City. After we finished racing on Saturday, Bill Beaver loaned me his foiler Bambi Gets High. Within five minutes, without having to tack once, I was foiling. Actually it would have happened sooner but the wind was in the 8-10 knot range and I needed the slight puff to lift my 175 pounds off the surface. I had read about the moment in numerous moth blogs but until I experienced it I didn’t really understand. In every other boat I’ve sailed, the faster it went the more noise it made. The crashing through the waves, the splashing of spray and foam, the creaking of the rig, the hum of the board or rudder and the occasional flogging of the sail – these things are the hallmarks of power and speed. Until now. As the Hungry Beaver rose from the water and accelerated, the noise that meant a boat was going fast went away. Silence. Wonder. Amazement. A quiet shusssssssssh as the foils sliced through the Pasquotank River. I was immediately smitten.
    Bill has gotten it right. His foiler was immaculately prepared and constructed so that even I, a 52 year old high school teacher, could scamper aboard and feel in control. During one sustained puff I was hiking full out off the rack, steering and holding the sheet with one hand as I dangled my other hand down and dragged it through the water, all the while being foil-borne 24 inches above the river. Compared to Bill’s earlier Bambi Meets Thumper, an extremely narrow low-rider, his new boat is forgiving and stable. The large diameter wing longitudinals and the Styrofoam he stuffed in the outer bit of the tramp allowed me to stay hooked in whenever the wind died and threatened to capsize me to weather. At the next puff I just needed a couple of quick pumps on the sheet and I was out of the water and moving smartly. Easier than waterstarting! Bill had told me that the area of the hull around the daggerboard was reinforced so that if I needed to stand on the hull to right it after a capsize, that was where I was to step. I never used that technique. Actually, righting and climbing aboard was much easier than my 1970’s Magnum moth design.
     I’m now committed to having a foiler of my own. With Bill’s and Gui’s assistance, I started on the road to foiling last weekend. I’m working on the blades now and I’ve gotten a quote for a new KA sail and Burvill mast. I hope to start the hull before the holidays. By next spring my seductress will have her way with me.
Stay tuned.

So, yeah, it's sort of an addiction, a seduction, an urge that needs a periodic fix. The fact that my boat will probably never win a Gran Prix level regatta is rather irrelevant. In fact, I get the most pleasure just blasting across Willoughby Bay, my local piece of water, and coming ashore tired but satisfied -- even more so if nothing broke or if the latest fix seemed to be an improvement.

Come this spring I'll be using my fourth mainfoil (finally breaking down and buying a M2 centreboard) and my second rudder (and of course, contemplating making a third rudder that will be even longer and stiffer.) I'm staying with my 4-year old KA sail and fat mast for the short term, so there's no garage built wing in the near future, but who knows?

I'm envious of those with the top of the line kit, but am happy with my home-built seductress.

Belmont from half a world away

2011-01-14T14:16:00.002-05:00

Congrats to Nathan; a well deserved win! And a great job by Scott as regatta director and to the sponsors and videographers. I only wish we would have had the TracTrac working like at the Euroupeans.

The US contingent finished with 5 in the top 20, but only one in the top ten. The home field advantage was certainly in play with the lion's share going to the home country and most of the top going to the Lake Macquarie regulars.

The lessons learned seem to be:

(1) practice
(2) have equipment in top-notch condition to prevent breakage
(3) have lots of free time to practice
(4) be strong and fit and not afraid of big air
(5) practice often with a few high ability "mates."
(6) use well tested equipment, not risking untried modifications
(7) practice.

There's an old Vaudeville routine: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Practice, practice, practice.

Next up in a short 17 months is the 2012 Worlds in Italy. Will I be there? Hopefully, but for sure in San Diego in 2013. My boat will soon be sporting a new Mach2 mainfoil so this upcoming season should be a lot more productive.

A prediction on who to watch

2011-01-02T14:07:00.000-05:00

I'll have my eye on George "Bear" Peet and how he finishes when I consider the overall effectiveness or not of the wing. If Bora wins, unless it's a huge going-away-margin of difference, it may not prove much. Bear, on the other hand, seems always to be just out of the top group. He's an extremely knowledgeable sailor and a whiz at repair and fabrication. He has also been involved for years as Bora's training partner and was from day one in with the Object2 wings. If Bear breaks into the top three or four then for me the wing will have proven its effectiveness.

The only logical decision

2010-12-28T12:58:00.000-05:00

Notice from the IMCA President regarding wingsails

Dear IMCA Members,

Thank you for the prompt responses to your own national Presidents on the vote to amend the 2011 World Championships NOR and thus allow wingsails to be measured and compete; or not to amend the NOR.

The Presidents of all national associations have responded with the vote being 30 in favour of option 1 and 6 in favour of option 2.

We will therefore be proceeding with issuing an amendment to the NOR under the guidance of and with approval from ISAF. Chief Measurer Adam May is currently working with ISAF on the final text and I expect this to be released shortly.

Mark Robinson

President

International Moth Class Association

Coach Matt

2010-12-26T09:43:00.001-05:00

Matt Knowles has a new blog that hasn't found itself on Doug's IMCA BlogRoll yet so I thought I'd post a link. Some neat pics of the wings and of Matt's coach boat.

http://knowlesmoth.blogspot.com/2010/12/arrived.html

Also, the report from Chris Rast, including a somewhat skewed video of Bora on the water.

http://fasterandhigher.blogspot.com/

Lastly, a link to Bear's ride onboard Ichi Ban in the Sydney-Hobart race:

http://rolexsydneyhobart.com/yacht_details.asp?raceEntryID=12526

Go team USA!

Travel costs

2010-12-23T08:23:00.002-05:00

The "travel box" rule, i.e., requiring all rigs (including mast, sail, boom, wing sails etc) to be able to be dismantled and packed away in a box of similar dimensions to the current hull travel boxes seems to be a proposal specifically aimed at barring the current generation of solid sails. But it also bars one piece masts (which can't fit into a hull box) and one piece foils (the older Fastacraft foils) which require a separate box for shipping. The rationale could only be one that correlates the cost of travel with the size of the equipment. But that seems to me to be a non-starter. The cost to ship my boat to Weymouth and back (to the east coast of the US) was over $4500 and that was piggy backing on Bora's and Bear's group deal with Seko. And that was with a two piece mast and separable foils.

No, those wanting to travel to international events will always have to bite the bullet with respect to costs. If you're relying on shipping firms, be it trucking companies, air freight, or even shipboard containers, you are at the mercy of their timetables, security requirements and rates. I found it interesting in trying to become vetted as a non-terrorist to enable me to ship my boat even within the US (I trucked Try-Foil to Portland and back for the Gorge worlds.) Overseas airfreight was even more problematic in 2008. I could not ship my boat to England without going through the Newport Hood sailloft, a connection I got through George Peet.

On a related note, I notice from Alan's recent post that the Belmont PRO is Peter Moor. I wonder if it's the same Peter Moor that participated in the '76 Ware River Worlds. That Peter Moor was the reigning Australian Champion at the time and finished 2nd in the '76 worlds in a borrowed skiff (he did use his own rig.) Why didn't he bring his scow (which also can't fit into a current hull travel box)? No doubtedly because of travel costs.

Peter Moor sailing at Ware River in 1976 in a skiff (I think it was a Poacher or a Stockholm Sprite) that he borowed from Ted Causey, the eventual winner. Note Moor even bolted a tube extension onto the box wings to make the beam the full 7'4".

Another trip around the sun

2010-12-19T14:04:00.005-05:00

A re-run from a couple of years ago:

But with wings, water, seafood, and bike riding, the video seems to fit. And, yes, I ratcheted up my age on my profile on the Yahoo! Groups site by one more notch.

So to celebrate my 215th post and my 56th year I'll crank up Jimmy B. and have another cold one.

Again, from Buffett's album License to Chill (2004).

Trip around the Sun, lyrics by Sharon Vaughn, Al Anderson, and Stephen Bruton
Sung by Jimmy Buffett (with Martina McBride)

Hear 'em singing Happy Birthday
Better think about the wish I made
This year gone by ain't been a piece of cake
Every day's a revolution
Pull it together and it comes undone
Just one more candle and a trip around the sun

Chorus:
I'm just hanging on while this old world keeps spinning
And it's good to know it's out of my control
If there's one thing that I've learned from all this living
Is that it wouldn't change a thing if I let go

No, you never see it coming
Always wind up wondering where it went
Only time will tell if it was time well spent
It's another revelation
Celebrating what I should have done
With these souvenirs of my trip around the sun

(Chorus)

Yes, I'll make a resolution

That I'll never make another one
Just enjoy this ride on my trip around the sun
Just enjoy this ride ...
Until it's done

Wither the Wing?

2010-12-11T10:53:00.000-05:00

Bruce turned off the comments in his latest post showing Bora winging it Down Under. So even if you can't comment on Burce's Teknologika blog, feel free to add in here. I do note the aft section seems a bit ragged. Maybe it's the way the light is reflected, but perhaps the film itself has gone slack. Of course, Bora maybe sandbagging it and trying to get the most out of a subpar surface, only to pull out a fresh wing in time for the races.

At any rate whatever heat he's generating would be much more comfortable than what's happening back home -- Detroit is getting ready to be hit with a big winter storm tomorrow. I would think that weathering the coming storm of wing legality would be a whole lot more fun than shoveling snow and ice half way around the world.

Obvious Poll needed

2010-11-18T23:33:00.001-05:00

Cookie's statement of "I have yet to speak to someone who thinks they are good for the future of the class" begs to be addressed in some sort of poll. So, the question is thrown out to the readers (certainly not scientific, but intriguing none the less.) Only two choices:

(1) I think wings are good for the future of the class.
(2) I think wings are not good for the future of the class.

Cast your vote!

Gantry thoughts

2010-10-16T12:38:00.001-04:00

Following John's HHPDO report of his gantry failure (and the subsequent pix posted carnage album) and after reading Dave's thoughts on pre-designing a gantry failure point:

"So how can I design a design failure location into my gantry? Add a Shear pin to would release the bottom gudgeon at the pin? The strut and cassette assembly would fly up. 8^( Would this still break nearly everything? Add a SS pivot at the top? Release the bottom gudgeon at the stern? The whole gantry would fly up......."

...and re-reading Dan's report on two exploding gantries at the Gorge, I thought I'd chime in on my experience and observations. When I built my first rudder system I was following Bill's lead with his added admonition to beef up the cassette since he had experienced the rudder ripping out the back wall of his cassette. My resulting system was successful in that in occurred no failures (even at the heavy air of the Weymouth Worlds.) The pictures below and to the right was taken in the spring of '08 during the second or third time out. Obviously the boat is flying fine, albeit a little low. This was with both the mainfoil and rudder foil as non-production elements, built by me with lots of assistance from Gui and Bill (using their molds and employing their expertise on laminate schedules, etc.)

Clicking on the image above will bring up the original image size and the gantry can be seen more clearly. This gantry and rudder have since retired to the spare parts bin.

During the winter of '08/'09 I re-designed the rudder system to lose some of the mass and play (no cassette, just a vertical with gudgeons), incorporate an improved worm gear, and to feature a forward cant angle similar to the M2's geometry. I built a new strut using John Z.'s skinny vertical section (the low drag winner in Bill's tank tests) and fitted a much smaller Beiker-designed/Bora-built horizontal (that I got just a few days before packing up for the '09 Worlds.) The horizontal and vertical sections seem to work well, and in fact the horizontal is near the size that's currently in vogue - the span is only 775mm, approaching that of the new M2 "small rudder." So with an improved adjustment system and a new, but not tested rudder and gantry, I went to the Worlds in Oregon. Unfortunately, the gantry decided to come apart not once, but twice. The culprit was the G10 plugs I inserted into the tube structure. Either due to poor surface preparation or insufficient contact area, or both, one of the inserts came out (probably the lower tension member) and caused a cascade of failures. Adam snapped a pic of me swimming back in and I commented about the fiasco in this post.

I did repair the gantry and sailed the rest of the season with the "agricultural" - thanks Bear- setup without incident. This spring, in preparation for the NAs I decided to replace the gantry with a third version, keeping the geometry but losing the massive turnbuckle, the fairing (which never seemed to work as well as I hoped), and incorporating a different pin adjustment system as suggested by Phil Stevenson in this post. The tiller and swivel system was completed and works way better than the old set-up, but I wasn't quite able to finish the gantry. Nevertheless, the rudder system was in the best shape since the boat was built. So, of course this season's failure wasn't the rudder but the mainfoil, occurring during the first race of the NA series (why didn't it happen during the almost four weeks of daily practice leading up to the trip to Harbor Springs?)

At any rate, the third gantry is just about complete. The geometry has a slightly wider top base, with the top attachments fitting around some beefed up G10 tangs instead of employing any inserts. The lower tension member has just a threaded barrel that accepts the male clevis for gross adjustment. The female barrel is embedded such that it can't come out. I've retained the triangulation joints and I believe that they are way beefier than required. The bushings for the 1/4" ss rod are made of 1.25" long delrin, turned so that they require a press fit into the vertical tube (and definitely not capable of vibrating out.)

So what do I think would happen if I ran aground at speed? My rudder vertical is about a long as the mainfoil strut so any forces should be taken by the mainfoil and centerboard well. If for some reason I hit a log that missed the mainfoil I would expect the boat to stop suddenly and damage would be taken by either the lower gudgeon on the rudder (it happened once at the Gorge on the 2nd to last day) or to the aluminum plate on the hull, perhaps ripping out through the transom (unlikely.) The point of this whole post is that I think one should not design a failure point, but just build the whole kit and kaboddle sufficiently strong so it won't break. Wishful thinking, I know, but why anticipate failure when anticipating a perfect build is so much more rewarding?

Winging it, part 2

2010-10-14T18:49:00.002-04:00

From Sailworld.com
Picture by Thierry Martinez
Interview at Sail Anarchy
And a comment from John Z: "I got to speak at length with Steve Clark after his talk at dinner (last weekend at the HHPDO). The wing doesn’t look all that complicated; Steve was happy to discuss all of the details. I don’t know that an average sailor could gain anything from sailing with a wing but is certainly is cool and I think about it all the time. Transportation will be a bitch. I’m a model airplane enthusiast … I want to build one; looks easier than building a sail. Happy to share sketches with you once I make some up." – John Z

My homebuilder itch needs scratching. Right now I need to sort the foil and continue to drool over the wing...

Addiction Withdrawal

2010-10-10T14:16:00.003-04:00

I'm just miserable reading the temporary results of the HHPDO being sailed in Rye.

According to the event scoresheet the winds yesterday for the four Saturday races were 7, 12, 15, and 17 knots. Compared to last year's 25 knots that is very pleasant sailing! The other surprise is John taking a 2-1 in his Hungry Beaver. There seems to have been some attrition yesterday, and today's results haven't been posted yet, but I'm hoping to hear some tales from John or Peter. Why, oh why, couldn't I be there???

