Sunday, January 25, 2009

Olympian efforts and scoring vagrancies

Bora at Geelong, photo by Teri Dodds


First of all, congrats to Nathan on his AUS Nationals win. An olympian effort on the part of an Olympian. His placings were consistently near the top, with 8 of his 10 finishes in the top three. I wish I could have a blow-by-blow description of the last race when he finally captured first ahead of Simon.

The strange 0.8 points for first place recalls the old Olympic scoring system (1st place scored 0 points, second place scored 3 points, third place scored 5.7 points, 4th place scored 8 points, 5th place scored 10 points, 6th place scored 11.7 points, and 7th or lower place scored place plus 6 points.) Such was the scoring system in effect in 1977 at the Hayling Island Worlds. My experience at the time was that such a bonus system for top finishes effectively penalized folks with finishes consistently out of the top six and rewarded inconsistency (one or two top finishes would more than compensate for a middle-of-the-fleet finish.) In any event, regardless of the system used, it's hard to beat a competitor who posts drop scores of 7th and 10th as Nathan did. Well done!

Simon's downfall was the dreaded lettered scores, for him a OCS and a DNF. I find it interesting that the Skandia folks came up with a single letter code for most every scoring contingency imaginable: A=ARB B=BFD C=DNC D=DNE E=ESP F=DNF G=RDG L=Late Entrant M=DGM N=ENP O=OCS P=Protest Q=DSQ R=RAF S=DNS U=DUT V=AVG X=EXC Z=ZFP Y=SCP. So whether it's a single letter or an alphabet soup, it just goes to show that posting numbers and not letters will increase the liklihood of making it to the top.

It's been fun watching the results come in and reading the commentaries on this championship from Down Under. Maybe some video is soon to be posted?

For those counting, the Gorge Worlds begin in 195 days. Start planning now. I have!



Learn the ABCs with the Jackson Five.

Friday, January 23, 2009

It's a New Day

New Mothie Nathan Outteridge - photo by Andrea Francolini / Audi ©


The moth class is experiencing a sea-change. There are now so many new aspects of builders/designs/sailors/etc., that the seemingly one design road that we were on (Want to do well at the world level? Get a Bladerider and a KA sail as all the top helms did at Weymouth) is now cast aside and we're back on the vigorous development track. Obviously the Mach2 is a big part of the paradigm shift but so is the influx of new sailors, the North sail, the new spars (and boltrope sails?), and, in particular, the yet to be released Assassin moth from New Zealand.

Even in a down economy with the Assassin's price of US$6800, there are sure to be hordes of ex-Opti kids clamoring for moths. And if my recollection of high-end Opti sailing holds, it won't be long before Mom and Dad are pressured into getting a better and higher priced model. (The arms race in Optis had resulted in daggerboards close to $500 before a rule change in 2005 caused prices to fall a bit, but still over $370 for basically flat wooden daggerboards.) Even now a spar set can cost close to $800 (for three non-tapered aluminum tubes.)

Primarily due to the new builders, my prediction is that boat ownership is on the verge of a huge upswing. I think there will be plenty of room for multiple builders and sailmakers. Might there be a need to restrict the number of entries at world events? Probably not at the Gorge (less than 200 days from today) and probably not at Dubai, but surely at the 2011 worlds in Belmont, Australia, when the event organizers may have to deal with over 200 entries.

Congrats are early for Si and Amac, but I'm sure that they are tickled pink with the Mach2's showing in Geelong. More thoughts about that tomorrow, but for now party down with will.i.am.




It's a New Day, by will.i.am

I went asleep last night
Tired from the fight
I've been fighting for tomorrow
All my life
Yea I woke up this morning
Feeling brand new
'Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming
Has finally came true

It's a new day
It's a new day
It's a new day
It's a new day
It's a new day

It's been a long time coming
Up the mountain kept runnin'
Souls of freedom kept hummin'
Channeling Harriet Tubman

Kennedy, Lincoln, and King
We gotta maninvest in that dream
It feels like we're swimming upstream
It feels like we're stuck inbetween
A rock and a hard place,
We've been through the heartaches
And lived through the darkest days

If you and I made it this far,
Well then hey, we can make it all the way
And they said no we can't
And we said yes we can
Remember it's you and me together

I woke up this morning
Feeling alright
I've been fightin' for tomorrow
All my life
Yea, I woke up this morning
Feeling brand new
Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming
Has finally came true

It's a new day
(it's a new day)
It's a new day
(it's a new day)
It's a new day
It's a new day!

