New foil in progress. This is the bottom with gap visible and slight rebate in front of gap to take the carbon flap seal strip next.

This is the top of the foil and the carbon/kevlar hybrid cloth is the flexible skin hinge. Moves well but might be a little stiff . But a very smooth shape when deflected.

I sailed last week with my old foil. But the rig improvements were good and i managed to stay with Lea for most of the race, in the absence of Grant I really do not know if I have improved but things went well. Dave won the race from Luka and they did not get a lap in front so that is at least an improvement.

The new foil is under construction. From the same mold with improved T joint structure and another go at flexing the top skin as the hinge. Looking good so far, nice and light, fairer than the old lost one. It might get a run on saturday at least without paint.

Photos soon.

Well fine sanding the foils and changing the main foil incidence seemed to pay off. The boat seemed fast in the 15kt southerly on Saturday. A handicap start so I was never near the fast duo, but I was sailing away from Grant which is a serious improvement on recent form.

Upwind itjust felt smoother and retained speed and height much more easilly, downwind it went deeper and was much more manageable. It will now stay up through the gybes when I move my body quickly enough.

So that was the good news, but there is always bad as well. 2/3 way through the race there was an unexplained decent and splash followed by a serious reluctance to fly. After a while I worked out the main foil was absent, and even though I returned to the scene of the crime I was unable to find it. It must have felt lonely and gone to join the several other foils lost in the river a few years ago. I continued teh race on the hull for another lap and still finished 3rd so not all bad.

So back to the workshop and some improvements to the attachment design.

Got the vacuum pump, pressure switch and reservoir working yesterday, and laminated up a spar for the new foil.

Back to my old heavy foil for a few weeks. I will have to sand it really smooth and see if I can get it going fast.

There is an interesting debate on the moth.asn.au forum where Wardi has proposed to open up the moth rules by deleting the ban on at least cats and sailboards.

I am in part supportive at least to fight off the inevitable push towards one design moths when in a few short years (if things continue as they look like going) the majority of Moths are in fact Bladeriders.

To open up a few minds to the posibilities I have uncovered this photo of secret testing of a new moth at a secret location (apparently water on the fisherman's lens):

"Free your mind"

Another patchy race last week. So have been spending some time this week doing minor repairs and fine sanding the foils.
Only a few weeks to the State titles at Easter on Jervis Bay. My one moth regatta this season.

St George Sat 2/2/08

Much better this week. I spent two hours on the boat fixing things which I have neglected. Also repaired the foil pushrod during the week so again everything was working properly.

Unfortunately the wind was not so good and the fleet of 9 (8 foil and Kylie in Mark's scow) got away in about 5kts. Since I knew I could not fly in pressure that I settled in to old style sailing while most of the others were reaching off trying to fly. My strategy worked and I lead a the first mark. (This is rare in my moth racing so it must be recorded here for posterity)

But then a slight increase in wind saw Luka, Dave, Doink and Donosan lift and fly away. I managed to fly a little but not for as long in each puff as the others. But I was really pleased and think it all was working better than ever before, flying high and steady when it was going and getting up much more quickly than in the past. I must be gradually getting things right.

I stayed in front of Grant for a lap and then he bought better wind down on the run and caught right up. We matched race then for the rest of the race and he got the best of the last puff to edge ahead.

If the boat had not been performing so much better it would have been a frustrating day with such fickle winds but I enjoyed myself. Having such high standard competition helps develop the boat and technique and I look forward to more of it for the rest of the season.