My plan for the winter is to again sort out a competitive mainfoil for my boat. The plan is to buy and fit a M2 strut and foil (my well is a little further aft that the M2's well, but has plenty of room to fit a cassette to house the centerboard.) Now, this isn't cheap to say the least (around $3K) but I'm convinced that will get be back sailing and out of the back of the fleet. To support this habit I'm in the process of selling some stuff, including my 10 year old Miata.

First up, though, is the set of carbon shrouds and rear wing bar support by Southern Spars that I won last year at the Gorge. These have never been used or installed, only taken out of the bag to inspect them. Retail price is now AU$530 on the Sailing Bits website. Current currency conversion say that's about US$520. Highest bid over $350 takes 'em.

The Wing

2010-10-09T17:25:00.001-04:00

I might as well chime in on my take about solid wings. I think they should be allowed to develop. My expectation is that they would be neither popular nor harmful to the growth of the class. Even if Bora or Adam would win the Belmont worlds using a wing in some races, my bet is that they would use a traditional soft sail and mast combo for some or most of their races. And I doubt that spending lots of money for a custom wing would earn anybody a trip to the podium. No, winning requires a more expensive commodity: time on the water.

Wings would allow tinkerers to continue to experiment. Whether it's Karl's fully articulated mainfoil, Gui's dihedral rudder foils, or Adam's solid wing, diversity is good. One idea may sooner or later prove to be the next best thing for the class. But we'll never know unless we let the tinkerers play.

O yeah, and Bernoulli said nothing about compressible or non compressible fluids. Only that total energy is conserved and that an increase in kinetic energy must result in a decrease in potential energy. When applied to moths there is a corollary: an increase in moth related expenditures must result in a decrease in expenditures elsewhere (food, clothes, living...).

Handicapping a Moth

2010-09-28T17:41:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I sailed my wife's classic in a handicap race, the Hampton Roads Sunfish Challenge and Dinghy Distance Race, a 8 mile point-to-point race in the Norfolk Harbor. The course was just about all to windward, fighting a ebb tide of about a knot, in breezes of 10-15 knots. I finished in a little less than two hours, easily correcting over a Hampton One Design, a 470, a Taser, a 29er, a JY15, a Snipe, and some other assorted dinghies. The scoring was based on the US Sailing published Portsmouth Yardstick which has the moth (classic rules: 1965 vintage, 72 sq ft, etc.) at 107.1 (comparable to a Penguin at 111.5). There was no way I could lose. In fact, I beat all but one of the lasers and one of the sunfish in the water and they started 5 and 10 minutes ahead of me respectively. They were scored separately as one design fleets and didn't need the handicap, but it's interesting to note their numbers are 91.1 and 99.6. I know that US Sailing depends on clubs sending in elapsed time reports to adjust Portsmouth numbers, but for a development class such as a moth, it's almost impossible to get one number that works. The 107.1 rating is probably based on results of sundry moths sailing in pick-up fleets. Probably, the boats are old and worn and the helms are not those actively racing in the Classic Moth Boat Association. The classic moths have gotten faster and faster as hulls, sails, rigs and centerboard shapes and sizes have been put under the development pressure of CMBA competition. The fact that the top sailors racing classics are also very good dinghy sailors (including Jeff Linton, the US Sailing Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in 2008) have really spurred development. We routinely outsail Lasers when head to head.

So how would someone handicap a foiler? Below is a pic taken by Ed Salva a couple of weeks ago at Elizabeth City after the racing of the classic moth nationals. John Zseleczky is foiling past Mike Parsons (who finished 2nd in the Nationals in his Mistral behind Jeff Linton in his Mousetrap design). The Mistral seems to be the typeform of the fastest hull: narrow waterline, full beam out to 60". The CMBA bars wings with a concavity rule.

So here's the question for the day: How should a well sorted foiler be rated? Obviously, different numbers for foiling and non-foiling conditions. The RYA pegs the moth at 98 (non-foiling) and 69 (foiling.) My guess is the non-foiling is about right but the foiling number should be lower, maybe around 60. Below are some numbers to consider, comparing USSailing and RYA numbers for identical classes. In most cases, the British data indicates that boats sailing in handicap starts are slower than their US counterparts. USSailing fails to list the International Moth at all, only the "classic" moth at a too high 107.1 (the reason I won the race.)

Class  USSailing   RYA
505       79.8        90.2
49er       68.2        74.4
Laser      91.1      108.0
IC          79.1        90.5
Mirror  113.1      138.5
A Cat     64.5        69.0
Moth     -----         98 (non-foiling)
Moth     -----         69 (foiling)

Anybody else want to take a shot?

Classic Moth Nationals

2010-09-26T08:21:00.003-04:00

Last weekend was the Classic Moth National Championship in Elizabeth City, NC, "The home of the mothboat." I was racing Aftermath, my wife's modified Shelley and finished 6th. Jeff Linton won the regatta, hosted by the Classic Moth Boat Association, besting Mike Parsons and Mark Saunders. Elizabeth City is an interesting venue. Fresh water with little to no current, a nice grassy lawn (the home of John and Sarah Pugh) to rig up on, and a floating dock that allows launching into four feet of water.

The town is small and dotes on the itinerate sailor: the municipal marina is a stopover on the intercoastal waterway and the local chamber of commerce has adopted the moniker "the Harbor of Hospitality," complete with a logo of a classic moth on the town's water tank.

The two days of racing was very pleasant even though I was off the pace of the leaders (I only won one race and my average finish position was 5th.) The local newspaper put together a nice slide show linked here.

More interesting was the after race activities on Saturday: both Mike Parsons and John Zscleczky brought down their homebuilt foilers. John's Hungry Beaver is pretty well sorted - the only obvious glitch was his fixed gantry was not angled enough to provide sufficient rudder lift. Even cranking the worm gear to its maximum extent the ride was still bow up. John says his plan is to remove and shim his rudder horizontal to help get more lift.

Mike's Stevo is still a work in progress. Sailing it reminded me of my boat two years ago: the hull, rack, and rig are sound but the foils and foil control systems still need lots of work. The obvious problem was high flights often resulting on sudden crashes. We tweaked the morse cable lengths and played with the wand settings but still couldn't get stable flight. The fact that the breeze was around 10 kts didn't help (perhaps in more wind things would have been better.)

John and I will be sailing in a couple of weeks at the HHPDO in Rye, NY. John in his Hungry Beaver; I will be in a borrowed Bladerider.

$10,000,000

2010-09-12T08:34:00.001-04:00

How can a young sailor on his or her own (not living with the 'rents) afford to sail in the upcoming world championships? I know even for me, a fifty something professional, trying to procure a $10 million liability policy would be a challenge. I'm pretty sure it's not something a twenty something sailor in the USA would be able to pick up. What magic in Australia allows such a policy to be written?

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Opening the facebook

2010-09-11T09:02:00.001-04:00

I've resisted the facebook/twitter/social media phenomena until now, but with Richard's prompt as a way to increase communication among the US mothies, I've joined. We'll have to see if it's useful or a waste of time. I don't expect to do a lot of "chatting" or otherwise friending and being friended, except for moth related activities.

Now, back to finishing up gantry #3. The Classic moth nationals are next week and I hope to bring Try-Foil as a play/demo toy before and after the racing. It was three years ago next week that I first tried Bill's boat and was smitten, as described here.

Back to Boatwork

2010-08-28T13:26:00.000-04:00

I've got a few projects on the table before I can get sailing again. With the collapse of my mainfoil in Harbor Springs I need to resurrect my original mainfoil I built in the fall of '07 with Gui's guidance. The foil is a bit fat by today's standards but does work. It will be mated to a strut I built last spring from John Z's mold. The strut is pretty strong (maple core) but a bit shorter than the current trends. I've decided that the pair will not be separable - I'll glue and carbon the tee-joint to try to git it a bit more strength. I'll also have to layup a well section and build a new cassette to fit the boat. My top end adjustable feature is working fine so I should be able to tweak the AoA and find the best position after a few sails. There will undoubtably be some tweaks to the bell crank and pushrod. I'll be using a 2.5 mm FC pushrod that broke at the bottom end but will be long enough for my shorter strut. I'll have to dig out the tapped barrel in the flap and re-tap to the larger size (I had been using 1/8" pushrod.) The ultimate long term goal after saving lots of pennies will be to fit a new production strut and mainfoil from one of the professional builders.

I'm also finishing off a new gantry (my third.) My existing gantry is kludged together after failing in the Gorge. The "agricultural repair" (as Bear put it) has held up, but I'd like to loose the aluminum plate and the through bolts. The new gantry keeps the forward cant of the rudder but should be lighter and stronger. It is also cleaner, without the bottle screw and fairing of my existing gantry.

Lastly, I'm tweaking the rack's front end. To make the rack system able to be taken apart I had included a sleeve and throughbolt on one side. There has developed some wear and play which caused me to lose rig tension during the course of a sail. The beefed up rack should be able to take the rig and hiking loads without shifting.

My goal is to have everything done by mid September. There is a long distance race that weekend that I'd like to sail in and then the HHPDO in October. Of course, everything will have to be fit in around school since it's back in session now. Pics to follow in future posts.

Internet Mothing - the Bar is Raised

2010-08-22T11:31:00.000-04:00

For the past few days I have been mesmerized by the TracTrac link for the Euros. I fire up the computer and while the Java link prompts me to fetch my coffee I eagerly wait while the data is loaded.

The ability to vacariously participate is really cool. What's happening ashore before the RC leaves? Highlight via the selection tab various players and take a look!

By the selection process I can foresee lots of stories to tell with data to back them up. Like when before the gun in race #13 when Amac came screaming down for a dip start:

Or how Chris seemed to consistently nail his starts (here's race #7):

Or when Amac blew over Arnaud at the top mark to beat the whole fleet on the first leg of race #12:

Of course the epic battle between Bora and Nate was the focus of much of my time. The leader line and the distance behind was monitored at each tack, and how in some conditions the speed indicated dropping off the foils for one and executing a fully foiling tack for the other (for example approaching the top mark in race #13 where Nate was 130 meters ahead at 13:19 but after three excruciating slow tacks where his speed dropped below 5 kts each time, Bora needed only two tacks to round and kept foiling the entire time to build a lead of 367 meters.) After this rounding, Bora went on to handlily win the race. These lead changes of 500 meters in just three minutes will be the source of bar tales in years to come.

Now everything wasn't perfect. I suppose the best presentation would be to superimpose the GPS data with a live helicopter feed a la America's Cup coverage. Maybe in Belmont??

Silvaplana from a nice warm computer

2010-08-16T22:35:00.000-04:00

The reports of ice and snow melt flowing into the lake make me glad I'm not there. Brrrrr... Cold water just does not sit well with my 56 year old body full of blood thinners. The TracTrac is interesting, but obviously having some glitches. Maybe only half the fleet launched for the practice race - maybe only half the units were working. One obviously glitch was seeing Arnaud's boat magically appear at the weather mark at 4:58 into the race. Did he just turn the unit on then? At any rate, it will be interesting to see the real time speeds and angles (or even on the replay.) Exactly how much does the speed drop on the tacks? Who can get the boat back up to speed quickest? The Aussie contingent seemed to be the team to beat.

Back to more about the GOOD of the NAs: Lake Michigan was about 74 degrees (23 degrees Celsius). Little Traverse Bay is favored with a reliable sea breeze from 270 around 1200 (or a bit later,) and a choice of sailing close to the shore or south of Harbor Point. The only drawback (though certainly not from the sailor's perspective, but that of the RC) is the deep water. We were sailing in water about 100 feet (30 meters) deep. The depths at the shorelines are such that there's little chance of running aground; besides, the crystal clear water easily allows you to see the shelving.

View Larger Map
It was extremely neat to see the foil operating. I normally sail in the turbid Chesapeake Bay and even when I've been able to make out the foil, the silt and salinity combine to obscure the details. At Harbor Springs it was like I was looking through a divers mask. Even when low riding the knckle of the bow was clear and sharp -- really neat.

The grassy park we launched from was adjacent to Irish Boat Shop, a full service marina. When a thunderstorm was possible one evening, we were allowed to roll our boats fully rigged into their bay. The entire town went out of their way to support the moths. When the kayak ramp had a couple of pipes sticking up at the end of the floating dock, a quick phone call resulting in parks and recreation employees bringing out a sawsall to cut the pipes down. Where else would that happen?

All US and Canada mothies should plan on attending next year !

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2010-08-14T12:30:00.001-04:00

In a nutshell, here are my thoughts about the recent NAs:

GOOD- Everything about Harbor Springs: the hospitality, the crystal clear warm fresh water, the rigging area, the racing venue. I WILL be back next year!
BAD- I blew up my mainfoil on the first beat and sailed the rest of the regatta in lowriding mode.
UGLY- on the ride home, in the mountains of West Virginia after about 15miles of 10% grades, the automatic transmission on the minivan gave up. I just arrived home last night after a $2700 repair job to AAMCO.

More later.
Good luck to those in Silvaplana. Stay warm....

What if?

2010-07-26T17:44:00.001-04:00

What if you scheduled a holiday weekend around some mothing at a venue a number of hours away from your home? What if the breeze is a steady 6 knots? Do you blow off the sailing adventure or do you rig up and sail? What if the weekend happened to be a regatta weekend and the race committee heads out to set the course? If the forecast calls for a steady breeze with nothing over 8 knots, will you be relegated to lowriding or sailing insane angles upwind and down, trying to pump it up and dreading every drop off the foils?

Thinking about the possible "what ifs," and knowing my skill and experience will mean a certain lowriding event, I threw together an alternate set of blades and some old school rigging (2-1 transom sheeting and a block at the back end of the welll replacing the bridle.) Cost was close to nil - I used a busted strut, just having to clean up the bottom. The rudder is a piece of cedar covered with a couple layers of glass. The needed blocks, line, tiller and hiking stick material were laying in the garage from other boats. I had a chance to sail today with the old school foils and found things to be just as I remembered them from the 1970s. A Hungry Beaver (similar to a Hungry Tiger) sailing to weather in 6 knots is a beautiful thing. Smooth tacks with a quick speed build. Tacking angles a tad less than 90 degrees. After about 45 minutes the breeze started to pick up to foilable range and I headed back to the beach to swap out the blades for the foils. It only took a little less than 10 minutes for the change-out followed by a couple of hours in 10-15 knots. A great day. The ride height mechanism is working to perfection. A couple of new delrin bits have reduced slop and the gybes are actually coming along. The telltales seem to help, especially in the low riding conditions. I leave for Harbor Springs a week from today.

Mod 1 - Height may not be everything

2010-07-09T20:58:00.000-04:00

I put together the first modification of the ride height adjuster by leading it outboard and including a view port on the bonnet. The short bungee is to keep tension. The test sail today verified that extreme height is possible -- I got the boat to fly reasonably well with the horizontals only 6 inches below the surface. But I seemed to be going slower, so maybe height isn't the end-all and be-all. Of course, it was also the first time I had the wand fully extended and I'm sure that added to the height. The ride height adjuster seemed to work fine, with one glitch. I had put the last threaded rod onto the ball connector with blue medium strength thread lock and found it started to come unwound. So the next trip out will be with the red permanent thread lock. No clear pics of the attempt, but will try a better shot next time.