It's been a long time waitin'
Waiting for this moment
It's been a long time praying
Praying for this moment

We hope for this moment
And now that we own it
For life I ma hold it
And I won’t let it go

It's for fathers, our brothers,
Our friends who fought for freedom
Our sisters, our mothers,
Who died for us to be in this moment

Stop and cherish this moment
Stop and cherish this time

It's time for unity
For us and we
That's you and me together

I woke up this morning
Feeling brand new
'Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming
Have finally came true
Yea, I woke up this morning
Feeling alright

'Cause we weren't fighting for nothing
And the soldiers weren't fighting
For nothing
No, Martin wasn't dreaming for nothing
And Lincoln didn't change it for nothing
And children weren't crying for nothing

It's a new day
It's a new day
A new day
It's a new day
It's a new day!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Anticipation



There's a definite sense of anticipation about Tuesday. That's when the rubber meets the road, when the talkin' stops and the walkin' starts. So many folks are interested in how things will play out. I understand that the BBC will run five hours of live coverage of the events of the day. Oh, but this is a moth blog, not an Obama blog.

So while the eyes of the world will be watching the inauguration take place in Washington, the eyes of the mothosphere will be watching the posts coming from Geelong. We have the top mothies in new equipment. How will the Mach2, the VRX and the new North sail end up? By all reports so far the conditions will be breezy, shifty, and with flat water.

I can't wait to read the blogs and to watch the videos. Bring it on guys! And in deference to Sam and Kylie, enjoy Carly Simon. Does the Elektra record label show a moth?



Anticipation, by Carly Simon (1971)

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I'm really with you now
Or just chasing after some finer day.
Anticipation, Anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting
And I tell you how easy it is to be with you
And how right your arms feel around me.
Bit I rehearsed those words just late last night
When I was thinking about how right tonight might be.
Anticipation, Anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting
And tomorrow we might not be together
I'm no prophet, I don't know natures way
So I'll try to see into your eyes right now
And stay right here, 'cause these are the good old days.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Jumbled thoughts



Above is a Wordel of my last post and nicely explains my thoughts over the past week. How will things fall out in the Australia Nationals? How does Bora manage to foil in five knots when he weighs over 170 pounds? Why would anyone be crazy enough to launch when there's ice on the tramps and frozen control cables? When will my new main strut and foil arrive? And when will I find enough time to lay up a new rudder?

Enjoy The Cars



All mixed Up, by Ric Ocasek (1978)

She shadows me in the mirror
She never leaves on the light
And some things that I say to her
They just dont seem to bite
Its all mixed up
Its all mixed up
Its all mixed up

She tricks me into thinkin
I cant believe my eyes
I wait for her forever
But she never does arrive
Its all mixed up
Its all mixed up
Its all mixed up

She says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright
(be alright)
She says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright

Shes always out makin pictures
Shes always out makin scenes
Shes always out the window
When it comes to makin dreams
Its all mixed up
Its all mixed up
Its all mixed up

She says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright
(be alright)
She says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright
(be alright)
She says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright
(be alright)
She says to leave it to me, yeah
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright
(be alright)
If you leave it to me
(leave it to me)
Everythingll be alright
(be alright)
Yeah, if you leave it to me
(leave it to me)
(be alright)
(be alright)
(be alright)
(be alright)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Twelfth Night



Today is the 11th day of Christmas - the Eve of Epiphany or the "Twelfth Night" of Shakespearean fame. Epiphanies or revelations occur when you least expect them, most often due to new-found knowledge or insight. As in, "the more you know, the more you realize you don't know."

The recent video posting (f-logging?) of Bora the Explorer repeatedly crashing and Karl's post of flying flapless and using longer rudders makes it obvious that if they are still experimenting then I don't really have a clue what's going to work and make the boat go fast. Yes, practice always helps, and those that can sail frequently have a leg up on the rest of us, but the ultimate combination of design, set-up and application is still an unknown. Perhaps the physics of foilers is so far in the non-linear dynamic range of outcomes that we're all chasing chaotic behavior. You know, the "butterfly effect," where small initial changes can result in big differences over time. Maybe we should rename the dependence on initial conditions as the "moth effect?" At any rate, with our boats the time dependent changes can come in a flash. Even those with mega-bucks and foilers with large masses and correspondingly large moments of inertia can find speeds going from 60 to zero in less time than you can say "Oh-Sh--!)

Just a couple of days left in the buck nekkid weight poll so if you haven't chimed in yet, now's the time to do so. For today's musical selection, enjoy some jazz from The Yellowjackets with a piece called Revelation. As Bill S. wrote, "If music be the food of love, play on,..."

