FoilTown

Just twelve hours now till we finally get to see the most exciting boats in the history of the America’s Cup go head to head. Do the Swiss have any chance against such a mighty wing?

30 days to the start of the International Moth Worlds in Dubai. I’m starting to feel happy with the boat now. Not that I think you will see me lead the fleet but I think I should now be in a position to get a more respectable result then at my last world championships. The new rig went up for the first time on Saturday and all seemed very good. The branding went on the sail over the weekend for a new supporter! More on that later.

32 days to the start of the F1 season. This year could go any way. With the last two champions driving identical cars neither will have an excuse this year. Another past champion teamed up with the 2008 runner up driving what looked like a very quick Ferrari in last weeks practice will both need close attention. As will returning 7 times world champion driving for last years winning team. I’m sure a few others like Red Bull will not go unnoticed this season. Can’t wait to see who will have the upper hand this year.

In no more then 43 days we should know if Frank Cammas and his team on Groupama have been successful in beating the Jules Verne Record on this their third attempt.

In 195 days the Little Americas Cup will be held in New York with several new boats in the build. The British challenger was out training in Weymouth this weekend. It was great to see them sailing well. Higher and similar speed upwind with a better vmg. Downwind it seemed harder to keep in the groove but when it was going flat out it didn’t seem too far off the moth

So there is plenty of exciting stuff going on in the world at the moment. And what virtually all of them have in common is that they aren’t attempting to make lead weights travel as fast as possible!

Just over a week after relaunching Goose and I’ve sailed almost ninety miles in her. Fifty of which was at Hayling Island over the weekend. It was great to sail against such a group of moths again. Having spent a lot of time on the water sailing on my own I found it very useful to practice sailing against other boats as well as test my pace against others. Despite sailing a four year old boat it was good to see that I could mix with a group of mach2’s even if it was in light winds.

I went for sail again on Tuesday but it was unbelievably cold. I was probably colder out on the water then I was during the Bloody Mary. After less then an hour I came in as it was just too cold. However that was long enough to confirm that the wand has geared to highly causing the boat to rise up and down over chop very aggressively. The wind was blowing about 15 knots so it was good to give the boat a test in a bit more breeze after a very light weekend.

Thursday was a bit warmer allowing me to get a good couple of hours on the water and further gain some confidence in the boat. Especially when the wind started gusting just over twenty knots. I had been worried that I hadn’t been able to foiling tack in Goose while I had been able to in Road Runner. After a bit of practice however I started to get the hang of it and managed a few good tacks.

Next up, Northampton for the weekend followed by Rutland for the Tiger Trophy the following weekend.

For a while now I’ve had two Mistresses on the go having not managed to sell the old one. Now I know that it’s normal that every year or two one should find a new younger and slimmer mistress. However I’ve had a change of heart. I’ve decided to give give the old girl another go. Assuming she agrees to a bit of surgery to bring her up to standard.
My older boat, Goose, has removable wing bars while Road Runner has fixed wing bars. So it makes more sense to take Goose to the Worlds as she packs into a box more easily. I got a new set of foils for Road Runner at the end of the summer from Mike Cooke and I’ve been very happy with how the boat has sailed since. What I decided to do was to fit Road Runners foils to Goose and go racing. The main differences will be the daggerboard case is further forward on Road Runner. However the position on Goose is only 9cm behind a Ninja so it should not be too much of a problem. Road Runner was built with a wing mast in mind and ended up a few kilos heavier. Also there has been a bit too much friction in the wand system on Road Runner so while I was fitting the foils to Goose I spent extra time removing all this friction. I’m confident that Goose should end up being as fast as the Road Runner with the current setup especially as i have a skinny mast and new sail on the way.

While most of the UK has ground to a halt with some of the heaviest snow seen in decades so to has Weymouth suffered. During the course of the day almost 1mm of snow has fallen, settling almost no where. This much snow hasn’t been seen since the last ice age when snow actually settled on Portland Bill. The snow has meant record numbers of people have actually turned up for work, not wanting to skive off work and go sailing or windsurfing.

Several schools in the area closed shortly after the snow had stopped. Presumably so the teachers could go to pub and get some skittles practice in after the Christmas break. Seriously this bit isn’t a joke the schools closed for an afternoon because of the snow which didn’t manage to settle.

After cancelling the training in Weymouth due to the forecast being too strong I headed up to Axebridge searching for a bit less wind. Unfortunately I was a little too successfully and arrived to find almost no wind. A group of six moths got on the water for a little over an hour of drifting split with brief moments of foiling. It was the first time I’d sailed against Mike since I’d fitted a set of his foils although we couldn’t really compare speed I did learn that my light wind take off wasn’t too bad.

Sitting at Axebridge in so little breeze made me worry that we had made the wrong call to can the weekend. However when I returned it was clear that the only time when it was possible to sail on Saturday was for a couple of hours after lunch and even then it would have only just been ok. I think it would have been survival conditions for all, not a productive group training session. Sunday was ballistic as it it is again now. It sounds like I should have gone to Hayling on Saturday instead but never mind.