Weather Guessers

2010-07-08T09:52:00.002-04:00

The forecast called for a north breeze, 10-13mph, beginning at noon and lasting until at least 7:00 p.m. I though this would be a perfect day to sail along the north shore of the Norfolk's Ocean View (the "Big Bay" side.) If anything broke I could just drift ashore. With the incoming tide, there was no chance of being washed out to sea. I arrived at the ramp around 11:00 with only a slight breeze out of the north. What the heck, I figured. Just rig up and wait for the wind. And sure enough, a half an hour later the breeze started to fill in. I promptly foiled off the beach and headed toward the ship channel and around Fort Wool.

View Wednesday's sail in a larger map

After skirting the OV fishing pier and sailing another mile or two, instead of continuing to build, the wind started to drop out and I couldn't keep the boat foiling. So, I turned around and started low riding back home. Even though I tried the pump, bounce, oooch techniques I just couldn't get the boat back up. I dropped a purchase to 2-1 on the mainsheet but just couldn't get the boat to fly. I also realized that telltales are a good thing in the light stuff (I hadn't really missed them in foiling conditions...)

For the next hour or so I got in some of the old moth balancing techniques from the 70s. My guess is the wind was around 5 kts. SO much for the forecast..... The one thing that's obvious to me is the the bridle makes low riding a pain. Inevitably it's in the way when trying to move to the center or to leeward. At any rate, once I got back to the beach I sat and wondered where the forecast breeze was. I rehydrated and thought about calling it a day, but decided to hold off for a half hour or so. And sure enough, the breeze shifted and started to build. I relaunched and head back out to Willoughby.

And then, despite any predictions, the breeze came in with a vengence. It quickly built to 15 with gusts to 20. I had to capsize and re-tie the mainsheet back to the boom for my 3-1 purchase. I spent another 45 minutes blasting around before I called it quits. Why didn't the weather guessers foresee this breeze? Maybe it's still a black science...

On the equipment front, the ride height adjuster worked fine, with a few glitches. There is enough slippage on the barrel that I need to create a view port in my bonnet to actually see the amount of threads exposed. I certainly don't want to completely unscrew the final ball joint on the pushrod. I also found that in marginal foiling conditions a low ride height may be preferred to initiate foiling, then once up and moving the height can be raised. I still haven't gotten to to the height that other have achieved. I read Chris' post about his rudder foil breaking the surface -- I'm nowhere near that height and not sure I want to get there...

Otherwise things are working better. I did manage to saw through the cover of my rooster rope mainsheet where it was against the ratchet. So I end-for-ended it and kept on trucking. I was actually surprised how quickly the cover went. One minute I saw some fraying (it's taken perhaps 50 hours to get to this point) and just a few minutes later the cover parted completely. So here's another question for the mothosphere -- what's the mainsheet of choice???

Today I plan on sewing the kite blocks to the tramp to get the ride height control line led outboard. A doctor's appointment this afternoon so maybe I'll hit the water again tomorrow.

Ride Height Adjuster, MK 1 Mod 0

2010-07-04T15:19:00.000-04:00

I've concocted a shade tree mechanic's version of the elegant Swiss adjuster. It's made of some delrin rod tapped with left hand and right hand threads, 10-32, to fit the ball socket. With it I get about 20 mm of throw and it seems to work well with the boat on its side in the backyard. The whole shebang fits under my bonnet out of the way. Right now it's not led outboard. I want to try it first sailing so that when the Mod 1 (and 2 and 3) come along, as they inevitably do, I'll have a sense of where the leads should go without getting underfoot.

A new trick for me is to use a rope eyestrap. The turning blocks are fastened with some high tech line that's frayed at the ends, wetted out with some epoxy and taped down to the deck. We'll see if the method holds in the heat of battle. Another trick I learned from the latest issue of Epoxyworks (the Project X fairing technique article) is to mix G5 five minute epoxy with some regular 105/205 mixture at 30% by volume to accelerate the cure. It seemed simple to do; the mixture kicked solid in about 20 minutes.

No sailing today as we're under a large high pressure dome and the breeze is pretty light. Maybe tomorrow?

Some height, Finally!

2010-07-02T17:11:00.000-04:00

Another couple of hours this afternoon in a nice breeze of 10-20 (with some higher gusts.) The addition of the new wand makes all the difference in the world. No hull slap and some nice height. I had put some marks on the struts at 8 and 16 inches above the horizontal. With the wand adjustment today I was consistently sailing (in flat water) with the top line a couple of inches above the water -- so the horizontals were about 14" below the surface. Not M2 range but a whole lot better than I was able to achieve with the wippy wand. Both the mainfoil and the rudder horizontal were at the same depth, and the boat felt good. Thanks to Bruce for the suggestion of long and stiff; it seemed to work great. I have another four inches I can extend the wand and I thought about experimenting, but I wanted to get some measurements first.

I have to agree with Chris' recent post about trying to keep the wand paddle on the surface. Things did feel a little wonky when the wand was completely clear of the water, and often a sudden crash resulted. The breeze was real puffy (there were moments when I wish I had the mini-rig, maybe gusts to 25??) and I had a couple of instances where the rudder stalled and the boat just wouldn't come up in the slight lull. I'm going have to try sitting inboard a bit off the wind when it's honking. I also found that what works well in flat water doesn't when it gets bouncy. When I snuck around the tip of the spit there were waves rolling in from the Chesapeake on the order of 2-3 feet. I'm working on a ride height adjuster and hope to get it installed in the next week or so.

I had tightened up the worm gear as best I could. The addition of the stainless plate below the gudgeon helped remove some slop there. Of course, with everything beefed up the weak link had to appear somewhere else. And sure enough, the rudder horizontal was loose when I came back in. It's a good thing I didn't loose it! So, some more boatwork this evening. I hope to sail in some fresh water on Sunday - the Chowan River where my in-laws have a vacation cabin. If this breeze holds it will be nice to sail where there's no salt and sand...

Getting Rid of Slop

2010-07-01T13:58:00.004-04:00

I've dissassembled the worm gear trying to figure out where the extra play is coming from. My best guess is that the primary culprit is the kludgy swivel shackle (a Ronstan part.) Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to reduce the play here. I wonder what other home builders are using for the swivel... any suggestions???

Another problem has been the lower gudgeon. I'm using some G10 glass laminate with about eight layers of carbon cloth on the bottom side. The 1/4" hole drilled through this composite plate just seems to slowly enlarge. To hopefully get a bit more life (and reduced wear) I'm fastening onto the bottom of the laminated gudgeon a stainless steel plate from a old tang that has a machined 1/4" aperture. There seems to be just enough play to accommodate a few degrees of misalignment as the AoA is adjusted.

On a related note, I got some 10mm OD carbon tube from Goodwinds.com and I find that my existing wand from FC is way whippier than it needs to be. I don't know the specifics at to wall thickness and construction (although the new tube seems just a hair thicker), but using the flex-in-the-hands test, it's appreciably stiffer. So, a new paddle on a new stiffer tube should help immensely. If things kick by this afternoon (perhaps with some heat gun assistance) I'll try it out this evening (the forecast is still calls for 10-15 kts out of the north!)

Tight is Right

2010-06-30T17:02:00.001-04:00

One memory of the Gorge Worlds was Bora pounding his board into the well with a rubber mallet. Yes, the M2 has tight fitting components, one of the reason they're so fast. Amac gave me some ideas on making the hull opening match the strut and when I returned home I had followed them to create a somewhat tight opening. But after sailing off the beach for the past month (sand is a pain!!!) I found there was increasing slop. So I removed the well cassette and rebuilt it to create a tighter fit. The mallet wasn't required, but the board doesn't slide in and out easily. Even with some McLube, it's a challenge to put in and out. I believe that tight is good.

At any rate I got in another couple of hours of sailing this morning in a healthy breeze. After diddling around Willoughby Bay for a bit I took a trip across the harbor to Hampton. Interesting with the north breeze and the strong current in the channel. Waves were in the 2 foot range and the board/wand/height adjustment seemed to work fine.

Now the problem is with the rudder system. There's way too much slop, so much that I'm going to have to disassemble the works and try to tighten things up. Bill made a comment that jibing is next to impossible with a sloppy rudder system And there's so many places that play can crop up, from the pin on the gantry, to the tiller/rudder head connection (I've long discarded the rudder cassette idea), to the internal worm drive. My rudder problems were exasperated when the gantry exploded at the Gorge last year. Who remembers sailing/swimming the boat in rudderless?

"That Little Boat Hauls Ass"

2010-06-26T20:12:00.001-04:00

Today I got in another three hours in a real puffy (6-10, gusts to 15) breeze. Again hot and humid with a heat index of 110. A couple of changes seemed to work well. The inboard leads for the front of the hiking strap worked well. I just carboned on a couple of shackles to the wing bar then wrapped the wetted out epoxy with vinyl tape.

The new wand block was an improvement (less hull slap) but still not quiet. Maybe a different paddle shape at the tip? The wand itself seems standard - it was what John is using with the FC boats. Maybe I need to tweak the pivot bolt angle...

This time of year, especially on the weekends, the tourists and fishermen are out in droves. The parking lot at the ramp was chock-a-block with boat trailers. So I had plenty of flybys with lots of folks looking on. As I was sailing around jetskis, a Hobie 16, an Opti, and some folks swimming off anchored boats I got lots of thumbs up and hoots and hollars. On the way home, about a mile from the ramp, I was stopped at a traffic light an a couple of guys in a pick up truck pulled up besides me. I guess either they were on the water or lived in a beach cottage and saw me sailing. At any rate, they made the title comment.

Sweet.

Jelly Monsters

2010-06-25T10:48:00.038-04:00

Yesterday was a hot one. With air temps in the mid nineties and high humidity (heat index of 105) we had the typical pre-frontal gusty southwesterlies. So even though it was hot, I was itching to get some time in the breeze (8-20 kts with big shifts). Launching at 1:00 p.m., I didn't come back to the beach until 7:00. This morning I'm a bit brusied and battered. A couple of items of note:

(1) the new wand pivot needs reworking. I'll have to make a new one since the hole containing the wand was too vertical causing lots of hull slap (so much it was wearing the paint away!)

(2) I'm not convinced that extreme rake (a la Bora) is the way to go. I'm having trouble bearing away after the tack, so the next time out I'll try some slightly longer shroud adjusters.

(3) I'm finding that my hiking straps are just too far outboard at the front end. There's too much chafing on my shin and not enough on the top of my feet. So another change will be to fit a second lead further inboard for the hiking straps.

(4) Three year old gloves lose their protection at the second finger joint. Six hours in gusty winds resulted in a few open blisters. New, longer fingered gloves are on the to-buy list (any recommendations?) I also now appreciate seeing Amac's mainsheet in Weymouth practically worn to a frazzle at the ratchet. It takes LOTS of sawing the sheet to get the boat upwind effectively in gusty and shifty winds.

(5) The stiffer wand seemed to help, but I can't tell for sure until I tweak the angle to prevent the slapping. I just glued on a half round tube to the fiberglass batten that John supplied.

(6) Bing translations of blog comments still leave a lot to be desired. So "來幫推你個blog影d相真係好靚,係我至愛" translates as "To help push you a blog shadow d-nice, really good to love me?" Go figure....

(7) Running into a Moon Jelly at speed is a strange sensation. Not the plastic bag feel, not the solid object crunch, just a noticible "thud" with a very slight slowing. With the bay water temp at 82 degrees I'm sailing without a wetsuit (and have the bruises to show it) so am very aware of the plates and stinger nettles that seem to bloom this time of year. All the more encouragement to stay upright!

Buttery Silk

2010-06-21T14:40:00.001-04:00

I got in another couple of hours again today, with a couple of trips across the harbor for probably 20 miles total distance. Slowly the biceps and hand grips are getting into sailing shape. A slight boat mod following Bruce's suggestion was to lengthen and stiffen the wand, looking for more height. In a breeze of about 10 kts (no whitecaps) I pulled off my first "perfect" jibe -- everything happened just like it was supposed to: no extreme force changes, sail gently coming across, height maintained throughout the turn, and an exit with speed onto the new heading. Why can't it be like that all the time? It did give me something to shoot for -- a feeling of buttery silk.

This afternoon I'm changing out the wand pivot from the Fastacraft aluminum to a homemade plastic block trying to increase the bearing area and reduce wand chatter and vibration. How it works will be in tomorrow's report.

A Happy Family Sail

2010-06-18T21:39:00.000-04:00

Susan and I went for a two hour sail this evening - I was in Try-Foil and Susan was in Aftermath. Breeze was about 10 kts. A good time was had by both of us. The builder (me) was satisfied. Maybe soon Susan will want to try the foils under her boat. At any rate, we got back home around 7:30 and just felt happy ;-)

My Kit

2010-06-17T17:47:00.000-04:00

I got another couple of hours of sailing in today, with a breeze of about 8-12 kts. Nothing broke and I had fun foiling into the Naval Base lagoon where a bunch of juniors were rigging up Optimists. I made about a dozen trips up and down Willoughby Bay trying to nail the jibes. Still more work to do....

The pic above was taken last October in Long Island Sound at the AYC High Performance Dinghy Open. There the AoA of the main foil was at 10.8 degrees, a degree greater than I had today. Tomorrow I'll crank the strut forward a bit more and see if that will give me the height I'm looking for....

Anyway, I thought I would throw in a bunch of pics of various bits of the boat. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to make 'em.

Deja vu, all over again.

2010-06-16T14:13:00.000-04:00

It's about seven weeks til my next major regatta - the North American Championship in Harbor Springs, Michigan.... and I've sailed Try-Foil only four times since last October. Each time out I was in the "sea trials" mode of sail, break, repair, adjust, sail again. Boy, it seems that I'm always just rebuilding before the major races. Perhaps one day I can afford an all sorted M2 and just jump in and go.

The major change from last year is using a push rod instead of the morse cable for the wand. Below is a picture of the new front of the boat. I still need to repaint but that can hold off for awhile.

I also replaced the top end adjustable system, replacing my sliding pin with several incremental fixed pin locations. Yesterday I sailed for about 90 minutes in a nice 10-12 kt breeze and found the strut angle of 8.5 degrees to be just a bit too low. Tomorrow I'll try another degree of AoA and see if that helps. I'm trying to get more height (full flap up with the foil about 8 inches under the surface.) Below are some pics of the top of the well. The first is with no pin locater bolted in, the second with a 9.6 degree forward cant, and the third with a couple of the other pin locaters. The different pin locaters only take about five minutes to change out. I feel better doing this than trying to put a shim in the foil socket (after having my new foil socket collapse at the Gorge Worlds, I've decided to stay with a fixed t-joint for now...)

At any rate, school is finally out and I can sail almost every day until the regatta. The rigging/unrigging has gotten much smoother - yesterday it was less than 30 minutes from pulling into the parking lot to foiling off the beach. It still seems that most of the time is spent getting the rig together (probably 15-20 minutes just to assemble the mast, slide on the sail, fit the shrouds and spreaders, step the mast/sail, tighten the forestay, run the controls.) The fitting of the foils goes smoothly with the new top end adjustable system.

