What needs to be fixed.

We are almost there in the tedious process of deciding if Bora can use his wing.

How did we get in such a mess?
This week ISAF decided our current rules did not cover mesurement of wings so they could not be measured. Why?
Its only our current rules which do not cover wings because before that the rule read:

Sails

1.	The boat shall carry only one sail. No extra sail shall be on board when racing.
2.	The sails and spars shall be measured in accordance with ISAF "Measurement and Calculation of Sail Area". The ISAF Sail Measurement Instructions shall not apply. The measured and calculated area shall not exceed 8.00 m2, except that:
	i.	Clause 3.2.5(b) of the ISAF Measurement and Calculation of Sail Area shall not apply.
	ii.	Only the area of that part of the spars that will not pass through a ring 90 mm internal diameter shall be included.
	iii.	For a sail which encloses the mast, an area equivalent to the length of the luff multiplied by 50 mm shall be excluded.
	iv.	For a sail which encloses the boom, an area equivalent to the length of the foot multiplied by 90 mm shall be excluded.

When we ammended our rules in 2005 to measure true area rather than the 3 offset simpsons rule method (Clause 3.2.5(a)), we deleted the above reference to the "ISAF Measurement and Calculation of sail area.. MCSA" which is what the CCats use to measure their wings and which Bora found still contains a reference to its applicability to the Moth class.

If we had retained that reference ISAF this year could not have made that decision. There are other matters of ambiguity, like how we apply luff length limits, mast length limits and the one sail rule, but we could have measured the area.

So in 2005 we inadvertantly banned something which the rules had specifically previously allowed. Its important that in 2011 we do not inadvertantly write new rules which prevent development in any new direction.

I am advocating strongly to reinstate the ISAF MCSA as our standard for area measurement. But we also need to decide a few more very basic things.
1. Do we want to ban all solid sails? Not just complex ones like Bora's.
2. Do we need the one sail rule or how do we apply it to multi panel wings.
3. How do we measure luff length of wings, or can we replace luff limits with a rig height limit.

My personal choice is to accept wing development as the class did pre 2005. They will get better, cheaper, simpler, more packable and faster.
I do not really care about the one sail rule, but if we delete it we have one less thing to argue about.
The simplest method of controlling aspect ratio is to limit total rig height to a distance above the keel of the hull. This is at present about 6.3m, which would be a good number to choose.

If we adopt the ISAF MCSA then we might as well get rid of the two other inconsistancies and measure total area of all exposed sails, wings and spars, ie delete the luff pocket allowance and the 90mm free mast area . We would have to increase the total to 8.3sqm to match existing rigs.

Please consider carefully we must not make mistakes this time which will cause dramas in the future.

The WING Issue

I am posting this probably too late to influence any vote currently underway within IMCA. But I feel a lot has to be stated which has not been clearly put in one place elsewhere.

The present vote is to decide if two specific wings will sail in the Belmont regatta. The default is they don't and 2/3 vote is needed to get them in. Its a tall order and the reasons behind it are obscure.

Apparently ISAF were asked some questions and they repied that under the current rules the wings are illegal.

What we do not know is what questions and documents IMCA gave to ISAF and on what basis ISAF made this decision. We do not know if the illegality is for all wings or for some particular design aspect of the two wings now at Belmont and waiting to race. We do not know if such aspects were modified these wings might be deemed legal. Its a bit of a mystery.

Back in July the IMCA executive had a debate and made an interpretation of the existing rules which seemed to cover most aspects of wing design. Unfortunately they then failed to offer this document to ISAF for endorsement and hence it became illegitimate. We do not know if ISAF were given the oportunity to endorse this document when asked other questions in December. It would seem to me that this would have been the simplest solution, ISAF endorsing the IMCA interpretation. But it became apparent that at leat one contentious rule was not addressed and also that some of the executive had been influenced by some anti wing lobyists. Its another mystery.

Whether the class should allow wings philosophically seems a no brainer. The class has spent over 75 years leading the sailing world in small boat development and as a consequence its always lead the small boat world in performance, in the foil era, in the narrow boat era, in the scow era, always ahead of everything else. Its not time to put on the brakes now.

The various arguements against wings are mostly self interest. Some of the fast Mach 2 sailors who think they might have a show of winning a worlds see Bora's wing as a serious threat. The manuafacturers of sails and spars see a business threat, the builders see changes in design which might make their boats obsolete or their tooling redundant.

The cost, durability and transport issues are things which will be overcome. Just because one well off American has spent more than most can afford on building and transporting wings does not mean everyone else needs to go the same way. There are other build methods other designs and its not compulsary anyway. There will certainly be times when a mast and sail are faster anyway.