Away from mothing I got the mini40 trimaran, that Mike lent me, on the water for the first time last week however just as i started to get her going the the steering started to behave slightly strangely which made getting the boat back to the beach a little tricky. The rudder was slipping in the steering arm Hopefully I should be able to give it a another go in a couple of days time as it looks like the wind may moderate a bit for Wednesday onwards.

Finally, having waited most of the week, the wind moderated sufficiently to allow me to go sailing. After the wind hit 72Knots last Saturday We managed to get a club race in on the Sunday in winds gusting to 25knots. The race officer elected to sail a figure of 8 course so there were no gybes. Not that this very beneficial in the moth as a foiling gybe is probably the easiest manoeuvre in strong winds. Sam did very well in the 600 and although was probably slower in a straight line eventually lapped me thanks in no small part to keeping the mast above the boat as opposed to in front of it. With these new foils I’ve found that I have to sail in a different way or else pitch pole but hopefully that’s one lesson learnt. Even if it did take me more then dozen stacks to work it out.

Tuesday morning came and it looked like this might be the only opportunity to sail all week with big breeze returning in the afternoon however when I got out on the water I found the conditions were deceptively windy with winds gusting to 28 knots Portland harbour didn’t seem a very nice place to be on your own with no rescue cover so after a couple of runs I went back. This proved to to be a wise choice as it was soon gusting 35+

After a few more days waiting Friday arrived still with strong winds but a forecast for things to drop as the day went on. I launched shortly after lunch to find winds still gusting over 20 knots but far more manageable then on the previous sail. It was good to spend some time in the boat traveling at speed to get used to what the Ninja foils are capable of. I found with the old foils the boat would really start to become uncontrollable at around 17 – 18 knots. Not a great speed for a moth in anything over about 10 knots of breeze. Now I can remain hiking even in the chop at the bottom of the harbour with the speed reading constant 19 – 20 regularly peaking at 21. Maybe not fast enough yet but a step in the right direction. It’s great that 18 now means speed up not clime to centreboard.

Any way back to winds gusting to over 40knots for the next 3 to 5 days

Ever wondered what 72 knots of of wind looks like? Well it’s a little bit like this.

So no moth sailing today or yesterday, tomorrow could be a go, with some more big breeze forecast for Monday.

We got back to the UK on Friday and spent a few hours sitting in traffic in the rain and then I woke up the next morning with a cold. Great!

Well we missed out on breaking the record but the performance of the boat was incredible. I think we hit peak speeds of over 50 knots on 7 out of 12 runs and 3 of those runs were shakedown runs. So really it was 7 out of 9. I think our best 500m average was slightly faster then the windsurfers have achieved. It’s been great seeing such a unique boat performing so brilliantly and even better having the chance to be involved in the story.

After we packed up the boat we had a few days to see some of the country. I don’t think I left Walvis bay for 5 weeks with everything that was going on. 4×4 is definitely the way to see Namibia. I think we were really lucky with the car we managed to hire. It seemed to have everything from roof tent, gas stove, tables and chairs to low speed gear box, diff lock, off road tyres and dual fuel tanks. With a car like that you can drive along the river bed for miles despite deep sand and rocks.

Now it’s time to get back to the moth and get ready for the worlds. however the list is long and the days are short.

Well the waiting is definitely over the last few days since my last post have seen plenty of sailing and plenty of action. We managed to get in 6 run over the last 4 days having managed only 3 in the previous 3 weeks. Incredibly we have recorded speeds over 50 knots 5 times out of 9 but still no 500m average over 50.

A camera crew from France has been here for a few days as well as a reporter from ITV Meridian news who are doing a report most days at the moment.

Things got frantic on Sunday when a control line on the rig failed resulting in us losing control of the boat at the end of the run. Incredibly the rig sustained no damage after completing a tack and a gybe. Paul scrambled back in and now unable to de power the rig ended up sailing across the lagoon at almost 30knots knots in a large chop leaving us behind in the rib before somehow parking it on the beach right in front of the yacht club.

Today was probably the windiest I have seen in Walvis. We rushed out early to get a run in as the wind built. Paul picked a great line getting up to speed very cleanly allowing him to pick a great course. Everybody thought it was quick enough to be a record as it sped past very cleanly. Unfortunately although the peak speed was again over 50 but not over the speed set by Hydroptere and with an average of just over 49 we have sneaked past the windsurfers but a couple more knots needed to take top spot.

Two days tomorrows forecast for more wind and the last day no wind. Things are getting tight.

We’ve spent a few days waiting for the wind to arrive. Yesterday was meant to be a good day with a forecast of 26 knots. Everybody was very excited yesterday morning as we got ready to get a record. The boat was launched as soon as the tide was high enough but as we crossed the lagoon the wind wasn’t what it should have been. The wind peaked at about 20knots normally about 18-19 before it dropped off completely.

However we weren’t to worried there had been rain the night before so it was to be expected. However today it’s gone midday and a gentle breeze is still blowing from the north. So we think we are going to have another day of waiting but tomorrows forecast is still good. Only 6 days left after this and only a couple more days of wind forecast. It could all be so easy.