Congrats Si!

2010-03-14T10:54:00.003-04:00

Another world championship trophy for Simon Payne. Well done!

This victory is two years after Weymouth, where prior to the actual regatta the venue was touted as a probable light air regatta and Si's hopes were riding as high as he was in the light stuff.

Dubai was also eighteen months after the US Nationals in the Gorge where Simon was to only overseas competitor to compete (he finished second) in preparation for last year's worlds.

This year's victory is well deserved to someone who's put in a consistent effort over a number of years, despite injury and age. Well done, Si, your fellow competitors salute you!

Thoughts on a Perfect World's Venue

2010-03-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

With comments rolling about the conditions in Dubai and whether it was a good choice, here're my thoughts for what they're worth:

1. Warm water. Given the choice who doesn't like sailing where it's warm? Forget any spot with water temps below 55˚F (13˚C.) The perfect temp? Just about 75˚F (24˚C.)

2. Fresh water. Given the option, I always enjoy fresh water over salt water. Less to wash down after sailing and the gear dries more quickly.

3. Friendly beach launching. Imagine a well manicured grass lawn adjacent to a wooden bulkhead with about 5 feet of water at the edge. Of course, a sandy bottom to boot. Sloping beaches are okay, but rocks popping up at random heights aren't. Why sail where there's a concrete ramp, unless there's not other choice?

4. Shore facilities. The Gorge proved these aren't necessary, but I would love to see plenty of showers, toilets, and changing rooms. In this respect, Weymouth was nice.

5. Accoutrements for the spectators and press. The course should be within view of shore and there should be sufficient wifi and internet resources.

6. Social scene. For getting together before and after racing. Wine, women and song...

7. Climatological history of varied breeze. That's the rub. Nobody likes low riding and nobody likes 30+. So the ideal venue will have a mix over the six days of racing of a couple of days each of 7-10kts, 10-18 kts, and 18-25kts. Or, perhaps, light in the morning and gradually building each day with a sea breeze. Give the lightweights and the heavy air specialists a shot at "their" conditions, but don't let one condition predominate.

So, while Weymouth was at the heavy end, the Gorge in the middle, and Dubai at the light end, we really haven't had a varied mix in the past three Worlds. It’s gratifying to see Amac near the top this week, given he finished 2nd in 2008. What will Lake Macquarie bring?

Justin.tv Rules

2010-03-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

I'm addicted. Watching the racing almost live is hard to beat. Kudos to Clean and SA. Great job! I also have to give props to Scott for his description of how the action on the course plays out from the competitor's point of view. I feel I'm as close as I would be if I was wallowing around in the Arabian Gulf in Try-Foil....

What surprising results! What conditions?

2010-03-08T08:58:00.001-05:00

So Amac wins the first race, with a couple of Yanks and four Brits in the top ten. Bora finishes 12th, Arnaud 17th. The immediate posting of the results is great but we gotta know what happened on the water conditions-wise. Light air, probably, since there was a couple hour postponement. So was it shifty and full of holes? Steady with a typical seabreeze clocking? I'm staring at the web between classes trying to get more info...

link to results

1 Andrew McDougall
2 Michael Lennon
3 Brad Funk
4 Chris Graham
5 Simon Payne
6 Adam May
7 Tomaz Copi
8 Scott Babbage
9 Ricky Tagg
10 Dalton Bergen
11 Rob Gough
12 Bora Gulari
13 Martin Gravare
14 Zack Maxam
15 Mikis Psarofaghis
16 Mark Robinson
17 Arnaud Psarofaghis
18 Alex Adams
19 Jean-Pierre Ziegert
20 Paul Hayden
21James Cole
22 Alex Buerger
23 George Peet
24 Marcel Herrerra
25 Lindsey Bergen
26 James Phare
27 Dougie Imrie
28 Kerstin Sommer
29 Emma Aspington
30 Rob Fordyce
31 Marc Bruegger
32 Ben Crocker
33 Simon Savage
34 Dion Houghton
35 Glenn Raphael
36 Magnus Gravare
37 Philip Kasermann
38 Tim Penfold
39 Richard Davies
40 Per Eskilson
41 Jonathan Peats
42 Dirk Weiblen
43 Mauro Bettazza
43 Jeroen Leenen

Mon 08 Mar 10 17:16

Sail100 Sailing Results Software Program

Information, Please!

2010-03-06T16:49:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Chris on winning the UAE Nationals. According to published reports, as they are, the conditions hit both extremes of the wind range. It's also interesting to see Arnaud with two bullets in the breeze and dropping back a bit in the light stuff. In today's conditions (postponements, recalls, and at least one black flag start with a number of folks DSQ'ed for being OCS,) the three wins were claimed by three different folks (Mike Lennon, Si Payne, and Dalton Bergen,) none of whom finished in the top eight due to carrying a DNF from yesterday. Bora also had a DNF yesterday but using his discard managed a third overall on a tie breaker with Scott.

I've seen the footage from Clean of yesterday's top mark "carnage" but am searching for more info on the racing. Is there not someone who can give all us moth addicts an up-close and personal perspective? Com'on guys and gals - get to the keyboard and start typing! We have Thierry on the water, but some photos of the shore action would be great, too (thanks, Adam for yours). Maybe some head shots and smiling mugs?
Wish I was there...

Joe

Sports coat to wet suit

2010-02-28T22:55:00.000-05:00

From scuttlebutt:

http://media.ussailing.org/US_SAILING_Media_Home/Latest_News/2009_Rolex_Ceremony.htm

Tunnicliffe and Gulari Honored at US SAILING’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Ceremony

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Jan Harley, Media Pro Int’l for Rolex Watch U.S.A., 401.849.0220
or Jake Fish, US SAILING, 401.683.0800

New York, N.Y. (Feb. 26, 2010) – Neither rain nor sleet nor snow, all of which had combined to cancel flights and delay trains in the Northeast, could deter Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) and Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.) from getting to Manhattan today for their moment in the spotlight at US SAILING’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Awards ceremony.

The award recipients, chosen for their outstanding on-water sailing accomplishments in 2009, were joined by family, friends, sailing dignitaries and members of the press at the New York Yacht Club’s renowned Model Room for an intimate retrospective on their rise to the top of the sport. Gary Jobson, president of US SAILING and one of the sport’s most familiar media personalities, presented highlight videos for each winner, which led to emotional acceptance speeches before the two received specially engraved stainless steel and platinum Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Masters, symbolic of their achievements in excellence. Also participating in the program were Rolex Watch U.S.A.’s President and CEO Allen Brill, US SAILING Executive Director Charlie Leighton and US SAILING Olympic Sailing Program Chair Dean Brenner.

Tunnicliffe, who also won the award in 2008, was cited for her win at French Sailing Week, an ISAF Sailing World Cup event, in the Laser Radials, among other notable events. Gulari, a first-time winner, was cited for winning the CST Composites International Moth World Championship. A shortlist of 10 male and five female sailors – determined from nominations submitted by members of US SAILING – was evaluated by a panel of sailing journalists who then selected the sailors for the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman distinction, the country’s highest sailing honor.

“I’m proud to say I’ve had another great year,” said Tunnicliffe, “but I am so humbled by the recognition from the sailing community, and this award is a fantastic way to top everything off.” With a nod to her crew at the luncheon -- Molly Vandemoer, Debbie Capozzi, and Liz Bower -- she added, “What I’ve done is not an individual effort.”

Gulari acknowledged support from his family as well as friends and fellow American sailors in the Moth class, who pushed each other to excel. “By the time we got to the worlds we really had raised the bar for the Americans and had the dominant edge as a nation,” said Gulari. “This award means so much to me; I don’t have words for it.”

Gulari, heads immediately to Dubai to defend his title at the 2010 Puma Moth World Championships. Tunnicliffe prepares for the Princess Sofia Trophy, an ISAF Sailing World Cup event in March.

A video podcast from the awards luncheon, produced by Gary Jobson, will be available later this evening at www.ussailing.org.

Picture Caption: (from left) Rolex Watch U.S.A.’s President and CEO Allen Brill, 2009 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), 2009 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.), US SAILING President Gary Jobson. Credit Dan Nerney/Rolex

Midwinters aftermath

2010-02-20T09:43:00.002-05:00

Two weeks have passed so it's time for a brief report. The weekend of the huge east coast blizzard brought wind and cold to south Florida as well. Saturday proved too breezy for racing, but did tempt me to try out Aftermath's foiling set-up. While there were some creaks and groans from the gantry area, nothing broke in the 25-30 knots so I suppose the engineering was sufficient. Unfortunately, the mainfoil AoA was just too small to create lift off. Returning to the ramp area in the lee of the shore I managed a bit of air time by moving aft and cranking the rudderfoil down. The pics included in this post were taken by Ed Salva and show an attempted take off and the final splash down, just before I ran aground. So the dolphin was creased by the trailing edge of the strut, causing even a smaller AoA. The experiment will have to wait for spring when I can rebuild the mainfoil well exit dolphin and find some warmer temps. I just cannot comprehend how those crazy Brits manage to sail in freezing (litterally) temperatures.

I think the experiment will eventually be successful but doubt that the foiling classic will be competitive. I just can't see effectively going to weather with foils given the inefficient rig. Stay tuned 'til spring. My plan is to next race Aftermath at the Portsmouth regatta over Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully the week or two before I can attempt a couple of test sails in Willoughby Bay.

Oh yeah, the midwinters racing. Mike Parsons won in his Mistral. I ended up 4th sailing Jeff Linton's borrowed Mousetrap, primarily due to not reading the sailing instructions. Who would have thought the start line would be restricted on a two lap race with a single class and only ten boats? Those first 2 DSQs are hard to swallow, but live and learn. Susan decided that a vacation doesn't mean donning a wetsuit and sailing in 40 degree air temp (the conditions Sunday morning) and went shopping instead.

Mike Parsons 1 1 1 3 3 (4) 2 = 11

John Zseleczky 3 2 2 1 (4) 3 1 = 12

Mark Saunders 2 3 4 (5) 1 2 3 = 15

Joe Bousquet DSQ (DSQ) 3 2 2 1 7 = 26

Walt Collins 5 5 6 6 (6) 5 4 = 31

Rod Mincher 4 4 5 4 5 10 (10) = 32

Ray Hutchins 6 6 7 7 (9) 6 5 = 37

George Albaugh 7 7 9 8 8 (11) 6 = 45

Erik Albaugh 8 8 8 (9) 7 7 8 = 46

One down, One to go

2010-01-31T18:12:00.006-05:00

Aftermath is out of the kitchen and on the trailer only to be replaced with Try-Umph, the mistral I built in 1997. This has been a good boat, winning a couple of nationals and prompting many of the top helms to build mistrals, now the defacto pacesetter design in the fleet. Try-Umph was slightly overbuilt (the classic moths have a 75 pound minimum hull weight and Try-Umph's certificate says 84 pounds.) I've been meaning to pull some weight out by removing some of the deck structure, and now I have the chance. Fortunately, school has been cancelled for tomorrow, so while Susan's off to work the kitchen becomes my shop. Below is a picture taken a few years back sailing off ODU in Norfolk.

I've also included another shot of the gantry modification for Susan's boat showing more clearly its triangulation. Thanks to all who gave input. I think it should be strong enough, but only by trying it will I know.

Snow Job

2010-01-30T15:10:00.013-05:00

The biggest snow to hit Hampton Roads in over a decade and only five days before we depart for Florida with neither boat ready to sail and an unheated garage space out back. What's a madmothist to do? Bring the boat into the kitchen, of course!

The warm temps inside allow for Susan's boat to get a couple of coats of epoxy to seal the new deck sections and a single coat of polyurethane. The boat gets hauled outside for sanding in between coats and then carted back into the kitchen. I also got a chance to build the gantry struts. With the triangulation I'm sure the set up will be strong enough. The sheet metal screws are temporary until the resin kicks and will be changed out for bolts.

I just need to place the deck hardware this evening (eyestraps, turning blocks and cam cleats for control lines) and Aftermath will be done. She gets hauled out tomorrow and placed on the trailer. That is, after I remove Try-Foil and her cradle. Oh yeah, I also have to pull Try-Umph (my mistral classic) out of the garage rafters and install roll tanks and the aft deck. With any luck, the six inches of snow and the inch of sleet/freezing rain will get school canceled on Monday and I'll get a day off to really get some work done on my boat. Stay tuned.

Classic to Foiler Conversion - Part 3

2010-01-24T21:38:00.004-05:00

The foredeck has been off for about a week allowing me to plan the location of the push rod tube. Today it went in. The large bow block for the wand pivot (easily removable with four 3" long screws) allows the wand to get a little more clearance from the hull flare. The other two pics below show the fore and aft views of the tube. It's supported midway with a little foam-carbon block (a piece of a failed gantry fairing -- never throw carbon pieces away!) Below is the exit into the well area. The push rod is a 4mm carbon tube. On each end is an aluminum ferrel that holds a 10-32 machine screw, the same threads as the ball connector. The push rod guide tube ia a polyethelene shroud cover with a carbon sleeve, an idea that I took from the BR set-up. There seems to be way less friction than the Morse cable that I had been using on Try-Foil, plus there is definitely a more positive action and less weight. A push rod will also appear on my foiler next season and its Morse cable will go to the storage locker.

I've also given some thought to the comments about beefing up the gantry set-up. I've installed a underdeck strut that will be a strong point for a triangulation of the strut brackets. A little hard to explain, but once it's together I think it will be plenty strong.

Both decks are ready to go on and I hope to get the foredeck installed tomorrow after work. Stay tuned, we leave for Gulfport in 11 days.

Classic to Foiler Conversion - Part 2

2010-01-16T11:34:00.010-05:00

It's coming slowly but surely. Seventeen consecutive days of below average temperatures haven't helped. The "cold spell" finally broke on Wednesday and I've been able to work outside. In the previous couple of weeks Susan has been very tolerant of having carbon bits laid up in the kitchen. Memories of two winters ago when the whole boat was in the kitchen! Below are three pics of the bottom of the hull showing the "dolphin" as Adam called it. It's made of five layers of carbon and is screwed into the edges of the centerboard well. I'm hoping it will provide sufficient strength fore and aft in the event of running aground. The shaped opening is about 12 layers of carbon that were laid up on the vertical. The fit is tight but needs to be to prevent the strut from wobbling.

Note the silver line on the strut. That's where the board exits Try-Foil's Hungry Beaver hull. Aftermath's well is about two inches shorter so the mainfoil will run deeper. Actually, with the rocker of a classic low riding hull, the main foil will be riding deeper even if the well depth was the same. Since I don't plan on building a deeper rudder, the wand will be adjusted short to reduce foiling height. Besides, I've got a feeling Susan will be plenty happy just a foot or so out of the water.

The top end of the centerboard case is shown below. Two 1/8" thick pieces of G10 glass laminate should be plenty strong to take the weight of the boat and helmswoman. By placing a different insert onto the four strong points the pivot can be moved forward (less AoA) by about an inch.

