Phil Stevo's Moth Blog

What needs to be fixed.

2010-12-26T06:35:00.002+10:00

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

2010-12-24T09:47:00.002+10:00

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

2010-10-08T17:28:00.002+10:00

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.

2010-07-25T15:55:00.004+10:00

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

2010-05-16T15:46:00.004+10:00

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.

2010-05-03T17:31:00.003+10:00

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?

2010-03-17T15:08:00.003+10:00

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

2010-01-18T08:57:00.003+10:00

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.

December

2009-12-13T17:59:00.002+10:00

Mixed results.
I tried a new main foil the last two weeks and it took a while to work out why I was going so badly. Basically the strut I built longer than the predecessor was not stigff enough and on every corner I got the wobbles and crashed. There may be other issues with the horizontal but I was so far behind I would not be able to assess.
So the Sydney International was a disaster for me. I completed a few races but as I was more than 10min behind the winner I scored the same as if I had pulled out, which I did on a couple of other occasions so as to not hold up proceedings. In the end I scored the same as Jon Emonson who did not even leave Tasmania. But I had some fun and learnt a bit more about my boat, Thats what design and development is about anyway.
So this weekend I went back a few weeks, fitted my original foil and I was more than happy with my straight line speed and the boat' handling. The rig did seem to be working well. Trouble was it blew hard and I struggled on the corners again. Forecast was 15 but the records after the race indicated 25 with bigger gusts, good practice for the Perth afternoons.
So seeing as we are packing the boats for Perth in a few days and my sore wrist was still playing up a little, I bailed out to save any damage to boat and body.
So boat is ready for Perth, I am well off pace but am looking forward to the holiday and the regatta.
Pity it looks like being the smallest Nationals in the 10 years I have been a regular.

Slow Development Process

2009-11-09T20:01:00.002+10:00

Despite the lack of posts, which was not due to Dave's observation on Mothcast, I have been sailing, testing, modifying and making progress on Karma.
First, things have stopped breaking, so building time has been devoted to new stuff not repairs.
I have progressed well with the foil control system adding a few strings and trying some ideas borrowed from other StGeorge sailors. Height adjustment, flap adjustment etc. Its a bit of a tangle but I plan on a tidy up this week.
I also have made a new rudder foil to go on the narrow rudder previously tested with a tiny foil. Seems to have added some downwind speed.
A new centreboard is in progress to go with the high aspect main foil I built months ago.
But mostly I have been working on the rig. I had a two strut diamond system working well. But then the transport deal for Perth Nationals came up as crates rather than container so the fixed spreaders had to go at the risk of getting busted off in transit. I now have a new removable system which seems to be working even better giving good leach tension and minimum side bend. Just some fine tuning to go.
I beat the other moths in a light wind race at the Sunshine regatta, and lead one at Belmont last weekend. Sub foiling conditions is not normal moth sailing but does help with the confidence when other things are not going so well.
Sailed two days last weekend. Its time to work on fitness. I have always preferred sailing to any other form of exercise. Sore today so it must have been necessary.
Club racing at St George has been good. Nine moths most weeks with some very fast and some very ordinary. I fit in the middle somewhere. Dave is still consistantly fastest with Luka and now Andrew not far behind. There is a lot of development continuing and a lot of info exchange which raises the standard for everyone. We will have a total of 14 foilers shortly.
But at Belmont on Saturday against Dave Luka and others, Nathan won all three races.
Looking forward to Perth Nationals, never been there before! Not cheap $1300 to get boat and self there and back, plus accommodation, but the Swan has a reputation as one of the best regatta waters in the country.

sailing again at last

2009-09-14T17:56:00.002+10:00

Back to St George for a casual warm up before next week's first race.

The new Gemmell sail on the unstayed mast looks good but I did have some issues with the foils and controls. Photos shows the new long leach profile.

Boat in background is Bruce Gault's 16ft moth on steroids, inadvertant finger in bottom of view is shielding Dave's new secrets from early release, well his boat was there anyway.

Regardless KARMA appeared to go pretty well upwind compared to Dave, Luka and Lea and might be OK downwind too once I sort out a few wand issues.

I ended up breaking the 230g gantry so I guess it was just too light. Clive was kind enough to give me some short peices of 15mm CST pultrusion for the repairs. Already glued together.

I had problems with tacks and gybes, mostly due to me learning new techniques with aft mainsheet and swinging the tiller extension forward not aft, but also because the tiny rudder foil I was trying kept stalling out when the boat lost speed. Back to the std Illet rudder foil next week.

Congratulations Bora!!

2009-08-17T19:49:00.003+10:00

The WC is over and a worthy Champ determined. It took a couple of years of deep commitment in time, money, travel, training and learning and was a well deserved win. Some basic skills and instinct must have helped. And he is a pretty decent guy too.

It was also a triumph for the organisers, the sailors who seemed to have a great time and the reporters and publicists who kept the rest of us around the world very well informed.

So what's come out of it so far as seen from the opposite side of the world? (all based on interviews and blogs already posted on IMCA site, event site or SA.

1. The Mach 2 has proven the fastest production moth. Even the skills of Nathan could not bring the BR up to Bora's pace.
2. AMAC is obviously the top moth designer and he seems very content with his latest product. Expect only very subtle development for a while from him.
3. Rohan has implied that a very different Bladerider will be at Dubai next year.
4. Rohan is again working on a promo circuit with about 10 boats travelling the globe for high profile sponsored events.
5. The US has quickly reached strength in the class both in numbers and in quality. This has to be good for the Moth class and can only continue to expand.
6. There were a few significant breakages amonst top contenders.
* Rohan's VRX hull split before the WC but we are advised it was a preproduction version and all subsequent boats coped well. I understand that the other preprod boat which Nathan sailed also broke when it was much newer.
* Scott and maybe 2 others broke Mach2 wings but I do not know if the failures were similaror the causes.
* Scott also broke a CST nano mast which was a bit unfortunate as CST was the major sponsor.
7. WC in 2012 after Dubai and Blemont looks like being Gara again. I will have to go this time.
8. The new Assasin appaeared, but had a tough task in the quality fleet. With new mothies on board and some prototype and test foils they got around mostly mid to back fleet but the testing will undoubtably prove most valuable when they get their new foil molds into production.

It was nice to hear Bora acknowledge all his helpers, parents, Bear, Clean, AMAC, etc but also Dave Lister who he accepted as the fastest man downwind at Geelong. Its good to know that we midfleeters still have a high standard to aim at in our St George club races for the season about to kick off.

