AMAC takes three more bullets

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

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!

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

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?

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?

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"

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.