Next up is the removal of the foredeck to install a stem block for the wand pivot and the push rod tube. I need to repair the port side the chainplate area anyway so the foredeck replacement had to happen. I'll use the opportunity to beef up both sides to accommodate the foiling crashes that are sure to come. The mid-winters start in 21 days. Stay tuned.

Rudder foil planform area.

2010-01-12T11:03:00.014-05:00

So Amac won the Australian Nationals (due in a large measure to his talent) but it seems part of his kit was a "smaller" than normal rudder horizontal. So just how large was it? How large is yours? (We're still talking area of the horizontal, here.) For a couple of data points here are the dimensions of my two rudder horizontals:

My first rudder horizontal, a Gui super-large (the one I used at Weymouth)

Span 40 inches, Max chord 4.75 inches, Chord two inches from tip 2.75 inches. Approximate area 142.5 sq inches (920 cm^2). This foil has a minimal bulb. It's mounted to its strut at a 90 degree angle. In practice it seems to balance best with a slight negative AoA, perhaps due to it high lift cross sectional shape.

My 2nd horizontal, a Bora built, Beiker designed (the one I used at the Gorge)

Span 30.75 inches, Max Chord 4 inches, Chord two inches from tip 2.375 inches. Approximate area 94.2 sq inches (608 cm^2). The foil has a rather large bulb and "tail." It is mounted to a forward canting strut, similar to the M2 rudder. It was with this rudder, before the gantry exploded (another story) that I clocked my 20.3 kt avg at the Gorge (in all likelihood a greater speed over the bottom since I was sailing downwind but up current.)

Lastly, here's a pic of the two back-to-back. I don't have a reliable micrometer, but the Beiker foil is much thinner than the other.

I suppose that smaller and thinner is better. Since I don't have the "stock" BR, M2, or Assassin dimensions, could someone please provide them? It would be interesting to see the range of what's actually being used out there. My suspicion is than thin foils with a shallow AoA are the way to go fast. As Simon says, "discuss..."

Surf video camera

2010-01-11T14:23:00.006-05:00

While thumbing through a confiscated Surfer magazine (yes, kids still try to bring these things into the classroom) I noticed an ad for a new "surf cam" from GoPro.com Prices seem reasonable: standard definition wide angle lens for US$160 and a High Def version for US$300. The videos on the website show lots of options: helmet cams, bow and stern mounted cams (and I'm sure it would be easy to do the masthead mount.)

So what are folks using to produce foiling videos?

Full Results here

2010-01-10T14:08:00.002-05:00

In deference to mid-fleeters and home builders around the world, here's a link to the full results. Congrats to Andrew McDougall on winning (from someone else who just turned 55 years old) but also to Andrew S., Luka, Alan, Phil K., Brent, Richard, John, Chris, Benjamin, Phil S., James, Ian, Phil L., and Cain. Now that we've had our Phils, let's get back to the conversion of a 45 year old Shelley to accommodate foils. I'm still laminating bits of carbon and expect to tear off Aftermath's foredeck this week to install a control rod through-tube (nixing a Morse cable set-up as too old school.) The Classic Moth Midwinters start in 27 days. Stay tuned.

AMAC takes three more bullets

2010-01-09T09:42:00.009-05:00

The event website is hard to come by but I found some results that show McDougall taking three more bullets in the last three races of the Australian Nationals. Andrew Stevenson and Luke Damic are tied for 2nd, 13 points back. Luke's description of AMAC sailing off the wind also matched what we saw Bora accomplish at the Gorge Worlds with his "deeper and faster". So what is it that allows the M2s to dominate on the leeward legs? Can Andrew continue his streak in the lighter breezes predicted for tomorrow? Can we get some more play-by-play? The world is watching.

Bora named Rolex YotY

2010-01-06T21:23:00.003-05:00

From Scuttlebutt:

Rolex Yachtsman of the Year - Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.)
Gulari earned the coveted award with his very first appearance on the shortlist of nominees. Gulari had tough competition for the honor: all but one of the 10 male nominees, Gulari included, had won a world championship title. Ultimately, 10 of the 14 panel members gave Gulari their first-place vote, acknowledging his growth from square one in the Moth class two years ago to winner of the CST Composites International Moth World Championship in 2009 as nothing short of remarkable.

"I just do this because I love it, and I think this year was the start of great things to come for dinghy sailing in the U.S.," said Gulari. "With the addition of the foils, the Moths became easier to sail and a lot more rewarding. . . generating a level of excitement for sailing in some of the top sailors in the country that I have not seen before. I don't think it will take people away from traditional dinghy classes, but the Moth is so fun that it's attracting people that have never had any interest in dinghies, and its bringing people back to dinghies who thought they were
done getting wet."

Anna Tunnicliffe was named this year's female winner. Mothies seem to have the little bit extra that gets 'em to the top. Anna has spent a good bit of time on moths with Brad Funk her husband. Jeff Linton, the RYotY winner in 2008, is a designer, builder and consistent winner in the Classic Moth fleet, taking the Nationals title multiple times.

Wow!

2010-01-05T23:14:00.003-05:00

Amac's line in the first six races of the Aussie Nationals is very impressive. I predict many more Mach2s will be sold down under!

Event Results

Even though I won't be able to make it to Dubai, I'm very interested to see if the continued tuning and tweaking by Bora and Andrew will result in dominance of the M2 at the World level.

The Conversion, Part 1

2010-01-01T13:54:00.007-05:00

Below are some pics of today's work. The plan is to have Susan's boat easily convertible from low-rider classic mode to foiler mode, simply by bolting on various bits. The stern normally carries a standard rudder on two pintles. By removing the lower pintle and bolting on an angled bracket, the tension rod of the gantry can be fitted. There will be two brackets screwed onto the deck to accept the two upper struts of the gantry. (I removed the aft deck to lay in some carbon supports under the new deck. The brackets will screw through the deck into these new supports.)

To accommodate the centerboard I needed to figure a way to structurally support the mainfoil which carries the weight of the entire boat and skipper. Additionally, since I didn't know exactly the angle of the forward cant, the mechanism needed to be adjustable fore and aft (on the top end - the bottom end will be fixed.) Lastly, I couldn't restrict the standard well opening since Susan likes sailing with her standard daggerboard. My solution is to fit four lifting straps just outside the daggerboard well. I cut some holes in the deck and slid the straps (made of some uni and +/- 45 carbon) through the slots. The straps are fastened to the outside of the daggerboard well with some carbon. To ensure the spacing and hole alignment stays correct during installation, I fitted a pine block that will be removed after everything kicks.

Things are under a heated tent for the night. Tomorrow's temps are expected to stay below freezing and my garage doesn't have any heat in it. Still yet to come are the bottom hull fitting, the wand pivot and the tube through the foredeck. It may not be until next week before I can get to those, so stay tuned.

Coincidence?

2009-12-31T14:41:00.008-05:00

Aftermath, a MK I ShMc designed by Shelley and built by McCutcheon on New Road, Wootton, I-O-W (complete boats available from 140 pounds) was the first British boat to win a race in the IMCA World Championship Regatta. Aftermath, #2814, was helmed by R.C.(Charlie) Reeves from Medway Yacht Club who won the first race of the series on August 21, 1966 sailed at Lausanne, Switzerland. Charlie went on to finish 6th overall, with the World Cup Championship going to Jean Pierre Roggo for the second consecutive year.

All the above information is from the IMCA British '66-'67 yearbook available on the world site. The cover also shows a Shelley, recognizable by the concave topside panel at the stern.

So even though Susan's boat #2681 is also a McCutcheon Shelley, and is also named Aftermath, she predates Charlie's boat by a year or two (and by 133 numbers, but they weren't necessarily assigned consecutively.) Pure coincidence - go figure!

The conversion to foils is moving along. I've fabricated carbon brackets for the stern to accept my gantry. The lifting points for the well and the mainfoil are under construction. I'll have to cut into the deck near the well to fit the straps, so I may re-deck the boat since the Okume ply is showing its age (10 years.) Pics to follow tomorrow. Happy New Year!

The oldest foiling moth?

2009-12-28T09:47:00.015-05:00

After reading Adam and Katherine's stories about the Opti project, I got to thinking about adapting my wife's boat to foils. Susan has been sailing Aftermath for about ten years and is interested in trying a foiler. So over the next few weeks I'll be modifying moth #2681 so Susan could try the foils at the Classic Moth Mid-winters over Super Bowl weekend.

According to George Albaugh, the historian of the Classic Moth Boat Association, John Shelley's Mk I design was built on the Isle of Wight by William McCutcheon and imported to the States in 1964 by Al Menz for his son Chipper. Chipper sailed out of the Greater Wildwood Yacht Club in South Jersey and competed for a few years, including in the '65 Worlds held at Cape May, NJ, where he finished 14th out of 35 boats (his best finish was a 2nd in the 6th race of the regatta.) George recalls that Shelley's design created a stir among the moth fleet since it was one of the first boats that, in the right hands and conditions, could plane to weather. After a few successful years, like many boats of her era, #2681 eventually was stored in a garage and neglected. When George found her in 1998 and turned the boat over to me for a rehab, I got just the hull. The rig and blades had somehow disappeared over the previous 30 years.

My intention was to not restore the boat to the original condition, but to make it user-friendly for Susan to sail. The overall vision was to keep the hull panels and shape intact, but to remove the bulkheads and daggerboard well to allow a complete re-decking with roll tanks and a small footwell, making the boat self-rescuing. I also wanted to raise the boom height so I needed to install a foredeck with a good bit of camber (the classic moth rules at the time had a 12" maximum height of boom above the deck.) Since the Shelley also had a rather blunt bow, I decided to remove the bow piece, pull the hull panels together at the stem and raise the sheer forward by seven inches.

The project was fun, even if it looks rather strange. I decided to paint the original hull panels white with the raised sheer black. The deck and tanks are finished bright. The new name "Aftermath" is a play on words in my job as a math teacher and the result of the rather extensive conversion. Susan, while rather non-competitive, enjoys the result claiming her boat is the dryest in the fleet. While Susan usually finishes mid-fleet, Aftermath has proved sucessful in competition - I sailed the Shelley to a second place in the 2008 national championship.

So, how will the conversion to a foiler go? Stay tuned over the next few weeks and see. Our midwinters are going to be held in Gulfport, Florida on February 6 and 7. I plan on sailing my mistral Try-Umph in regular floating mode and Susan hopes to fly Aftermath. If successful not only will she become the oldest "bird" to fly (having turned 52 this December,) she will also have the world's oldest foiling moth (the Shelley will be 45 years old.)

My take on the "One Equipment Rule"

2009-11-07T14:13:00.005-05:00

Agreeing with most of the comments floating around the mothosphere, I think the idea of a "one equipment rule" is a solution looking for a problem. I would argue that the more equipment around the better, even if that means that a few people might bring a larger kit to regattas. I know I measured two sails at the worlds, and I also used two mainfoils, albeit one a borrowed replacement after the new foil collapsed. More bits will certainly accelerate development and the older, less efficient foils, masts, etc, will filter down to the sailors that are less well off financially to be able to afford the latest and greatest. That benefits home builders, juniors, and generally any newcomers to the class. Why buy an older lowrider when there might be an older foiler available?

On the topic of replacing my wand cable with a pushrod, I'm still looking for a dimension that will give me the vertical offset from pivot point to rod axis. The diagram above is from the Bladerider Support website and I've marked the discrepancy in red. All the lengths are spot on with their marked dimensions except for this one. So is it 19mm or 14 mm? Any comments would be appreciated.

Thoughts on the Gantry

2009-10-16T14:37:00.018-04:00

The posting of Adam's picture of me swimming in at the Gorge (above), recent blog posts by Nat and by MARKLA, and last week's sailing at the HHPDO in Rye, have all got me thinking about gantry forces.

When I built my first rudder/gantry system I was most influenced by Bill's comment that the back of his rudder cassette had blown out during a heavy air day. To prevent the same thing from happening to my boat I made a cassette that was probably overbuilt, but didn't fail. That first rudder and horizontal were serviceable (they're what I'm using in the photo on the right sidebar) but I was sure that the whole sytem was less than optimal, due to the size of the horizontal; and to the thickness of the strut.

In building a second rudder for the Worlds, I wanted to accomplish four things: (1) reduce drag by using John Z's thinner strut section and a much smaller horizontal (eventually a Beiker section built by Bora,) (2) reduce weight by eliminating the rudder cassette concept and instead pin the rudder directly to the gantry (and using a rudder with a hollow tube head and removable tiller/hiking stick to make the system managable,) (3) improve the worm gear set-up to make the adjustments more positive and easier to accomplish, and (4) incorporate a five degree forward cant similar to the Mach2 design to help prevent ventilation.

After an unfortunate sail/break/repair cycle the current product can be seen in the above photo of me sailing in the Heineken regatta last weekend. I'm generally pleased with the rudder, tiller, and forward cant, but am still worried about the strength of the lower gudgeon and the gantry attachment points. Looking at pictures of the rudder when sailing in heavy air, it became obvious to me that there is a huge amount force applied to the lower gudgeon, and that at speed, while the amount of force decreases linearly with the ride height, it increases quadratically (not exponentially, Karl) with the speed through the water. The best way to reduce straight line drag would be to fly higher and to incorporate thinner strut and foil sections, with very fine surface finishes (maybe even with a SLIP coating?) all of which I'm well on to way to accomplishing. The dynamic drag force is high with erratic steering, something that I may have to deal with for a while until I get my helmsmanship skills up to par. All of these drag forces are trying to rip the gantry off the boat, or the rudder out of the back of the cassette, if so equipped, or the lower gudgeon off the leading edge of the rudder.

When I went to the Gorge Worlds I brought my new rudder and gantry, neither of which had ever been used before (BIG MISTAKE!) Adam's photo was taken after the gantry lower tension tube separated. The plug that attached the bottle screw to the carbon tube came out causing a cascade of failures (how appropriate?) with the gantry's upper attachment points ripping off at the hull connection. It's too bad that I didn't get seamanship points for nursing the boat back to the beach without the rudder. Additional style points could have been awarded for allowing the rudder's horizontal to appear as a shark's fin cutting the surface behind me! I repaired these failures with a rather agricultural-looking aluminum plate and through bolts for all the tube plugs and eventually managed to get in some racing, even recording a 20.3 knot 10 second average speed on the afternoon of the speed challenge. On the second-to-last day of racing, however, I again had a rudder failure, this time with the lower gudgeon popping off the rudder.

In preparation for last weekend's regatta I replaced the lower gudgeon, reinforced it with ten layers of carbon cloth, and bolted the fitting through the rudder, in addition to the glued attachment. Things held up for the racing (the only failure that occured was not rudder related, but at the other end of the boat at the wand pivot.) But close inspection of the joint reveals stress that caused the primer paint to crack. Obviously, I need to re-engineer this lower rudder fitting! Again. Stay tuned for the winter project that will include a whole new gantry with different hull attachment points the will reduce play in the whole system. The work of the home builder is never completely "sorted."