Big Wind WC

2009-08-14T17:09:00.003+10:00

The US Gorge worlds are past half way and its been mostly big winds and fast sailing. Its starting to take a toll on the boats so before the damage makes too much impact on he score sheet here is a little analysis.
At least the Australians are putting on a good show.
It appears the top two in Bora and Nathan have a slight edge, winning most of the races. The next bunch of five (Arnaud, Dalton Bergan, Simon, Rohan and Scott) also seem to have a speed edge on the rest. Thats 5 M2 and two BR VRX all new since Geelong, but including a similar cast of top sailors.
The similarity at the top between the Gorge fleet and the Geelong fleet should be expected. Because at Geelong we not only had the best AUS mothies but also Bora, Simon, Arnaud and other OS visitors.
In fact the top 9 from day 3 at the Gorge include 6 of the top 11 from Geelong. Mark Robbo was in that 11 as well but is back at 13 so far at the Gorge. Of course Rohan and AMAC skipped Geelong but are also putting on a good show, lying 6th and 10th. No wonder people commented that Geelong was like a mini WC.
The breakage rate is unfortunate. I thought we had some big winds at Geelong but maybe the water was flatter. Regardless there was only one DNF/DNC in the top 10 from 10 races while already there are 5 from the Gorge also from 10 races. Maybe the new boats are still a bit tender but I am sure the lessons learned here will make them better.
What is very good is the big numbers of US sailors who have taken to moths and also the high standards they have brought with them. Its like the elete of US dinghy racing. I hope they stay with us and make the trip to Belmont in 2011.
Its been great to wake up each morning, log on and get instant results, video clips and comments from the site. Extremely well done to all concerned, I hope we can do as well at Belmont.
We will at least have a great viewing platform for the spectators, The top deck at B16s is very welcoming.
Its going to be an interesting last two days. Nathan and Bora are close and seemingly clear of the field. Nathan has a good record at the end of regattas but Bora seems to have a slight speed edge downwind at times.
They all do at least seem to be having a good time and the reports of all digging in to help repair boats and supply spares indicates that the traditional Moth class culture remains at this high level and between people of many countries. Great to see.
Thanks for the show guys and good luck for the remainder of the regatta, enjoy it.

Karma, Whats working and whats not.

2009-05-01T14:25:00.003+10:00

Karma has been sailed a few times and is now staying in one piece so I have had time to reflect on what has worked and what maybe needs some redesign or reconsideration. There are so many things on this boat which are diferent to most modern moths its worth considering some components separately, even if many are intendended to function as a complete package. I am not a follower in design terms and the freedom to experiment a bit off to left field is one of the reasons I am interested in this class.
So the list:
Hull: The freeboard is lower than any other modern skiff. The bow height is a little less than Bladerider and the stern is a lot less. But it works. There is enough volume to float everything, and because the aft wing has been brought forward, there is still heaps of volune aft. No Hobiecat like stern overs likely. The Hungry Tiger shape proved one of the best in the light over Easter, so performance when the hul is in the water should be up to standerd. Its light too.Tick.
Elevated wings and tramp. Not new, seen on Greg K's boat at 2000 WC, plus Sideshow Bob, Fuzzy Logic, Chainsaw and of course all the 14ft qnd 16ft Hobiecats. Its very comfortable in the light, but needs some foot holds which I have done with half pool noodles in pockets. I have not felt discouraged even when a lot of other things were not going well. The wing spacing is only 1.65m so its reduced the windage of the wings, tramp and the hull/tramp interface is not even there. I broke the first set of elevating struts, and build a better set, adding only a little weight. The boat is remarkable smooth and quiet when flying, which must in part be due to the windage reduction. Tick
Tapered foil tops. Also on B2 but I did not copy, see photos here late last year. This is a great idea, BR owners would miss their rubber mallet, the foils go in so simply, lock in place and need only a small pin to prevent them falling out. The fin and rudder box are smaller and lighter and the verticals will be too when I make some better ones. Tick.
Reversed Bellcrank and tesnion wand linkage. Marty Johnston had this first, but I have simplified it as best I can. The bellcrank is on the hull aft of the fin. So tesion in the wand linkage pushes the flap down. The bungee pulls the bellcrank back directly which also pulls the flap up and the wand down. The linkage between wand and bellcrank is a 1mm spectra kite string. Light, simple, flexible. It has taken me a lot of trimming to work out settings and where the adjustment needed to be. It now has a model yacht rigging screw in the linkage for fine trim. Bungee tension is adjustable via a contol line and needed to be increased as trimming processed. Happy so far. I have to get it right as the top of the fin and case is too small to insert a regular bellcrank anyway. Maybe a smaller tick for this one.
Removable Tees. I have had the rudder foil removable since last year, sailed the nationals with one and seem to have got it sorted. But the main foil Tee is another matter. I have rebuilt it a few times but for now I have given up and glued it together with a much more substantial molded Tee. Its seems very hard to get a decenet size T section and a strong enough receiveing case inside the small vertical section. I will have another go later after I sort out a few more issues and get the boat completing races on pace. Cross.
Aft mainsheet. Becaue there is no deck to mount a central sheeting system and the front wing is too close to the mast, the aft wing is the only place left. Not new, Lea Sitja, Charlie Mckee, and Martin Cross all use it. I just took a while to sort it out. Purchase, ratchet block location, sheet length all played with, but coming good. I do know that when its wrong its aweful. I have to get it sorted, no tick just yet.
Tiny Gantry. The pundits all said it was flimsey. Its a little shorter than the max 500mm at 350mm because the transom is so small I could not get decent angles at full length. Its made from 10mm tube pultrusions and weighs 260g. I have had some big crashes in the first few weeks and no signs of cracks or groans so far. Still a tentative tick.
Layout. Compared to Hungry Tiger the mast is forward 100mm at 900, and the fincase is forward 200mm which is also why I could shorten the gantry and maintain appropriate foil spacing. Although I have yet to be happy with the rig/sail combo, I think the helm is right. Neutral when healed to windward but still not excessive weather helm when low riding. All good, Tick.
Now the really big one: Unstayed rig. The mast is max length and made from a CST M354 40mm spar with some 50 and 55mm sleaves from the base almost up to the spreaders. It is strong enough to stay up without any rigging, but is too soft. I have also sailed it with either: 3 stays with spreaders, forward raked diamonds, and with the diamonds plus a forestay. In none of these configurations can I get the mast to match the luff curve of the KA MSL13 which I bought for the boat and to use on the old boat at the Nationals. Also because the mast is stepped quite upright with little rake, plus max length, the sail is set very high.
So I need either a new sail made for the present mast in one of the three configurations listed, or I need a new mast to rig more conventionally to match the KA sail. Since I just sold a boat I might splash out and do both. The stayed KA rig would allow me to sort out what esle works well and what does not, and also be the right stuff when there is good winds. The unstayed mast with a new sail could be much higher aspect ratio as the leach could easilly be a half metre longer, and that combined with the ability to square the rig would be a big advantage in light winds, especially for a heavyweight skipper.
So another tentative Tick with a lot more development to come.