The earlier questionaire also incluses some spurious questions, the concept of a tavel box restriction is nothing the vast majority of moth owners will ever need to wory about. This year about 30 people moved moths overseas to the Worlds regatta, similar numbers went to the USA, less to Dubai and to Europe. Its a minority activity by a dedicated few, not a universal class perogitive.

None of these things are in the class objectives or rules and should not influence any rules decisions.

We are sailing a development class and development should continue which improves performance.

We need to reinstate the IMCA rules reference to the ISAF sail area measurement manual which existed from the 1960s until omitted as part of some amendments in 2004. With some other agreed tidying up we will avoid another 6 months of angst and aprehension such as we have just experienced. Lets get it right in 2011.

Please all have a happy and peaceful Christmas, and I will see many of you at Belmont in 10 days time.

It sails

Sawdust & Soot has now sailed twice. It seems to fly easilly and goes faster than Karma at least downwind. Found a leak needing a repair, fixed but have had a week away in the country before sailing gets started properly. Now all ready for tomorrow's first StGeorge club race, under the management of Manly skiff club, do not ask, its a long story and its not really over yet.

Next project is to modify the fin case on Karma to suit a Mach2 foil set for Chris Dey. He has borrowed my boat and purchased some M2 foils in preparation for a Belmont return to moth racing.

Time to build a wing?, probably not this year. Maybe next winter. Some discussion on a few blogs and M2 forum currently, seems to show weak support for a restriction on wings?

Have a look and post an opinion, not here.

Slow progress.

Due to some diversions, I have done very little on the moth for about a month, but as its only another month until some clubs start racing again, I now have to make a big effort to complete the project.
The photo does show some progress since my last post and there are a set of foils and two rigs in the shed as well, so I do have some hope of making the new season's openning races.
FWIW the hull and wing assembly as shown weighs in at 14kg, which I am very happy about.

Progress

The moth media is awash with new releases, all aiming to be the next big thing in moth world and take out the big silver at Belmont. Here is another one maybe with less ambition.

The attached image is my rendering of the new ultra light moth hull made from 40 year old organic carbon mostly produced in the secret forest regions of Australia's east coast. My appologies for the double image which also shows the secret design for an automated solar powered clothes drying facility. As is traditional this image is only a computer generated rendering as its much more popular than actually building something. More images will be released as construction progresses.

Using the high tech bathroom mass spectometer the established mass of the product shown in the rendering is 5kg including the CB case installed between imaging and weigh in, or 89kg including my bodyweight in support.

Design is based on previous moths from the Stevo House of Nautical Horrors and has been configured using organic ceribal TLAR analysis and software, and drafted using hand held compact synthetic carbon rods encapsulated in organic carbon composite tube onto reconstituted organic carbon fibre and celulose film.

Production will progress with an estimated output of one per millenium, so get your orders in quickly.

End of Season and forward.

The season at St George ended with a good southerly on Anzac Day (thats our millitary memorial day, 25th Apr for Northerners). Dave won as usual even using an experimental new foil which did not seem as fast as his Fastacraft versions.

I had some exciting rides and finished OK finishing with a couple of late swims after a clean race. The wind switched after the start making for a short work and three angle of death reaches, then the pressure gradually built up to a touch over 20kts. Lots of fun.

After my poor result at easter due to some breakages, it was great to finish off the season with nothing to repair.

So on with the new build. I have added this new boat to my boat history spreadsheet, and it is boat number 40 which I have owned, number 25 which I have built, and my 14th moth!

Progress so far has been on foils and wings.

The foil verticals are based on Ilett shells with a slight taper, while the horizontals are from a new mold by Andrew Stevo, which is a little sleaker than has become common. He tested my foil on his boat on Anzac day and was the first airborne in the light stuff, but had some problems with our makeshift AoA and flap settings. Even so it stayed together and looked like it will go very well when sorted. He'll be making one for himself now.

The wings are started using some nice light sailboard mast bits and some CST compression struts.

I have the design for the cedar play hull finalised. Its based on the Hungry Tiger like 2004 version (from IMCA Builder's site: http://www.moth.asn.au/moth/?page_id=5), but will be lower, wider and a bit different along the keel line. Might as well optimise the low riding and take off abilities. This week should see me cutting ply. I love the smell of cedar, and sawdust is less iritating than carbon soot.

Since I am using up a lot of left over bits and pieces on this one there will be not much left over except Sawdust and Soot, and that just seems an appropriate name for the boat.