Sailing photos by Allen and Daniela Clark from The Photoboat.com

Heineken HPDO

2009-10-13T20:10:00.018-04:00

I'm almost recovered from the long weekend. It's about a 7 hour drive from Norfolk, VA to Rye, NY not counting the needed stops for gas, food, stretch the legs, and the always present traffic on I-95 around the NYC area's George Washington bridge and Cross-Bronx expressway. Leaving after work on Friday resulted in an 11:30 p.m. arrival at Peter Becker's house, just a mile or so from the American Yacht Club. Susan and I crashed in a soft bed then woke early Saturday morning to the smell of coffee and eggs whipped up by our excellent hosts Peter and Adrianne.

Saturday consisted of finishing the registration process, picking up the nice polo shirt and freebie packet, confirming the dinner buffet reservations then rigging up for the planned 10:00 a.m. gun. Besides Peter and me, there was Chris Williams (the eventual winner,) Matt Knowles, Jamie Gilman, and Ethan Brown. We had a nice floating dock to rig on and launch from, so no need to wade out and get wet (yeah, right.) The forecast called for about 10-12 knots with slightly overcast skies. I hit the water first and sailed out. Not more than 5 minutes from the club my wand plate popped off the hull and I had to return to the dock. Obviously I was out of commission until the afternoon races. Peter provided me with the his basement workshop and necessary repair materials and I got to work gluing and screwing. So I had no first-hand knowledge of the first couple of races, but the score sheet shows Chris, Matt, and Peter finishing 1-2-3 respectively in both races.

I arrived back to the club with my repair completed (but not fully cured) around 11:30 to see Jamie sailing in. The breeze had built to around 15 knts and he was having problems controlling the boat. He offered me the chance to sail his boat (a new BR RX and so I jumped at the opportunity.) When I headed out for the third race, I passed Ethan who was heading in, also with control problems. I managed a flyby of the Photoboat in Jamie's RX.

This was the first time I had ever sailed a production foiler and I quickly was impressed with the firm steering (I love the aluminum gantry) but found my height control to be problematic. I quickly discovered why Jamie was having problems. His set-up was less than optimum: even with full lift on the rudder and me sitting on the front wing bar, in some of the bigger waves I couldn't keep the mainfoil in the water off the wind, resulting in some spectacular crashes. His gearing was not providing sufficient down lift to prevent ventilation. I managed to start the third race with Peter but couldn't finish due to handling problems off the wind. After the start of the fourth race the sky cleared with the frontal passage and the breeze really started to pick up.

I decided then and there to head in, basically upwind about a couple of miles. So I bailed out at the weather mark and struggled to make it in. The breeze had some monster gusts and also some pretty violent shifts. I chatted with a J-109 sailor later in the day who was sailing on an adjacent course. He claimed one monster puff showed 39 on their wind gauge and caused four J-109s to broach simultaneously. I can't say I ever saw that much, but I'm pretty sure there were some gusts to 30. With the added waves, the sail in was interesting to say the least. The best picture of the day is Chris sailing ealier. Believe me, the wind was much higher than this around 2:00 p.m.

Saturday dinner featured a buffet and a talk by Mark Lindsay. I left with a full draughtkeg of Heineken to take home (a 5 liter mini-keg,) and some nice memories of 5o5 sailing back in the day. Back at Peter's house Susan and I hit the pillow around 10:00 p.m and slept the sleep of the dead.

Sunday had three more races, sailed in breezes of about 5-15. I heard the infamous phrase "the race committee has established your position," a couple of times but did enjoy some close racing at times. My speed was impressive in spurts, but I still need to work on boat-handling. Being tired from the day before didn't help.

All-in-all it was a great experience. The venue, the hospitality of Peter and Adrianne, the take home goodies, and the opportunity to get some professionial on-the-water pictures all will encourage me to come back next year. Even with the loooooooooong drive home.

Sailing photos by Allen and Daniela Clark from The Photoboat.com

The Cost of Development

2009-10-03T23:00:00.001-04:00

All mothists are privileged to enjoy the thrill and excitement of the modern foiler. Most have no idea of the cost in time and $$$ that a small number of developers have spent to make it all possible. Preeminent among those is John Ilett. As the first to realize the concept of a wand-controlled flap, he has seen his idea blossom with first the ubiquitous Bladerider and now the Mach2, while his Fastacraft Prowlers have been relegated to the small minority of active race boats. Recently John attempted to regain the cutting edge with a new generation of foils that featured a 48” (122 cm) wide mainfoil and a nearly seamless flap mechanism. This was also his first attempt at the two-piece foil, having seen the writing on the wall with the predominance of the BR and M2 bulbed foils. I was the recipient of one of the first of these “gen3” foils, as described in this post, having received it shortly before the Gorge Worlds. The story was not a happy one. On the first outing, the foil collapsed and repeated attempts at repairing it failed. If it wasn’t for Andy Mills loaning me his spare foil, an older one-piece FC daggerboard, I would have spent a couple of weeks at the Gorge watching from the beach.

As it was, I also had problems with a never before tested gantry, so all of the time on the beach (and in the rescue boat) can not be laid at John’s feet. But the one thing that I thought would bring me close to the front of the fleet ended up being a complete failure. John has since attempted to make the gen3 design work, and has temporarily given up with it, and has gone back to his 2nd generation design, albeit with a bulbed attachment. I just got the new “gen2b” mainfoil, at no cost to me other than shipping, as a “warranty replacement.” Such after-the-sale-service is remarkable. I can’t imagine John’s cost of the design and creation of the steel mold that he used for the gen3 foil, that now is but a bucket of $$$ out of the bank account with nothing to show for it except the lessons learned.

Not all development moves forward. Surely the advances are what we all look for, but it takes those with the guts to try something new to make anything happen at all.

Classic Moth Nationals

2009-09-23T17:14:00.009-04:00

Last weekend I competed in the Classic Moth National championship sailed in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I sailed my wife's boat, Aftermath, a mid-'60s Shelley that I modified by raising the sheer and building a huge foredeck. Last year I finished second in the same boat to Jeff Linton. This year Jeff was tied up with the Lightning Worlds so didn't compete. This year's winner was Mike Parsons from the Philly area. Second was Annapolis's John Zseleczky. I finished third.

It's interesting that the three of us also have built foilers. Maybe we just like building stuff, but probably it's that we want to try new stuff, even if we aren't very good at it. In the Classics, Mike pulled off the win after many years of plugging away. The boat he sailed was his third home build, a mistral that he built with an unstayed rig that cants forward quite a bit off the wind. (Both John and I use conventional stayed rigs.) One ingredient of Mike's success is that he has consistently campaigned his boat up and down the east coast, proving once again that time in the boat can make a huge difference. My klutzy boat handling included falling off the boat one race when rounding the leeward mark in the lead, and completely blowing the start of another race.

My foiler is yet to be put together, but I have registered for the Heineken High Performance Dinghy Open to be sailed in a couple of weeks in Rye, NY (about a 9 hour drive.) John Ilett says he's shipping me a replacement main foil so I should be set-up okay if I can repair my rudder gantry. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime I'm really busy at work (and can hardly justify writing the post) but am lurking in the Mothosphere. Pictures above by Ingrid and Elisabeth Albaugh.

...later...

-TRVTH-

2009-08-29T10:32:00.005-04:00

RE: Bruce's latest Mothcast.

As the "winner" of the 2009 Moth Blog Worlds, I can attest that success in blogging is inversely proportional to success on the water.

Phillippe, be forewarned. Back away from the keyboard....

I'm Going Home

2009-08-16T07:20:00.002-04:00

You’re reading the last post for a while. After this gets uploaded I’m hopping on the bike for the 45 mile ride into Portland, where I will drop off my steed at a bike shop to get it boxed and shipped back to Norfolk. Then I’ll jump on the Trimet transit for the ride to PDX, then a seven hour flight back home, arriving in Virginia at 9:00 a.m. Tomorrow I’ll report to work to prepare for the new school year.

My crated boat should leave West Coast Sailing on Wednesday and arrive in Norfolk five days later. I plan on unpacking it and putting it away in the garage. Obviously I have some boat (and foil) work to attend to, but that will wait for the winter. The Classic Moth Nationals are the third weekend in September, and I’ll probably make a short post following that effort, assuming I even sail there. I don‘t think I’ll make the eight hour drive up to October’s HPOD regatta. At any rate, for me it’s back to the real world.

Thanks for all who have followed the 160 different posts over the past eleven months, from my first post on July 25th of last year, until this one today. Thanks to the Moth World Blog Championship Committee (Andrew, Mat, and Glenn) on choosing my blog as the winner. I hope you’ve had some enjoyment reading and listening; I know that I’ve enjoyed thinking about mothing for the past year, and I trust the mothosphere will be fine without me.

Thanks, again. Enjoy Daughtry.

Home, by Chris Daughtry (2007)

I'm staring out into the night,
Trying to hide the pain.
I'm going to the place where love
And feeling good don't ever cost a thing.
And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain.

Well I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,
So I'm going home.
Well I'm going home.

The miles are getting longer, it seems,
The closer I get to you.
I've not always been the best man or friend for you.
But your love remains true.
And I don't know why.
You always seem to give me another try.

So I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,

Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all,
And then some you don't want.
Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all, yeah.

Oh, well I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old.
I said these places and these faces are getting old,
So I'm going home.
I'm going home.

Worlds Wrap-up

2009-08-15T15:06:00.006-04:00

A US sailor has again claimed the Moth World Championship title, breaking a 33 year absence. Bora Gulari from Detroit, Michigan will now the third American to claim the Carling Trophy, joining Blair Fletcher (1967) and Ted Causey (1976). Bora credits his training partner, George Peet, his boat mechanic, Matt Pistay, and the West Coast class organizer, Charlie McKee for his success. Certainly his dedication to sailing as often as possible has resulted in optimized equipment, polished boat handling, and blazing speed off the wind. Bora bested Nathan Outteridge from Australia (who finished 2nd) and Arnaud Psarofaghis from Switzerland (in 3rd). Rounding out the top five are Dalton Bergan from the US and Simon Payne from the UK. The complete results are here and on the event site.

Andrew McDougall's Mach2 is now established as the fastest production moth in the world. The Dubai Worlds is a scant eight months away and it will be interesting to see if the top helms move en masse to from the BR to the M2. It will also be interesting to see the Ninja in the mix. The Assassin still has teething problems but perhaps they will be sorted on the coming year. Home builds are not necessarily uncompetitive, my result notwithstanding – Bruce reminds me that the fastest moth in Australia is Dave Lister’s home build.

As far as sailors are concerned, the US fleet is strong, with five of the top fifteen finishers. The program that Bora used to win included lots of sailing – he was on the water 6 days a week. It seemed to me that the first twenty finishers were sailing at the top of their game. It's just that the top has gotten consistently better. Perhaps for large regattas we will move to a two-tier fleet: pros and the amateurs.

I have to congratulate Nige and Charlie on their organization and Bill Symes and the CGRA for their committee work. Marilyn and her crew organized great shoreside activities. The media coverage was great, and Rohan's emcee duties definitely added to the crowd's pleasure. Well done all!

For Bora, representing the US Moth Class, I had to include Queen. Enjoy!

We Are The Champions, by Freddie Mercury (1977)
I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls -
You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it
-
I thank you all -

But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise -
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race -
And I ain't gonna lose -

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

Day 4 Results - It's a Young Man's Game

2009-08-14T17:59:00.004-04:00

Bora increases his lead.

As shown on the event site, after three races today, Bora has lengthened his lead over Nathan. Two more bullets with wins coming on the downwind legs. There were more breakdowns today, including me on the way to the start line.

Shortly after I was dragged in, Naomi, Gerold, and Giovanni also came in. When I asked "What broke," the response from all three was "the body." I know I'm battered and bruised. The breeze seemed to be about 15 with puffs into the low twenties. The W course in the relatively narrow river, requires lots of tacks and gybes. No banging a corner at this venue! I have to give major props to Amac and to Simon, who continue to soldier on, both with physical injuries - Amac's shoulder from Weymouth and Si's knee from yesterday.

Tonight it's the Bar-B-Que. I have to decide if I can affect another repair and attempt the two races tomorrow. If not I'll probably pack up the boat so I can get an early start on my bike ride into Portland on Sunday.

Here's the Village People

YMCA, by Henri Belolo, Jacques Morali, Victor Willis (1978)

Young man, there's no need to feel down
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground
I said, young man, 'cause your in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy

Young man, there's a place you can go
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything For young men to enjoy.
You can hang out with all the boys.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
You can get yourself clean
You can have a good meal
You can do whatever you feel.

Young man, Are you listening to me
I said, young man, what do you want to be
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams,
but you've got to know this one thing.

No man, does it all by himself
I said, young man, put your pride on the shelf
And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A.
I'm sure they can help you today

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything for young men to enjoy.
You can hang out with all the boys.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
You can get yourself clean
You can have a good meal
You can do whatever you feel.

Young Man, I was once in your shoes,
I said, I was down and out with the blues
I felt, no man cared if I were alive
I felt the whole world was so jive

That's when someone came up to me
and said young man take a walk up the street
There's a place there called the Y.M.C.A.
They can start you back on your way.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything For young men to enjoy.
You can hang out with all the boys.

Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
Young man, Young man, there's no need to feel down
Young man, Young man, pick yourself off the ground

Y.M.C.A.
just go to the Y.M.C.A.
Young Man, Young Man, I was once in your shoes,
Young Man, Young Man, I was out with the blues

Y.M.C.A.
Y.M.C.A.
Y.M.C.A.
Y.M.C.A.

Day Three Results

2009-08-13T13:58:00.004-04:00

After a short postponement the RC got off three races back to back. The results as posted on the event site have Bora in the lead, just two points ahead of Nathan. The net scores are now meaningful as both throwouts are taken into consideration. Nine points back is Arnaud with Dalton three points behind him. Si is another ten points back.

I managed to muddle around the course for all three races, but the committee only noticed my last start. Maybe I should more sail more conspicuously, but I would think my wild oscillations off the wind would attract lots of attention. At any rate it seemed the story today was to keep things together and avoid breakage. The waves were pretty big and the shifts were large and sudden and I saw lots of folks sticking it both upwind and down. After winning the first race of the day, Scott returned with a broken wing strut. Rough since the two DNCs and his one DNF means he has to carry a lettered score.

My min-rig needed more rake, and my repaired gantry needed more AoA, so tweaking each tomorrow should help. Thanks to all those who are following along. Yesterday's post was picked up by Scuttlebutt and I got an e-mail from Mike Worrell, a name from the past (way past!) I had sailed in three Worrell 1000s (aka the Coastwise Race in Hobie 16s) in the late 1970s. As to my take on Doug's comments about boat colors, how about boat names? My (blue) Try-Foil may be the one hull displaying something that doesn't end in ".com."

To remind me to keep the rightside up, I decided to go back to the well, and include some Queen. Enjoy.