Overall I am happy with progress so far. More ticks than crosses! The boat is very light, maybe close to a M2 or VRX but at only 1/4 the cost so far. Its noticable most when carrying it out on its side to deep water. Balance point is the (high) boom, rather than the toestraps as on the old boat.

Working on two rigs will delay my other plans which was to be a full solid wing rig. This was one incentive for the unstayed configuration of the whole boat. We will see what time is left this year.

The fact the boat is far from fully developped and reliable means that I will not be going to the Gorge as I had once planned. But Perth in January seems a good alternative and I hope to have it racing well by then.

On the list of new stuff are new foils, new tampoline to replace my amateur sewing, plus sail and mast. I have a new main foil under way, and will make a new small aft foil based on Andrew's new one. A new mold for the vericals is needed, slight reduction in width like the M2 plus a better section. Plug carving first. Soon.

And of course I need to learn to sail it fast, practice? Not over winter, I feel the cold too much at my age.

End of season

2009-04-27T15:02:00.002+10:00

We had the last race at St George on Saturday, Dave won as usual but the gusty westerly was a good finale.
Since I sold Tiger on a Chain last week, I am now back to development work on Karma. I had some issues with the flap mechanism, mainsheet and mast bend, but I am happy to have spent a considerable time on the water without breaking a thing. So with the hope that the structural issues are over for now, I get to work on the refinements needed to these systems at least for a start.
The unstayed mast now has diamond struts equal to regular spreaders and although it was bending a bit more than needed for adequate leach tension, it felt secure and stable and gave me confidnece that it will make the grade with a bit more work. I will add a forestay next week so it will be rigged much like the canoe, except the mast is about half the diameter.
The weekend before I tried regular stays and forestay with normal length spreaders and prod. I found that the friction in the mast step/bearing was excesive under the staying loads and the rig did not rotate freely enough for comfort. I also broke the main foil T, so last week saw a T rebuild, discarding the removable T insert and building in a more substantial structure.
We have 4 races at the Balmoral winter series in May so I get a few more tests of the boat before a winter break. Hopefully enough to decide what systems will be viable for next season. Will probably get a purpose made sail for the rig over the winter as the mast bend profile does not match the KA very well.
Still no good photos of Karma, wait for some reasonable sailing performance before its worthwhile.

When should we sail?

2009-04-19T12:16:00.002+10:00

Last week I expressed my disapointment in getting only 2 race results and no series from 3 days of saling. I upset a few people in the process, but in the end I did get some concessions that we should have had some results from Friday and Sunday afternoon.

Along with the things we disagree upon, we agreed that the requirement for 5 races over NSW easter is optimisic and that plus, some debate about what winds we should sail in, has Scott and I as IMCA aust, preparing a regatta guidelines document to hopefully get a result in future if the wind is less than co operative.

Here comes the controverial bit.

John McAteer with his legal memory recalls an IMCA Aust decision that 3kts is the minimum we should sail in. Meanwhile the guidlines prepared for Weymouth Worlds last year specified a 5kt minimum. There was obvious feeling amoungst the sailors last week and on the blogs this week that some do not enjoy light weather. They include many who have joined the moth fleet due to the attraction of foiling, but also some who have been around longer. My personal feeling is that if the wind is consistant enough in direction for a course to be set and for the leaders to complete one lap within the time imit, then racing should be on.

I have lobbied to resist the raising of the minimum wind limit, and similarly the lowering of the max limit.

On that note a significant part of both the 2005 WC at Black Rock and the 2008 WC at Weymouth were lost when the Race Committee decided there would be no sailing when at least some of the time there were sailors who considered racing should have been on.
If we continue to compress these limits we will restrict the locations where moth sailing is viable and restrict the market of potential moth sailors. Why go to a class and a regatta if most of the time is spent waiting for ideal conditions.

While some lightweights might lobby for a 8kts min so they can foil in all races, with the same logic, equity would require a 12kt limit so the +80kg saiors can foil as well. There is no point chasing that one. So if we have a limit which requires some people to sail off foils we should have a limit which requires all to sail off foils.

Sailing off the foils should continue to be part of mothing. Just as sailing in 25kts and waves should remain.

At present we propose to include the (JMAC) Aust limits, Scott's first draft of wording is:
No racing when gusts exceed 25 knots for 30 seconds, and any gusts over 30 knots; no races to be started in under 3 knots; and racing shall be abandoned when winds drop below 2 knots for over 5 minutes.
Just how these are measured and assessed can also be debated.

I would also like to change the number of races required for short series, ie 2 or 3 days like Easter. 4 should be enough. And we should also give the Race Committee some help in deciding when a race should be shortenned, (maybe after 40 minutes for one lap of a two lapper, and 65minutes for 2 laps of a three lapper), based on the 90 minute time limit (and if that should be reduced?), when a shorter course should be used (obvious light winds and to keep racing close to launching area) and when a race should be abandonned.

The other thing which came out of the weekend was that the new boats which are obviously superior at foiling were no better than the old boats when not foiling. Also Pete was only slightly quicker with no foils than equivalent boats with foils.

Before foils, moths were amounst the fastest boats in light winds. Now we are by far the fastest small boat in moderate to high winds but the edge in light winds is no longer obvious.

So If we decide to to continue racing in light winds we have an obvious opportunity to consider what improvemnets can be made to modern moth design to improve light wind speed without affecting foiling performance.

Development should never end.

Stuffed up weekend

2009-04-12T17:19:00.002+10:00

We spent three days at Woolahra SC waiting for racing, watching other people sail and got three starts and 2 finishes out of an 8 race schedule. So there is no NSW champion for 2009 because 5 races were required.

Yes there were long periods when the wind was too light or variable for the SC to set a course but there were other times like all of this afternoon when there was raceable winds but where we did not get to race.

Admittedly there was never enough wind for foiling even for the lightweights, but there was enough for the 12ft skiffs to get more races than we had. But thats sailing and that easter in NSW. Its almost always a light wind series. I have been doing easter regattas in a lot of classes since about 1967 and have never before lost a regatta result because insufficient races were completed.

For those who would rather be foiling the whole race maybe easter is the wrong regatta for them. For those of us who do best in the light winds we feel like we were robbed of a good result by a less than enthusiastic race committee.

For what its worth this is what happened on the track.

Friday, AP till some wind came at 3.00, Race got underway at 4.00 with half the fleet unable to make the start due to not being ready to launch when AP was dropped and getting stuck in a hole on the way out.