Saturday, January 3, 2009

GP Scoring




I've been playing with the I-14 Travellers Series scoring system as posted on the IMCA-UK website. This system results in a linear correlation between place and points, i.e., no "bonus" points for high finishes. The system does reward every boat in the fleet for large turnouts, but you still need to finish in the upper two thirds to do well. For example, the following all score 33 points: 1st/5, 2nd/6, 3rd/7. To score 33 points in a fleet of 99 (like last year's worlds) you would have to finish 66th. There is a theoretical maximum score of 100 (for 1st place in an infinitely large fleet). For typical large fleets (say of 25 boats) a first place would garner 82 points. Interestingly, if you always finish dead last, the system is biased toward fleets sizes of five to eight (a last place in each of these fleets scores 7 points, but last place in a fleet of four or nine boats only scores 6 points.)

According to the UK website, no results are discarded for series scoring, so a competitor can continue to accrue points if he or she attends all events in the series. So here're some questions: does anyone actually use this or a similar system? And who was last year's winner of the UK Travellers Trophy, and with how many points? And how much did he weigh?

Rock with the Travelin' Band



Travellin' Band, by John Fogerty (1970)

Seven Thirty Seven comin' out of the sky.
Oh! Won't you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride,
I wanna move.

[Chorus:]
Playin' in a Travelin' Band. Yeah!
Well, I'm flyin' 'cross the land, try'in' to get a hand,
Playin' in a Travelin' Band.

Take me to the hotel, Baggage gone, oh, well.
Come on, come on, won't you get me to my room,
I wanna move.

[Chorus]

Listen to the radio, Talkin' 'bout the last show.
Someone got excited, Had to call the State Militia,
Wanna move.

[Chorus]

Oh! WOW!

Here we come again on a Saturday night
Oh with your fussin' and a fightin'
Won't you get me to the rhyme,
I wanna move.

[Chorus]

Oh! WOW!

Oh! I'm playin' in a Travelin' Band;
Playin' in a Travelin' Band.
Won't you get me, take me hand
Well, I'm playin' in a Travelin' Band,
Well, I'm flyin' 'cross the land.
Tryin' to get a hand,
Playin' in a Travelin' Band, OH! WOW!

Hey!

Friday, January 2, 2009

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly



In looking back over the past year I definitely had some of each. The Good was in May seeing Try-Foil rise for the first time. The boat and foils that I made actually worked. I had spent only about $6000 and produced a working foiler. The Bad had to be in July with the overall Weymouth experience. Even though I met lots of good folks the combination of the weather, the cost, the weather, my lack of preparation, and the weather all conspired to yield a Bad experience. And the Ugly had to be the last sail of the season in October at West River when I trashed the main foil.

So as I look forward to this year I'm sure there'll be some good, bad and ugly moments to come. Let's hope there's more of the first!

Weigh-in on the weight poll if you desire. Remember, this is not your sailing weight (which might be 5 kgs heavier) but your buck nekkid on-the-scales weight.

Enjoy some classic Clint, 42 years before "Gran Torino."



Theme by Ennio Morricone (1966).

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Resolution


The New Year traditionally is a time for resolutions. One change I'd like to affect is an increase in my fitness and a decrease in my weight. From today there are 220 days until Race One of the Gorge Worlds. I hope to drop a few pounds, to build my upper body strength, and to increase my cardiovascular endurance. I'm sure 177 pounds/80 kg/12 and a half stone/134 kinn puts me in the 90th percentile when it comes to helm's weights. Even though it's far from statistically valid, feel free to participate in the bare-naked-helm's-weight survey in the righthand margin.

Today's musical inclusion is a weirdo Anime song that came up when I googled “Resolution.” I don’t have any idea what it means but it does have a funky beat. I’d give it a 7 for danceability….



Lyrics – translated, so who knows if they’re correct (and how does the idea of ‘resolution’ come in?)

Why is there so many fragile wishes?
The color of the breeze before dawn makes the town gentle

*Truthfully, I was always searching,
Afraid to stare straight ahead.
It's only because you're here that I can face tomorrow
Don't be scared, no matter when

**"We have the same dream" Within that shine
We walk closer to each other, so don't ever get lost

In that unsteady feeling, I can't even decide on tomorrow
With that wandering eye, I stared at the chaos around me

Truthfully, I was always requesting
I want to find a place where I can rest with my heart and all

***When I met you, everything became clear
My heart began beating passionately (2)

"We have the same dream" That brightness is always
(I'm) Hugging it, never letting go, so don't ever look back (3)
* [repeat]
*** [repeat]
**[repeat]