Another One Bites the Dust, by John Deacon (1980)

Steve walks warily down the street,
With the brim pulled way down low
Aint no sound but the sound of his feet,
Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, Im gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust

How do you think Im going to get along,
Without you, when youre gone
You took me for everything that I had,
And kicked me out on my own

Are you happy, are you satisfied
How long can you stand the heat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat

Chorus

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man
And bring him to the ground
You can beat him
You can cheat him
You can treat him bad and leave him
When hes down
But Im ready, yes Im ready for you
Im standing on my own two feet
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
Repeating the sound of the beat

Fortuitous Scheduling

2009-08-12T12:24:00.023-04:00

Day Three of the Worlds was scheduled as a lay day, reserved to catch up in the number of races if need be. As it is, we're one race up (having sailed four instead of the planned three on Monday,) so there's no need to use the lay day. It's just as well - a cool rain in the form of a steady drizzle is coming down, making any racing that might have taken place today far less enjoyable. So for me today, it's finish the epoxy work on my gantry, glad that I have a heated hotel room to help things kick.

The spare time gives me an opportunity to contemplate the racing and my participation in it. I suppose I should also talk about the evolution of the class from the prospective of someone who's built moths in three distinct design eras: the "classic" moths of the early to mid-1960s, the first of the "wedge" designs typical of the mid to late 1970s (my hey-day,) and lastly, the modern foilers of today. First the boats: these aren't your father's (or grandfather's) mothboats. For three decades, from the mid '30s to the mid '60s, the design changes were generally gradual - but the resulting boats were all designs that any competent dinghy sailor would feel comfortable in. When revolutionally gimmicks were tried (multihulls and sliding seats to name a couple) they were quickly outlawed. The resulting type-form was (and is, see the Classic Moth Boat Association) an eleven foot development dinghy that is easy to build, cheaper to own, and more responsive to sail than most any other conventional dinghy. I should know - I've built or re-built about eight hulls in the past ten years and presently sail my Mistral design "Try-umph" in Classic moth regattas. The competition is top-flight: one of our active builders/sailors is Jeff Linton, the 2007 US Sailing Rolex YOTY. Below are a couple of shots of me sailing my classic Try-Umph, built in 1997, to the rules of the CMBA, and one of me racing my wife's modified Shelley at last year's CMBA Nationals (I'm in the black and white boat at the weather end.)

The international moth class changed significantly in the late 1960s & early 1970s with the adoption of the Australian "tall rig." Development underwent a quantum leap as builders and designers adapted to the more powerful rig by increasing beam, narrowing waterlines, and all the while working to minimize weight. I built and campaigned three boats is this era: a Stockholm Sprite with box ply wings (that also sported a double luff sleeve sail, one of the first), a Mistral with tube wings (in which I took 7th place in the 1976 worlds) and a fiberglass Magnum2 that I sailed to 16th place in the 1977 worlds at Hayling Island. The boats were easy to build and fun to sail. I remember with my Sprite "First Try" playing around before the start of multiclass regattas by standing on the wing while planing through the fleet. Good fun! Pictures are hard to come by, but below is a shot of me sailing in 1974.
The moth class died off in the US in the late 1970s, so I missed the whole era of the narrow skiff with t-foil rudders. I did have a go at an ultra-narrow boat around 2001 and was turned off by the constant swimming. For a while a couple of us on the east coast experimented with the addition of an asymmetrical spinnaker on a Magnum2 hull, but the result was also less than satisfying. Below are a couple of shots of me sailing that boat, with the same cloth sail that I used back in the 1970s.In the end, the "US modern moth" experiment didn't pan out. It wasn't until September of 2007 that I had a chance to sail a foiler: Bill Beaver's Hungry Beaver design. I was immediately smitten and decided then and there that I had to build one. You have to remember my history - I had never "bought" a moth before, so the idea, not to mention the price tag of $15K+, of buying a BR was considered, but quickly dismissed. So began my saga of Try-Foil. The boat, with its homemade foils, was completed in the late spring of 2008, sailed enough to get through the initial sail-break-fix-repeat stage (or so I thought,) then packed off to the Weymouth worlds. I should have realized then that something significant was afoot in the class when I was but one of about a half dozen "home builds." The BR factory team support was ever present, and all the top finishers, hell, probably the top 50 finishers, were all sailing production boats.

My result at Weymouth was disappointing to say the least. If the breeze had been no more than 15 knots I probably would have finished all the races, but my overall place of 75/99 may not have been any better. So I came back home, sailed one regatta on the east coast (the AYC HPOD regatta in October) before I blew up my daggerboard. I decided to bite the bullet and buy what I considered to be the biggest component of my slows: the foil. The reception of a new FC gen3 two piece foil didn't result in a final solution; for that I'm still a ways away. But my experiences last week and this have convinced me that class, for better or worse, has changed from what I remembered. If the adoption of the tall rig in the early 70s resulted in a quantum leap for the designers (with home builders still being able to compete with designs a season old,) the universal adoption of foils has been a fundamental shift in type, at least as the home builder is concerned. The forces are now so large and concentrated that except for the cachet one-offs, like Karl and Bruce, or small boutique builders like Cookie, competitive boats need to come from industrial facilities with all the state of the art techniques (huge autoclaves, resin infusion, etc.) An inspection of the M2 shows foils rigidly fitted to the hull - there is not a bit of play in the system. Such tight tolerances are hard to achieve. Amac has given me a few hints and suggestions so when I get home I still have work to do.

The other significant change to the class is its sailors. This really is "Formula One" on the water with, at least at the World Championship level, professional sailors predominating. I feel like a senior amateur who made his own golf clubs going up against Tiger Woods and the rest of the PGA in the Open tournament. It's a privilege to be here, to start with and to even be lapped by the likes of Nathan, Bora, Arnaud, Si and Rohan (and Scott, and Dalton, and any of the McKees, and...). The pictures of Bill Schill, shown at the top of this post and who won the worlds in '63, and Peter Moor, shown immediately above and who finished 2nd at the Ware River worlds in '76, seem quaint compared to where we are today. Yes, with me and moffing, it's been a long and winding road. Enjoy the Beatles from 1970.

Day 2 Provisional Results

2009-08-11T20:58:00.007-04:00

With Bora sitting 2nd, he's the best hope of the US of A. To help motivate the team I had to include the Kenny Loggins hit Danger Zone. Nothing else to report other than the AGM lasted only 1:05. My boat repairs continue, and it's looking like I'll be able to make the next start (Thursday.) Oh yeah, I suppose I should include the top standings. Again, here's a link from the event site. I'm off to the Indian Salmon Bake, cooked by real Indians, aka Native Americans.

Enjoy Kenny Loggins

Danger Zone, by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock (1986)

Revvin' up your engine
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension
Beggin' you to touch and go

Highway to the Danger Zone
Ride into the Danger Zone

Headin' into twilight
Spreadin' out her wings tonight
She got you jumpin' off the track
And shovin' into overdrive

Highway to the Danger Zone
I'll take you
Right into the Danger Zone

You'll never say hello to you
Until you get it on the red line overload
You'll never know what you can do
Until you get it up as high as you can go

Out along the edges
Always where I burn to be
The further on the edge
The hotter the intensity

Highway to the Danger Zone
Gonna take you
Right into the Danger Zone

Highway to the Danger Zone

Day One Resultsof Races 1-4

2009-08-10T17:15:00.014-04:00

Results for the first four races are above. A link to the official results is here. For the first two races, the conditions were mid teens, with stronger pressure up the left side of the course. Even though the right side has the favorable 2 knot current, it also has bigger waves and seemingly lighter pressure. The best course seems to be staying left of center, but I'll let the leaders give their take on it.

I saw the first weather mark rounding of race 4. Bora had at least a hundred yard lead but got tangled up with the offset mark. By the time he righted the boat and did a circle about 10 folks passed him. He did manage to reel in about seven of them and finished third.

Not to be outdone, Lindsay did the same thing - capsizing on the off set mark (both seemed due to bearing away too quickly at the weather mark, then realizing they were coming in too deep to the offset mark. The resulting luff caused the capsizes.) Above is a pic of Bora's rounding of the weather mark, his subsequent righting and circle, and below is one of Lindsay who got really intimate with the offset mark - when she righted her boat the mark came aboard!) She's currently sitting 31st, just one place out of Bruce's "top thirty" - anyone of which could be considered a good showing, given the talent and depth of the fleet.

During the break between races 2 and 3 I took the shots below. One of a couple of Aussies and a Kiwi being interviewed, and one of three of the British contingent saluting a fallen comrade (yes, I'm down again with a broken gantry.)

For my gantry failure, parts are on order next day air so I may be able to start repairs tomorrow, with hopefully sailing by Thursday. (Wednesday is a lay-day.) My one start wasn't too bad - weather end, just a few seconds late but with speed. I did cross Brad Funk, so maybe I'm not completely klutzy. My finish, however was 45th, and the breakdown occurred before the second start, so I'm currently ahead of only the three folks that didn't sail today. Visions of Weymouth! At any rate, here’s Toby Keith singing about my sailing ability.

As Good as I Once Was, by Toby Keith and Scotty Emerick (2005)

She said, "I've seen you in here before."
I said, "I've been here a time or two."
She said, "Hello, my
Name is Bobby Jo
Meet my twin sister Betty Lou
And we're both feeling kinda wild tonight
And you're the only cowboy in this place
And if you're up for a rodeo
We'll put a big Texas smile on
Your face"
I said, "Girls,"
[Chorus]
I ain't as good as I once was
I got a few years on me now
But there was a time back in my prime
When I could really lay it down
And if you need some love tonight
Then I might have just enough
I ain't as good as I once was
But I'm as good once as I ever was
I still hang out with my best friend Dave
Ive known him since we were kids at school
Last night he
Had a few shots
Got in a tight spot hustlin' a game of pool
With a couple of redneck boys
And one great
Big fat biker man
I heard David yell across the room
"Hey buddy, how 'bout a helping hand."
I said, "Dave,"
[Chorus]
I ain't as good as I once was
My how the years have flown
But there was a time back in my prime
When I could really hold my own
But if you wanna fight tonight
Guess thouse boys dont look all that
Tough
I ain't as good as I once was
But I'm as good once as I ever was
I used to be hell on wheels
Back when I was younger man
Now my body says, "You can't do this boy"
But my pride says, "Oh, yes you can
I ain't as good as I once was
Thats just the cold hard truth
I still throw a few back, talk a little smack
When I'm feelin bullet proof
So don't double dog dare me now
'Cause I'd have to call your bluff
I ain't as good as I once was
But I'm as good once as I ever was
Maybe not be good as I once was
But I'm as good once as I ever was

Sloppy Slop

2009-08-09T23:59:00.004-04:00

Today's schedule included two practice races held in breezes of about 12-15 with some stronger gusts of around 20. The first race was a Windward-Leeward, twice around. The second was a "P" course that included a beat, two reaches and a run of half of the beat leg, again twice around. The second race was interesting as it included a barge, the Sternwheeler cruise boat, a photoboat kicking up lots of wake, and a course layout that had the leaders sailing through the bulk of the fleet more so that with the W course. I think Rohan won the first race and I know Bora won the second (by a leg) but both results are misleading as Bora didn't sail the first and Rohan (along with a few of the top Aussies) didn't sail the second.

My goal was to record two finishes without breaking anything. I used the small Hanson sail (too small in the breeze) but did learn some of its limitations. At the end of the day my finishes were dead last of all the starters (some folks didn't sail at all) so in some respect I achieved my goal. The extra couple of hours in the boat have shown me that the borrowed FC one-piece board, while solid and effective, has too much slop in the well, making the turns downwind very wobbly. Tomorrow I'll wrap some packing tape around the board where it exits the hull to try to tighten it up.

The only picture today is of my boat ready for launching. Note the colors of black and blue, red and grey - sorta what I'm looking like. I'll try to snap some interesting pics tomorrow. In the meanwhile, enjoy Archie Bell and the Drells.

Tighten Up, by Archie Bell and Billy Buttier (1968)

Hi everybody
I'm Archie Bell of the Drells
From Houston, Texas
We don't only sing but we dance
Just as good as we walk
In Houston we just started a new dance
Called the Tighten Up
This is the music
We tighten up with

First tighten up on the drums
Come on now, drummer
I want you to tighten it up for me now
Oh, yeah

Tighten up on that bass now
Tighten it up
Ha, ha, yeah
Now let that guitar fall in
Oh, yeah
Tighten up on that organ now

Yeah, you do the tighten up
Yeah, now
I said, if you can do it now
It sure would be tough
Now look here, come on now
Now make it mellow

Let's tighten it up now
Do the tighten up
Everybody can do it now
So get to it

We're gonna tighten up
Let's do the tighten up
You can do it now
So baby, get to it

Look to your left now
Look to your right
Everybody can do it
But don't you get too tight

Come on and tighten up
Let's tighten it up now
Let's tighten it up now
Tighten it up

Do the tighten up
Come and tighten it up
Tighten it up now

Come on now, Billy
Tighten it up
Oh, yeah
Sock it to me now
Tighten it up

Come on and tighten up that bass
Oh, yeah
Now look here
I want that guitar
To fall in on there
Tighten it up now
Oh, yeah
Now tighten it up, organ
Yeah
Now everybody tighten it up now

Now look here
We gonna make it mellow for you now
We gonna make it mellow now

Tighten it up
You can get it
Move to your left
Move to your right
Tighten it up now
Everything will be outta sight
Come on and tighten it up
Tighten it up now
You can do it...

Fun Day

2009-08-08T21:38:00.009-04:00

Today was pretty much a fun day. There was some sail measurement going on, and folks were still making repairs, but most of the attention was on the $1000 Velocitek Speed Trials and the North $1000 Dash for Cash slalom. Bora "$2K richer" Gulari won both, but he had to sail downwind to Hood River to find sufficient pressure to record his 25.3 knot ten second average. In the slalom he finished dead last in his qualifying heat (sailed in non-foiling conditions) but came back through the repechage (losers' bracket) to make, and finally win, the final. Rohan did a great job keeping the crowd of about 100 folks entertained with his emcee job.

I thought I'd include some random pictures of the area, including the crappy geese, the drive thru, the ever-present trains, and the crowded beach.

I guess I'm a little bummed because I discovered my repair of the new foil failed a second time, so I'm at the mercy of borrowing other people's spares. I did use Andy's old FC one-piece foil to record a 20.3 knot ten second average during the speed trials (so I guess I'm officially a member of the 20 knot club.) I'm sure I was going faster yesterday in the blow, but today it seemed almost a matter of chance who got the puffs off the beach. There was stronger winds upriver, but didn't sail any further than Stevenson. A few more head shots, starting with 60 year old Naomi Tachibana from Japan who arrived today.

Here's the band Pensive

Live Fast, by Pensive (2009)

These clouds paper thin sky
Torn from purest wine
And that's all that's real inside
This light shines in my eyes, falsified sunlight
Well these demons stay until we die

And all I know is
When I go I won't forget
Anything, anything at all

[Chorus:]
Every day I get one step closer to an early grave
A place where I won't fade away
And all this time, I'm living like I'll never die, I'll never die, I'll never

These waves crash against me, reflections nothing more
But they teach us how to hold
While stars shine above me
From world long since dead
Can we remember just to live?