Consistant 5-8kts and Pete Harney lead in his Hungry Tiger with old style centreboard and rudder, ie no foils. I was 2nd just ahead of a chasing bunch of light weights.

Late arrivals expressed angst to RC who responded by hoising N. Too late for resail in fading wind, day and two races lost. Pete and I protested arguing race should have been shortened not abandonned, we lost .

Saturday: Missed last of early morning westerly at scheduled 10.00 start so waited again till 3.00. Got one 2 lap race in 5kts NE. Scott won from Nathan, Pete was about 4th. I was 6th. No time for another race. Would have been if the race was shortened to one lap.

Sunday, This time we went out and got the early westerly at 10.00. But then we gaot went home as it dies a little and then came back again long enough to have another start. Probably not enough for a whole race but all together there was enough for a couple of one lappers.
Pete won , I substituted my old CB for main foil and slid home 4th, Scott, Nathan and other stars were behind.

We waited till 1.00 when the NE came back and the RC decided he could not get three races in before 4.00 so canned everything. Pack up, two races only No result.

But at least I was 4th on the card after 2 for what little it matters.

a lille pissed off.

Ready for NSW Champs

2009-04-08T09:05:00.002+10:00

After the last sail of Karma showing up a few faults I decided that it was best to stick with Tiger for the easter state championships So I have spent some time checking and preparing the old boat for the event. Meanwhile I have decided to change a few details on Karma which have put it out of service for a few days, so no more testing till after easter.

But Tiger is looking good. I have fine sanded the foils and fixed some slop in the twist tiller mechanism.

Raced Tiger last week in a solid 20kt southerly, and had a good race with Steve and Andrew, staying within one swim or a couple of minutes all the way around. Great rides too.

Easter in NSW is traditionally light, rainy and or fresh. This year the forecast looks like some drizzle with 10kts Friday, less on sunday and hopefully a 12-15 NE on Sunday. Monday we get to watch the 12s who's event goes for 4 days. Should be good enough, with my drift conditions most likely on saturday.

There should be a couple of new Mach2s arriving today for Scott and Robbo, so we will see how good te production boats loook and go. AMAC promises to be here too with the #1 Geelong boat.
Not sure about Bladerider presence. Only know of John Harris but he has not raced moths since Geelong.

Karma foils at last

2009-03-28T20:03:00.002+10:00

A test on Wednesday revealed continued foil control / linkage issues.
I rejigged the main foil incidnece on Thursday and greatly improved the linkages adding a tiny model yacht rigging screw for fine adjustments.
Saturdays pre race test proved it worthwhile and the boat flew straight off. OK but low upwind but high, fast and stable downwind: looking good. As this was as much work as the boat had done it was also a good test of various experimental components two of which were found wanting.
First the forward rakes diamonds spreaders broke proving that they really are doing something and also that the mast will not break without them.
Then while riding high on the opposite tack towards home, the tiny half rudder box shattered.
Repairs will be simple but I think I am running out of time for the Easter State champs. I would rather sail my properly sorted boat than spend the weekend breaking and repairing.
And to reinforce that opinion, I made the beach in time to pack up Karma and rig Tiger on a Chain, make the race start and sail as well as I ever have, finishing third to Dave and Steve in the last heat of our club champs. I think the old boat was telling me that it is not finished with me yet.

Karma sails

2009-03-18T09:20:00.003+10:00

I launched Karma yesterday afternoon in a light easterly scratching to make 10kts. A short sail but at least nothing broke. No unusual noises either. I had some unforseen linkage issues and it did not foil so I still have some sorting to do. As well I tore a pocket on the tramp so its off again for some adjustments. Should get another test later in the week when I will get some good photos.

So far so good. It certainly goes better than std in sub foiling pressure downwind, with the unstayed rig going fully out. Full width tramp is comfortable, Cut down tiger hull has enough volume in the right places.

Karma with wings

2009-03-06T17:44:00.003+10:00

Some effort being made to get Karma finished for a week's time.

Wings are on. Very light. Mast, boom, tramp and rudder box to finish.

St George racing again

2009-02-08T07:14:00.002+10:00

Last week all the Geelong travellers opted out, leaving only Clive, Chris and Grant to race. Then only Grant finished, Chris breaking his gantry and clive having various issues.

So this week a big NE, big waves, small fleet, no result.

Only Dave, Bruce, Andrew and I raced. Kylie and Luka thought it was going to be light and went sailboarding. As we approached start time the NE kicked and built and combined with the last of the run out tide we had some big waves for the downwinds.

Super Dave flew high and fast and consequently had many swims. Andrew had trouble downwind and trailed. Bruce found it tough and played safe with an early return to the beach.

I had my boat back in the for sale mode, Thorpe mast, P&B sail, symetrical rudder foil, and I have another interested buyer.

I had fun upwind, struggled downwind but found low, slow and cautious was good value and lead the race for almost two laps, unlil two successive nose dives broke first the vang then the mast.
Fortunately the potential buyer does not want the mast and sail so we are negotiating.

Anyway Dave and Andrew broke wand and linkages so no one finished. Club Champs again in a couple of weeks so everyone should be out again next week.

Time for a change - Tiger for Sale

2009-02-01T08:17:00.002+10:00

Geelong is over and I think I have Tiger on a Chain going as well as it ever has gone. I have done the permanent fixes to the regatta wear and tear and the boat is now ready for a new owner. I have a 3/4 completed project in Karma which I am keen to complete and get sailing. A new design and sailing adventure, what mothing is all about.

So any one who wants a good moth for about half the going price of its close competitors. $A8K and its yours. I raced the week with all the mid fleet Bladeriders and Prowlers most of which were in the $A16K mark, and not far off the $A20K boats.

What you get is a 4 year old Hungry Tiger with wings and rudder made in our shop plus an Illet main foil set. Rig is Thorpey extra stiff mast and boom with an English P&B sail not unlike a MSL10 in shape.

I have had a couple of queries but no one yet has agreed to buy. Some overseas interest but I would prefer to build our local fleet and avoid the packng and freight hassles.

For what it is worth the estimates for box and freight to europe are about an extra $A2K which seems to add too much cost for the boat value.