More soon.

Whats Next?

There was some prety impressive sailing in Dubai at the worlds. Simon Payne is a worthy winner with a very consistant string of top places. AMAC won most races but his style is high risk and a few times it eveidently did not pay off. A worthy second though to add to his long string of Moth WC seconds.
So AMAC has only been beaten twice this season, once by fly weight Simon and once at the Sydney International regattta by heavyweight Dave. Must be a good sign for the class when people of such diverse size can win against top competitors.
The dominance of theMach 2 is impressive. Not sure if all those people are going fast because they have Mach2s or because they are all the fast people who have chosen to buy what everyone agrees is the boat with the edge on everyone. Maybe there were no fast people on other boats to really compare the speed advantage.
Also a lot of full time sailors too. Scott was seventh and may have been the first one with a full time job not involved in boats or sailing. Not many weekend sailors in the top of the fleet any more.
Yes the wind was light but maybe not as light as some people complained about. I agree with Simon's coment that the class needs to cope with whatever the weather delivers and prepare accordingly if possible. I may be 85kg but I still like 5kts but miss out at 8 when the flyweights start to fly. Thats life, and normal sailing but not necessarilly appropriate for a Worlds.

Anyway that was over there and I was over here so I may have it all wrong. Whats up here?

Karma has been going much better. I have an MSL 13 on a CTech 40mm HM mast and also changed the rudder since Perth. I have a stayed rig now having broken the unstayed rig on the last day of the nationals. I am just leaving it alone now and looking forward to the NSW Champs at Belmont over Easter. Hope the wind gods co-operate better than last year.

So I a new winter project coming up.
I have a collection of gear including the broken unstayed mast and corresponding sail, a second set of foils, trampoline, ropes, wires spreaders fittings. And recently Moth Legend Peter Moor (who will be PRO at Belmont for the states and worlds) cleaned out his shed and gave me a sheet of 2mm Australian Cedar ply which he has had for about 35 years, since he was making Snubby Scows.
I figure that a piece of valuable Aust Cedar with that heritage just has to be made into a moth. So I have revisited the old ply design from 2004 and will be assembling a moth hull over the winter month. Needing wings I contacted the club's sailboarders and Wayne kindly cleared his shed of broken masts and I now have plenty of nice light carbon tubes for wings.
I need to buy trolley wheels, some carbon for seaming the ply, foam for bulkheaads and paint. I recon I will get afloat for less than $1000. A bit of a saving on a Mach2 but I probably would not be up the front of the fleet anyway at age 60. But it will be light and who knows.

Nationals in Perth

What great place to sail and the hospitality form SoPYC was fantastic. Pity only so few travelled over for the regatta.

Anyway the results show that AMAC won convincingly with Andrew and Luka fighting it out till the last race for second and third. http://nsigns.com.au/moth/results/Race%20results%205.pdf

The next three were a bit further back but each of them, Alan, Phil and Brent were at times up with the leaders or back with my group. I ended up behind that group comprising Richard, Chris, John and Ben but during the week we had some fantastic racing, swapping places between us on every leg, with a bad tack enough to drop back a few places. All very exciting at 20+ knots. Not much swimming even in our group showing that pretty well everyone has their control systems working well. My best race was a 6th.

My regatta was disrupted by a few breakages. I reverted to my November foils, an Ilett main foil and slightly trimmed Ilett rudder foil, both on Stevo struts. All worked well throughout the regatta with no control or flex issues. But other things went wrong.

In the invitation race the wire wand/belcrank liknkage broke where it had been bent, easy fix. Then on day 3 the gantry parted as I drag raced Richard to the finish of heat 8, so instead of 8th or 9th I scored 11th based on the previous lap, plus a dns for race 9.

Next day the linkage wire broke again resulting in being a lap short in race 12, but as I was trailing my group I lost little here.

Then on the final day after a dissapointing result in the non foiling light race where I expected to do much better, I broke the mast and scored another two big numbers.

So with 5 dicardable races when only two are allowed I have a poor score. Too bad I had a good time with some memorable races. I did lead AMAC around one mark and passed Andrew on one downwind so at least at times the boat is going well. I just need some more sorting and practice/fitness/stamina.

The mast broke near the goosneck where the 55mm tube stopped and the 50mm was not quite up to the loads. The short frequent waves and course flap gearing made for a high frequency bumpy ride and the mast was shaking about a lot so that might have contributed to the failure. Not important now as I am re jigging the boat and rig for stays. The unstayed experiment was good but yielded negligible gains so its back to convention.