And all I know is
When I go I won't forget
Anything, anything at all

[Chorus]

When will you tell me what's going on
Is this goodbye tonight
'Cause I can't believe in anything
Say it's not the end of me, say it's not the end of me

[Chorus x2]

Breaking news:Outterridge wins US Nationals

2009-08-07T18:09:00.005-04:00

Four races yesterday plus three race completed today ended up with Nathan Outteridge as the US National Moth Champion. The next four places were Bora Gulari, Scott Babbage, Arnaud Psarofaghis, and Rohan Veal. Congrats Nathan! Here's a link to the results from the CGRA website. It's a little discouraging that I was scored DNC (instead of DNF) for race 5 since I was close to the committee boat with 1:30 remaining (a subsequent capsize resulted in a mid line start about a minute late, but I did sail two legs before heading in for my smaller sail.) I guess next week I'll make my presence known to the recorder. Oh well...

Here are today's head shots, starting with our new national Champion.

As for me, I started the first race today, sailed two legs, then decided to come in and switch to the smaller sail (the one for WUSSES.) Actually, I enjoyed the next half hour - very comfortable upwind, but having to sheet carefully off the wind to avoid stalling. The borrowed foil from Andy seemed to work fine. I'll give my repair job on the gen3 foil another day to cure before I test it. Below is a shot of the Hansen mini-rig, given its first Baptism in the Columbia River today.

Enjoy Good Charlotte and their song The River.

The River, by Good Charlotte (2007)

As I walk through the valley
of the shadow of LA
The footsteps that were next to me
have gone their separate ways
I've seen enough now
to know that beautiful things
don't always stay that way
I've done enough now
to know this beautiful place
isn't everything they say

I heard that evil comes disguised
Like a city of angels
I'm walking towards the light

Baptized in the river
I've seen a vision of my life
And I wanna be delivered
In the city was a sinner
I've done a lot of things wrong
But I swear I'm a believer
Like the prodigal son
I was out on my own
Now I'm trying to find my way back home
Baptized in the river
I'm delivered
I'm delivered

[M.Shadows:]
You're from a small town
You're gonna grow up fast
underneath these lights
Down in Hollywood
on the boulevard the dead come back to life
To the praying Mother
And the worried Father
Let your children go
If they come back
They'll come home stronger
And if they don't you'll know

They say that evil comes disguised
Like a city of angels
I'm walking towards the light

Baptized in the river
I've seen a vision of my life
And I wanna be delivered
In the city was a sinner
I've done a lot of things wrong
But I swear I'm a believer
Like the prodigal son
I was out on my own
Now I'm trying to find my way back home
Baptized in the river
I'm delivered
I'm delivered

Baptized in the river (on my own)
Baptized in the river (on my own)
I wanna be delivered
(on my own, on my own)
Baptized in the river (on my own)
I wanna be delivered
Baptized in the river (on my own)
I wanna be delivered
Baptized in the river (on my own)
I wanna be delivered
I confess I'm a sinner
I've seen a vision of my life
And I wanna be delivered!

Racing has begun! -updated 6:30 local

2009-08-06T16:08:00.009-04:00

Overcast and cool was the order for today. Our venue is at Stevenson on the above map. Racing kicked off at noon in about 15-20 kts. A first beat does not a regatta make, but Kevin Hall rounded the weather mark's offset buoy in the lead, with Bora hot on his heels. The other top helms were withing 20 seconds. Two races, then a break. Results as I get them. Currently AP is flying until the wind drops. Visions of Weymouth? So how much wind was there in the morning session? Andrew Friend said he saw windsurfers off Stevenson (just below the start area) sporting 4m sails. Supposedly the RC registered a gust at 30 (mph?/knots?) which initiated the postponement.

At about 3:45 the wind had dropped suffuciently to hold two more races. Breeze appeared to be consistently less than 15, with some holes of 8-ish. The results of the first four races haven't been posted yet, but I heard that Nathan and Rohan both posted scores of 1,1, and 2. Team Australia seems to be fast! Tomorrow's first start has been moved to 10:00 a.m., with the hope of getting some racing in before the wind build.

Here are today's head shots. Seven more tomorrow.

My story is another disapointment. My fix of the T-joint failed so I couldn't even get to the race course. I've decided to just glue the two pieces together and not worry about trying to take it apart until the end of racing. There was some good news: my small sail arrived (just about the time the wind dropped, as predicted) and Andy Mills agreed to loan me his older FC one piece board. It seems to fit my boat and the settings are in the ball park so tomorrow's plan is to use his foil, and either the normal or small sail, depending on the wind. After racing I may try my new board and see if the second repair worked.

Meanwhile, here's Green Day. Enjoy. I'm headed to the wine and cheese social.

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, by Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I walk alone
I walk a...

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

Nuclear Winds

2009-08-05T16:35:00.029-04:00

"This is the strongest I've ever seen it at Cascade Locks."
-Jonathan McKee.

Again the river was empty for the four or five hours in the middle of the day except for the whitecaps whipped up by the nuclear winds. People are talking about the US Nationals which start tomorrow and, if the conditions were like today, are expecting the race committee to possibly sail before 10:00 and/or after 5:00. If the fleet were on the water at mid-day it would be a race of attrition. Folks are understandably cautious about risking damage to their boat before the worlds (which start Monday.)

The parking lot is becoming more and more like a world championship venue. National flags are sprouting and sponsors' banners are flying and hull stickers are being applied. This morning we saw a second home-built (so I'm not alone!) Chris & Joanna Cochrane came in with a woodie (visions of the '70s!) Chris said he had sailed this boat only once in light breezes. The baptism tomorrow in the nuclear winds of the Gorge should prove interesting.

Here's a new batch of faces, starting with Chris and Joanna

The musical inclusion for this afternoon is again from The Jam. Enjoy Absolute Beginners, what I would feel like if I were to hit the water in this much breeze. By-the-way, I appear to have fixed the mainfoil but probably won't test sail it until tomorrow, allowing the epoxy an overnight to cure.

Absolute Beginners, Paul Weller (1981)

In echoed steps I walked across an empty dream
I looked across this world, there was no one to be seen
This empty feeling turned and quietly walked away
I saw no warmth in life - no love was in my eyes
I stared a century thinking this will never change
As I hesitated, time rushed onwards without me
Too scared to break the spell too small to take a fall
But the Absolute luck is - love is in our hearts!

I lost some hours thinking of it
I need the strength to go and get what I want
I lost a lifetime thinking of it
an' lost an era daydreaming like I do

I stared a century thinking this will never change
As I hesitated, time rushed onwards without me
Too scared to break the spell too small to take a fall
But the Absolute luck is - love is in our hearts!

In echoed steps you walk across an empty dream
But look around this world, there's millions to be seen
Come see the tyrants panic see their crumbling empires fall
Then tell 'em we don't fight for fools -
'cos love is in our hearts!

I lost some hours thinking of it
I need the strength to go and get what I want
I lost a lifetime thinking of it
an' lost an era daydreaming like I do

You can lose some hours thinking of it
You need the strength to go and get what you want
You can lose a lifetime thinking of it
And lose an era daydreaming like I do oooooooo

The Wind

2009-08-04T18:52:00.016-04:00

The story today continued to be the wind. A few folks took to the water early, but by 11:00 a.m. the river was empty and the fleet was either de-rigged or waiting for the breeze to stabilize. Giovanni claimed the breeze was twisting with little vortices: once he said he was sailing upwind on port and all of a sudden found that the boat was on starboard without a change in heading. He also claimed gusts of between 25 and 30, although the Stevenson iwindsurf gauge never had anything over 27 knts.

At any rate, around 5:00 the wind seemed to steady out, though it was still pretty strong. Rohan was the first to head out, sporting a solid glass rudder horizontal with a swallowtail planform.

After about 10 minutes he came back in to fix something on his vang. Shortly thereafter Bora and George headed out. Bear had only about a couple of minutes of sailing before his boat exploded. We saw a 180 degree pitchpole and perhaps that's what caused the bow fitting to rip out. At any rate his M2's forestay fitting, wand crank and a bit of carbon decided they didn't want to stay attached to the hull. The RIB rescue boat was summoned and he was towed back in. Bora stayed out a bit and wowed the crowd with his speed and boat handling. Finally around 6:00 p.m. the breeze moderated enough for about a dozen folks (me included) to join the fun. Unfortunately, my fun was short-lived as the new mainfoil pulled out of the strut. So tomorrow it's more boatwork, probably cutting back the tang to some solid material, discarding the 1/4" long Helicoil and instead drilling and tapping a new hole, and utilizing a bolt much longer that the 3/4" long 1/4-20 that John used originally.

Sorry about the toe shot; here are today's head shots. More tomorrow!

For today musical inclusion, I chose something with no vocals, just some masterful guitar work by Carlos Santana and Neil Schon, from Santana’s Album “Caravanserai” (1972.) The tune is titled Song of the Wind. Enjoy.

No Problems, just Challenges and Opportunities

2009-08-03T17:17:00.021-04:00

A slight setback this morning as my new, yet-to-be-tested gantry decided to part ways with the transom. Not a disaster, but the sail/swim back to shore about a quarter of a mile without a rudder was a good test of my seamanship skills (Let's see... without a rudder you hang off the stern and let the drag of your body generate the steering forces, all the while holding the weather corner of the rack down to keep the boat upright, while you gingerly tend the sheet to accommodate the gusts, remembering not to let go of the hiking stick as the busted pieces - tiller, gantry, vertical, and horizontal - trail behind you...) Adam got an interesting shot that shows the rudder's foil dragging behind me as I was swimming appearing as a shark's fin hot on the chase. So anyway it was off to a hardware store in Stevenson (about a 4 mile bike ride across the Bridge of the Gods) to get some aluminum plate to reinforce the G-10 attachment points, some stainless steel fasteners, and some, as Amac called it, "stronger glue." My rudimentary analysis of the gantry failure is that the G-10 rod pulled out of the bottom centerline tube and caused a cascade of failures. The solution was to re-glue it but to include a through bolt to prevent the rod from coming out. I also had to re-build the starboard side gantry attachment point as it was torn off when the bottom rod came loose. The fix appears institutional looking, but should hold (I'll find out tomorrow after the glue sets up.) Below is a shot from the pier in downtown Stevenson. It shows the southern side of the Gorge. Cascade Locks is the far point in the picture.

Meanwhile back on the beach, many folks are still waiting for boats to be delivered. Others are sitting on the shore watching the pros sail in the 25 knots of breeze. My initial impression is that there's lots of weeds when launching that needs to be cleared once off the beach a bit. The water is warm and the thin wetsuit seems sufficient. The breeze today started strong, with about 20 knts at 9:00 a.m., died a bit around 10:00, then built back to the strong stuff. Below is the Stevenson iwindsurf readings.

Lastly, as promised, here's some more head shots.

Since I was in a jam this morning, for today's musical interlude I decided to include The Jam, and their Tales from the Riverbank. Enjoy.

Tales from the Riverbank, by Paul Weller, the Modfather.

Bring you a tale from the pastel fields
Where we ran when we were young
This is a tale from the water meadows
Trying to spread some hope into your heart
It's mixed with happiness - it's mixed with tears
Both life and death are carried in this stream
That open space you could run for miles
Now you don't get so many to the pound

True it's a dream mixed with nostalgia
But it's a dream that I'll always hang on to
That I'll always run to
Won't you join me by the riverbank

Paradise found down by the still waters
Joined in the race to the rainbow's end
No fears no worries just a golden country
Woke at sunrise, went home at sunset

Now life is so critical, life is too cynical
We lose our innocence, we lose our very soul

True it's a dream mixed with nostalgia
But it's a dream that I'll always hang on to
That I'll always run to
True it's a dream mixed with nostalgia
But it's a dream that I'll always hang on to
That I always run to
Won't you join me by the riverbank
Come on and join me by the riverbank

Set Up

2009-08-02T09:27:00.019-04:00

Today was unpacking and putting the boat together. George had brought the box down from Portland yesterday, but after arriving here at 8:00 p.m. I just didn't have any energy to get down to the boat yard. This morning found the breeze already about 20 knts at 7:00 a.m. There was a multi-class regatta on the water today so we weren't allowed to use the beach or rigging area. None-the-less, Will Logan and I pulled our boats from their crates and proceeded to assemble them out of sight of Marilyn Hodson, the regatta director, aka Boat Yard Nazi (actually she was very accommodating, with the explanation that since she told others they couldn't rig in the boat yard today she had to have us toe the same line.)

At any rate, as the morning turned to afternoon, Will and I finished the assembly process and we moved the boats across the park to store them with those of the other mothies. Chris and Mark were doing some carbon work; others were fiddling with bits. Only Amac got on the water (launching from a ramp that required a hundred yard sail straight up wind, short tacking between rock walls to get out the main channel.) The breeze was pretty strong all day (it appeared 15-25 from the shore.) Here's the gauge readings from Stevenson.

Maybe my small size sail will get some use after all! Below are some head shots I took today. More faces tomorrow, when we all should get on the river.

Enjoy The Talking Heads.

Take me to the river, by Al Green (1974)

I don’t know why I love her like I do
All the changes you put me through
Take my money, my cigarettes
I haven’t seen the worst of it yet
I wanna know that you’ll tell me
I love to stay
Take me to the river, drop me in the water
Take me to the river, dip me in the water
Washing me down, washing me down

I don’t know why you treat me so bad
Think of all the things we could have had
Love is an ocean that I can’t forget
My sweet sixteen I would never regret

I wanna know that you’ll tell me
I love to stay
Take me to the river, drop me in the water
Push me in the river, dip me in the water
Washing me down, washing me

Hug me, squeeze me, love me, tease me
Till I can’t, till I can’t, till I can’t take no more of it
Take me to the water, drop me in the river
Push me in the water, drop me in the river
Washing me down, washing me down

I don’t know why I love you like I do
All the troubles you put me through
Sixteen candles there on my wall
And here am I the biggest fool of them all

I wanna know that you’ll tell me
I love to stay
Take me to the river and drop me in the water
Dip me in the river, drop me in the water
Washing me down, washing me down.
.

Planes, Trains, and a Bicycle

2009-08-01T23:23:00.010-04:00

Not quite the John Candy movie title, but a good description of my day. I'm typing this in the Columbia Gorge Motel, freshly showered and cleaned up after my 48 mile bike ride from West Coast Sailing.So between two flights , two trains and the bike ride, I'm bushed. It's time to find some dinner! Below are some pics I took on the bike ride. The last 5 miles or so was on a MUP that was the original highway from back in the '20s. Lots of ups and downs but no traffic. One section even had a stairway that included a wheel groove in the edge to facilitate getting the bike down.

With rocks and stairways, I had to include Led Zeppelin. Enjoy.

Stairway to Heaven, by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (1970)

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying the stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying the stairway to heaven.

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.
And it makes me wonder.

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know,
The piper's calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying the stairway to heaven.