Contact me philstevo2003 (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au

GEELONG WEEK

2009-01-28T07:39:00.002+10:00

The Moth Nationals was a part of Scandia Geelong Week.
RGYC is a nice club with a big compound of hardstand and slips, marina, plus a newish club/bar building and an old boatshed/sailing building. Its mostly run by volunteers.
But for the early moth regatta days it was a construction site, all the hardstand boats were packed up back, slipways covered and huge marquis erected.
From monday to Friday the mothies rigged on the adjacent beach, had our boats stored in a temporary compound in the car park and transitted to the boatshed for sign on/off and showers but few ventured through the works to the bar.
By saturday the building was completed and the food and drink outlets installed, sponsors banners and flags everywhere. By the time we returned from Saturday's late racing the place was full of people, thousands of them. The marina was chock a bock with yachts, not just the few sports boats and trailer yachts we saw during the week but everything from 50 year old 22ft Bluebirds to 100ft Skandia and state of the art Loki. There was a band on stage which could barely be heard over the crowd. There was an aerobatics display then the Moth dash for cash.
And outside the club compound which you need a club issued pass to even get into, the local council has a similar festival all along the water front, more stages and bands, lots more food stalls, and thousands more people.
Not a normal Moth regatta!
And despite all this apparent chaos, we walked casually into the club bar, waited only a few seconds to be served and then pulled up a chair at a table and has a nice chat with some other visitors.
The next night after packing up we had aerobatics again and after dark a fireworks display to backdrop our presentation night.
Amazing, well done RGYC, Scandia and other sponsors, City of Geelong, and all the sailors and locals who were just having a good fun time.
I will have to amend my aversion to big combined regattas after this one.

Where to Now?

2009-01-27T07:48:00.002+10:00

Lots learnt at Geelong. I got the Tiger going faster than ever, always finishing just behind a few boats by about what I lose in one or two poor tacks or gybes. I probably should just practice and get fitter but that sounds like hard work and not as interesting as boat development for my mind. And I have people interested in buying the Tiger so its on with progress on Karma.

So using as many good ideas from others as I can adapt here is where I am going:
Foils:
I have John Ilett foils, and I have already installed a piano type hinge from carbon tubes, this should reduce drag somewhat like the gap closure design on the Mach2 foil.
I have an Ilett aft foil buat may also build another symetrical one. My previous one is bigger and thicker than Dave's so I might be able to improve it.
The verticals are molded and ready for finishing, as light as I have made, proven laminate, but with the top end tapered to reduce weight of both foil and case. Makes for a neaster no-jam fit too.
Either way the foils are interchangeable as the slip in Tees are working and I am comfortable with the sesign and laminate now. Will make packing for US Worlds easier.
Hull:
In the light stuff the old Tiger hull was still fastest. I just did not get a race where nonone foiled so could not prove it is still the best. Even AMAC commented during one of the prerace drift offs that it moves well through the water. So I am comfortable with Karma's Hungry Tiger heriatage. It will be fasts when no one foils.
But everyone else is getting lower, but not as low as Karma. And I will have less windage still with curved decks and as the gap between hull and trampoline will eliminate the wind brake. So it should be good when foiling too. It weighs 8.5kg, on pace with the lightest.
Wings:
Smaller: The aft wing is forward 400mm from transom. The forward wing is back a bit and both are simple Vs set on struts above the deck, like Greg K, Fuzzy Logic, Hobiecat, C Cats. The wings are only 1600 apart so the outer tubes are smaller and lighter too. Should save a few kg here on the old boat.
Rig:
I have the new KA and CST so I have to adapt these to suit the ustayed or minimum stayed rig.
I have some 50m and 60mm tubes coming to extend the mast to max moth length and to plug into the hull. I have no issue with strength at the deck having learnt from Chainsaw and the Canoe. Initially I will try using forward raked diamond on the mast to manage mast bend above the deck. Worked for the other two boats enough to encorage a more refined development of the idea. I may get lucky enough to get the mast to match the bend on the conventional satyed rigs so the sail will not need adjustment but thats proabbly unlikely. It may be close as the KA is not much different to the luff curve on the canoe sail.
I am keen to avoid stays for two reasons. Safety, I have had some bad collissions with wire and seen some a lot worse. Efficiency: In light stuff the modern sails can not be squared out because of excess depth and very hard battens against the stays. The unstayed rig will go right out and the boat will run fast. Also there will be less windage from wires and struts by 30%..
Comfort:
I have a few shin abrasions but not as many as some prople. With the full width trampoline it is very soft on the body. And running side to side is juat as easy.
More ideas:
I am planning to rig the wings flatter and higher than on Tiger, one reason is to avoid the drag of the aft corner at take off, but also to minimise the windage of the leward wing when healed to windward.
Wand and Linkages:
I like Luka's adjustable length wand, Not sure about all of Dave's strings, I like to keep things simple. I have swithed the belcrank from the top of the fin to the hull and changed the orientation so the wand pushrod now acts in tension and hence will be a piece of 2mm vectran line. And I will have another version of the quick engage system I have on the tiger.

Enough free ideas for now. I know a lot of other mothies will be doing similar. Thats what keeps the class moving forward.

Back to the shed I do not want to be without a boat for too long.

Whats New?

2009-01-26T19:49:00.002+10:00

North sail won even though 90% + used KAs. So we now have a viable alternative race sail.

Mach2 stayed in one piece, except for a wing tramp. It goes fast in Simon's hands and survived a few test sails from AMAC so must be strong. I see it as a refinement of the Bladerider rather than a revolution. It has styling changes at each end, new foil sections, different wand linkages and is built very well, it looks very neat with no painted patches, all clear carbon. There are some subtle but important details, the foil flap has a gap closing overlap like model gliders use, not unlike my experiment last year. The main foil strut is enlarged slightly at the boat and foil ends to increase strength at critical zones. (done that too) The wand linkages and tensioning system is hiden in the foredeck. There are some neat designs in the wing tube connections to the hull and each other.
All nice stuff.

Meanwhile the new Bladeriders had some issues with the new manufacturer, some soft resin, some joint failures and lots of patches and paint before and during the regatta. Nathan had none of this as he sailed an old X8. Be sure that they will get this sorted before they let too many boats out of the shop. They will have learned a lot from the problems with the firts 50 X8s two years ago. About half the fleet were X8s who all survived in good condition save a couple of accidents.

CST high mod masts were popular up front. There are several stiffnesses now and the stiffer seemed to be best. Brownie had a Southern Spars small dia high mod mast to compete with the CST and the Mach2 has a McConaughy version too.

Dave had the gadgets, adjustments to cable length, wand bungee, wand rotation limits and he tilted the whole gantry rather than the ASTEVO tiller tilt per Bladerider etc. He has a different rudder foil too which I am sworn to be silent about. All too complex for us to actually know when and what he adjusts on the move, but he has an excellent understanding and makes it all work.
I learnt enough by mid week to make some wand adjustments and greatly improve my light wind flying. It all comes slowly.

Luka had an adjustable length wand. But it did not last to the regatta end. Good idea though, might try one.

