FoilTown

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