Geelong Results

2009-01-26T19:17:00.002+10:00

Details are on http://topyachtsoftware.com/results/2009/sgw/series/moth/SGrp1.htm
Re my predictions, I think I got 8 or 9 of the top 10. And 16 of the top 20, so my result of 22 was about on target but one short of my longstanding ambition of top 50%. And i missed master (over 45) to my Pommie/Bladerider/Balmoral team mate Martin Cross. We were close at least some of the time in most races.
At the middle of the fleet we had the oportunity/embarrasment of a swim, coming up to then be racing against a different group of boats.
My boat was going very well, I lost out due to a few swims and some bad tactical decicions, my excuse is age and agility. I used the new KA MSL 13 and CST mast purchased for Karma.
My best race was 14th, one light day when I rounded the last mark with a bunch including 3rd place Scott, leaving Luka and Dave behind. Not all bad, I just could not quite stay with the bunch downwind.
The top sailors are very good, a few full timers but some fast weekenders too. Lots of variety in boats and rigs which is good for the class. While the top BR or Mach2 would need a mortgage on your first born, some home builts are up there too. More comments on the new stiff coming in another specific post.
Suffice to say, Nathan on Bladerider proved the best regatta sailor, Simon on Mach2 won the most races, but Dave's home made boat with Prowler foil had the fastest downwind speed once there when the wind was up.

Nationals training and form guide

2009-01-11T16:58:00.004+10:00

I have spent real some time on the water over the past three days. A late afternoon on the harbour with Les for nearly 2 hours on Friday, A couple of hours with the St George crowd on Saturday and back on the harbour this afternoon with Les, Alan and Marty.

I am knackered, which I account not to the sailing but to moving over a half ton of concrete from yard to barrow to trailer and then to tip, all by hand on Friday AM. I need a few days R & R.

Only one small issue with the boat when the vang mount detatched form the boom, all fixed, improved and tested today, boat is ready for the Geelong. Since boat is about to be sold I have to keep it all in good condition.

I am happy with my speed. In a straight line I am pacing it with boats I shouldn't, my corners are still dubious but I am now making almost all my Gybes without a splash, so certainly things are faster and smoother than when I last raced a regatta (SIRS). The new KA MSL13 is an improvement as is the new Ilett aft foil. I thought for a few years that the KA would not suit my very stiff Thorpey mast but after seeing everyone else getting stiffer and stiffer masts I took the plunge and it seems to be good. High and fast.

So how do the Sydney boats rate? The fastest boats I raced against were Dave Lister and Luka Damic, They were noticably faster than me. I seemed at least some of the time to have upwind pace (height really) on Les, Lea, Steve, and when they got ahead it was not by far. So I am in tier 2 of the fleet which with any luck will be better than my 50% target.

Anyway while we were sailing at St George on Sat, Les and the Woollahra All Stars were out racing. Reports are that Les was quite competitive, so if I am with him maybe the two St George hotshots have an edge.

Form Guide: I will not pick places but based on observations and reports, plus past regatta cudos/strategies/craft, here is my go at the top 10 in no particular order:

Best from Sydney:
Dave Lister (Alpha) has been the gun boat for over a year. He has had some niggling gear failures but will be looking at all details as he packs up for the trip south.
Luka Damic, (Prowler) as fast as Dave, newer boat so less likely to break, but has a habit of kacking it if he gets a bad result early.
Scott Babbage, same boat as Luka, but has better regatta record, probably better prepared in terms of fitness but speed reportedly a little off.
John Harris, Bladerider VRX, proven regatta record, world champ, very little time in a moth since, new untested boat , which may be too light to last the regatta out.

Best from rest of Aust:
AMAC of course, if the Mach2 is as good as the hype and if it stays together, same problem as John except I do not know if its even been in the water yet? He drives hard, so if the boat is up to it he will win races.
Only other one is Rod Ray from QLD who seems to get as much from an X8 as anyone. His last bout for a while as the boat is for sale in aid of a marriage home.

Thats only 6, so what foreigners have a show?

Bora (X8) the explorer has the best publicity campaign courtesy of Mr Block from Sailing Anarchy. At SIRS he was fast but got upstaged by the other yanks who have now gone home. (As instructed in traditional Aussie greeting)
Arnaud from Switz, (X8) proved un expectedly fast at Weymouth so will be faster now, I take this on report of others, I have yet to met him.
Simon Payne, the token pom, will have same issues as AMAC except he will be gentler on the boat and will go faster when the wind is light.

Thats 9, I have 1 left and I will pick someone who has never sailed a moth regatta. But he is 49er WC, stared in the best sailing TV program ever in not winning an Olympic medal last year and just placed 11th in the ACat WC with bugger all preparaton or cat experience. I have watched Nathan Outteridge race since he was about 11 and there was always something special. He has had a Bladerider to play with for a while and will be getting 110% from it, he knows his way around the wind.

I have left out the posibility of Rohan competeing as even if he was a secret late entry I understand the second VRX will not be ready and I doubt he will sail an FX.

OK pundits pull that apart.

edit: In the interest of scoring Blog points I should have mentioned Andrew Brown from the broken isles, because he beat the yanks in Melbourne before Chrismas. The other Aussie who almost made the list is from our other forgotten island, Rob from tassie who won a race at Sirs and was showing good speed.

That would be 12 so to round out the top 20 I should consider:
Alan Goddard, Steve Donovan, Lea Sitja, Greg Wise, Andrew Stevenson, Les Thorpe, Mark Robinson. Thats 21 so I see my target of making 50% in a fleet of 43 pretty daunting.

Weather for Geelong? The summer pattern has started. Looking like light in the mornings, 0-8 followed by 15-25 in the afternoons. With a good mix of am/pm it should sort out the all rounders. Can't wait.

Holiday fun

2009-01-04T18:44:00.003+10:00

Christmas New year is traditional holiday time in Aust, but for the retired we get to go to work on a voluntary basis.
I spent the last week manning the mark laying boat for the Mirror Nationals, good company, nice scenery off Middle harbour, but not a lot of action with a fleet of mirrors. I was just helping out a group of good friends from Hunters Hill and Balmoral clubs.
After day one, one of these people really asked for trouble by saying honestly that the photos from the rigging park were more interesting than the sailing photos. She was relaxed enough to not anticipate my reply: "thats where all the action was", but I got away with it alive.
There was one day where a good SE and a little sea swell allowed the leaders to surf, and I honestly had not seen mirrors go that fast before. They had fun.
Anyway I have now made a contribution to our sport and will feel thankful to those who will be running our Geelong Nationals, knowing what they have given up for us.
On the only morning I was able to get the moth in the water there was only 5 to 8 kts and I spent most of the time with the hull in the a water. I was sailing with flyweight, Allan Goddard and his brand new Prowler and although he was noticably flying sooner, I thought my speed once up was reasonable.
I will get a more runs in the next few weeks before we all go to Geelong for the Nationals. Mostly practice turning corners.

St George in December

2008-12-22T20:43:00.002+10:00

Its been a dissapointing month for racing:
With a few of us at SIRS on the 6th a poor club roll up and stong winds saw racing cancelled.
A week later a big westerly made a cancellation an obvious choice.
And this week the closeness of Christmas meant another small turn out of 5. Too many work and family commitments this time of year.

But I tested a couple of new bits. I have fitted a John Ilett foil to my rudder. I also have a new MSL3.

For a few years I thought my old V Stiff Thorpey mast would not suit a KA sail with their generous luff round, but at SIRS I compared my mast to one of the new small dia HM CST masts and found it very similar in stiffness and weight. So apart from the extra windage my mast has come back into fashion.

The rig felt good, the wind was variable enough to try a few settings and it adjusts well. I did have a lot of lee helm though and the rake needed adjustment.

The foil change was more noticable, whereas with the smaller symetrical rudder foil the boat would sink stern first in the light patches, now it stays level and on the foils much longer. It seemed to me the symetical foil arument was lost but Dave did the reverse and tested a new small symetrical and thought he had found some extra speed, as if he really needs any!

The joys of development and testing?

Gypsy Bowl Teams Race

2008-12-22T20:34:00.004+10:00

The Gypsy Bowl is an old NSW Moth trophy which has not been raced for for at least 10 years. It declined when the number of moth clubs shrank to too few for an event. Now we have 4 clubs in Sydney Pete Harney revised the event and rean it at Northbridge. The last sunday before Christmas was the only time when no clubs raced but it seems most people are busy on other things. But we had more than a dozen moths and it made an enjoyable event.

So the Gypsy Bowl event lives. Not sure where the trophy is though?

Three teams competed,
The local NSC/SMSC scow team.
The Balmoral Bladerider team, and
a mixed group comprising Alan (just home from Finland), Les (BYRA mostly), Eric (Balmoral) and me (StG),
nominally 4 boats per team with only best 3 to count.

The course as a short two lapper and the scows got a 6 minute start.
The scows beat the mix in race 1, We beat the Bladeriders in race 2, The Bladeriders beat the scows in race three. All even!
Then top scows Andrew and Ian Sim went home to a serious? other apointment. So the scows lost their last two matches and the event was decided when the mixed team beat the Bladeriders again.
So we won!!

Wind was good for NSC, 0 to 12kts and only swinging through 40odd degrees. But very tireing, lots of leg work.

It all went smoothly thanks to Pete and Jim and other NSC helpers and a nice BBQ afterwards.
This event must happen every year but a better time might attract more teams

Day 4 SIRS

2008-12-09T17:54:00.002+10:00

Another nice day with 12-15 mostly and sunshine. Start was delayed until the sea breeze filled in and then we had three quite short races in quick succession. This helped get a few scores on the board as few of us went over the short 10 minutes after the winner time limit.
Charlie McKee stayed near the front and took the series. John Harris finally sorted his borrowed boat and won the last two races after Dave Lister stacked with a good lead after the final mark of the sereis.
I scored 9, 10, 11 for 10th overall, one higherthan my normal 50% target. But I had a good series for days 3 and 4 and built some spee, technique and fitness, which is what most of us mothies see the regatta is for.

SIRS day 3

2008-12-08T16:27:00.002+10:00

A much better day, good 15-20 ENE and we only waited a half hour for the Lasers to finish.
Bora won two races and Dave won the other by a big margin, finally showing everyone the speed we have been talking about.
But Charlie is leading the series with a string of small numbers.
I had an enjoyable day with some close racing for the back of the diminished fleet. Had a few swims in first race but got around clean in the other two and am finally making almost all of the gybes without touchdown. Got real numbers on the score card now, 14, 9 & 11, which do not sound so good but there are some classy sailors in the fleet so I feel happy for an old bloke.
Made the commitment to do the peak hour traffic struggle tomorrow as I have left the boat in the compound for the 10.00 am start.

SIRS regatta half way?

2008-12-07T21:01:00.003+10:00

I think I am beginning to hate big mixed class regattas.
First this is the most expensive regattas for ages, about 50% up on the nationals for one. Not sure where all the money goes, there are over 200 boats and we got 3 big sponsors stickers to attach to boats so there must be heaps of money coming in. Maybe there are professional race crew, and the huge start boat must cost a bit to run, but I do not see how this is any better for moths than a small club regatta with 4 or 5 people and a couple of outboard powered run abouts.
Then, because we share the Race management and on water crew with 2 or 3 other classes we never seem to know when the races are on. And these people for all their effort do not seem to understand moths much or how fast they go in different weathers. Complicate that with a busy harbour and all the clubs using very similar marks and you would be kind to say that so far its heading towards a bit of a disaster for most of us.
Day 1.We waited for an AP to drop, but since we could not see the signal mast from our designated rigging area we really waited until some 49ers launched as we were sharing the track with them. It was looking better at 3.30 anyway as the laser Rads had spent from 12.00-2.30 waiting on our track for a wind to settle and got 0/3 races in. A good 15-20 southerly arrived in time.
Race 1, Got away Ok but 30secs out a manly ferry crossed all but Bora, so he got a good lead and held it unlit he lost lap count and went for lap 5. Scott and Ben followed him so Charlie won. (Check places elsewhere I might have iit wrong).Problem was most went around a mark N of Clarke Is and a coulple went around a similar one SW of Cl Is. which was also the one the 49ers went around. There were a couple of other red marks in the area and none of us really know which was the right one.
Race 2. With about half the fleet absent due to broken bodies or boats, the RC set another 4 lapper, and everyone one went around the 49er mark. No race 3 as the two 4 lappers used up all the time. Two results one race down. Not many finishers, which is a shame when three 2 or 3 lappers could have made for a better days racing.
The posted results do not appear to accept people went around different marks so the odd result may stand. I heard the next morning from a SIRS regular that the mark mix up happens every year, so it beggs to ask why cant they find some cleaver solution like different coloured marks?
Day 2.Morning racing in a soft westerly. The windward mark was easy to find because there was only one, and they sent the 49ers off early to show us where to go. It was conveniently placed in the lee of Chouder head which made the soft and patchy westerly even dodgier.
The lightweights flew well and the heavyweights didn't. So with a 10min margin after the winner to beat or score DNF, some quit after 2 laps and a lot more did the distance for not good at all. Three boats scored. Scott won from Matt Day. The small mothy lives again. Why we needed a 3 lapper on such soft wind is something only the RC could explain. An example of no moth experience I guess.
So Race 3 took about an hour and a half and they quickly sent us off on a 2 lapper but 30secs later a 20k southerly hit making the W leg a reach, so not surprise when the N flag apeared at the first mark.
Now it was now about 12.00, The laser Rads who got no result on day 1 arrived on schedule, the course and big start boat need to be relocated, some of us decided time was up and sailed home. A lot hung around as did the 49ers, and hung around, and hung around, and watched the lasers start. etc etc. etc. Someone decided to ask the boat if there was any more racing and was told not till 2.00, so the word spread and several moths went into Clifton beach to rest and save the gear.
At 1.40 odd they went back to the start and watched the finish of a moth race with 6 or 7 boats only. After this was over someone decided that it was over for the day and sailed home. All in winds up to 20kts
Regardless the SIs say the next signal shall be ASAP after the finish of the previous race, and its hard to stretch that to an hour or more after starting some other races?
There are a lot of tired people and a lot of pissed off people.
My own position is all DNF due to a broken rudder gudgeon in race 1, and getting lapped in race 3, followed by an early sail home assuming the Lasers had the course per the posted schedule. But as I am with over 2/3 the fleet with a full set of alphabet its not really a bother. What is pretty odd is that I am one place lower on the list than Simon Nelson who has not even fronted yet, with or without his boat.
For the official sanitised version see http://www.sailsydney.org.au/
Maybe it will improve tomorrow? Maybe the accused St George boycott was a better idea?
Tomorrow is a 12.30 race so a sleep in is in order. We will see how it goes before deciding to battle the peak hour traffic across the city for a 10.00 start on Tuesday. NE winds increasing from 12 to strong are forcast for both days.

St George Moth interclub 29/11/08

2008-11-30T12:27:00.004+10:00

A few changes in the form guide?
First Scott made a token Boycott on behalf of Woollahra and the SIRS ragatta, apparently wasting his time at a 49er promo day.
Secondly local king Dave broke his gantry mid week and the repair was not set up at the correct angle, (thats his excuse anyway) so he trailed the leaders all the way.
The star was Andrew in his 5 year old Prowler who lead well for 3 of the 4 laps, and around all but the first and last marks with excellent pace, only to drop into a light patch up the last work and get passed by Luka and Ben.
We had a good southerly from 12 to 20 in the puffs and a fleet of 15, 10 locals and 5 visitors.
My own race was a keen fight with Alistair and Pete for 6th. With Steve just far enough ahead to be encouraging. Good fun and some very fast downwind legs in the gusts.
I am getting much better at gybing only putting down two, which was a great releif after a practice run on Thursday with Andrew in a solid NE where I seemed to put down the lot.
Some improvements to the boat this week, still learning and its getting easier with our quality fleet and generous knowledge exchange.
Results:
Luka Damic, Prowler Zero,
Ben Croker, Prowler Zero,
Andrew Stevenson, Prowler 2004
Dave Lister, Gilmore/Lister Alpha
Steve Donovan, Prowler Zero,
Phil Stevenson, Hungry Tiger,
Peter Harney, Hungry Tiger
Ian Sim, Scow
DNF: Clive Watts, Chris Dixon, Lea Sitja, Grant Weymouth, Bruce McLeod, Allistair Gibson, James McKenzie.
No serious damage, just little things and tired bodies.

Decks on.

2008-11-28T11:11:00.003+10:00

Decks are on Karma and joints taped. It weighs 9kg (subtractive method with bathroom scales so maybe not really accurate) which is more than I wished for but lighter than most moths.

Picture shows progress, hull with mast tube, main foil, gantry.

Rudder next than wings.

Not a render but a real boat! Us computer slobs have to get our hands dirty in the workshop.

Karma progress

2008-11-20T17:07:00.002+10:00

We the main deck is on. There is a bit of trimming to do but its about 7kg so I am happy with progress so far. With the minimal wings planned I am sure we will have one of the lightest moths around.

Now I'm sorting out the wand/flap linkages.

Hinged the flap today with a true no gap hinge line, its a real barrel hinge full depth of the foil made from carbon tubes and SS wire. Had one many years ago on a really dodgy foil, the hinge worked then but not the foil. This time its in one of John Ilett's proven moldings. The subtle hinge line with no gap top and bottom certainly looks like it should reduce drag, and it moves so freely.

Nice to see Mach2 has a raked rudder bearing on the gantry. Its a good idea, Andrew tried it early this season and I have since modified mine to match. It seems to help reduce ventilation by raking the rudder like the centreboard. Back when my Tiger was new I tried raking the blade without raking the pivot, but even with all the blade behind the pivot, steering got lighter and lighter the higher the boat flew, and it was very unsteadying. (see the picture on the right of this page). Matching the pivot with the rake does make the feel more consistant but it does apply a bow up component when the rudder is turned. I have not tried it yet but this might make sailing downwind in big waves a bit more difficult than it already is? Anyway the Karma gantry I built last week has 5 degrees of rake built in.

Seems all the new boats now have carbon or SS pushrods instead of the old Bowden cables which seemed to be good when new but were susceptible to damage and increased friction with use. Since we all converted the number of crashes from ride height control has reduced dramatically.
My Tiger never had a cable but the first generation thru deck rod/tube was not great and since replacing it last winter with a better aligned setup, everything just works great. For Karma I have reversed the bellcrank directions so now the " pushrod" will be in tension so I am looking at using a simple low stretch line, lighter, less likely to kink, bend or jam and just simpler, exactly the theme of the whole boat.

NSW Interclub at Balmoral

2008-11-15T17:52:00.002+10:00

Just home from the race.

A sick SE wind over middle head made for a patchy course. 12 foilers and three scows so a reasonale fleet. Dave got recalled so Scott, Andrew, Luka and Ben were up front at the first mark. Dave eventually got past Luka and Scott at different times but at the finish Scott won from fly weight Matt Day, Luka, Dave and Andrew then Alistair in the firat BR.

Most people were happy with their speed but found holes in the wind to explain ther places.
I was happy for half a race and was in front of Andrew (after he swam) when my vang decided to break. After that I sailed a lap with it slack unlil lapped and the pulled the pin to be first back to the beach.

Dave said the last few times he sailed against Scott it has been patchy, but for now Scott has earned the respect as the fastet moth in Sydney.

Much rumour oubout James MacKenzie and his new boat. Every one knew he has the first Mach2 order. So all expectant. He fronted with a 1964 vintage fibreglass scow predating wings, which he picked up for $200 a few weeks back. It did not loook like the renders on Simon's Blog but he did finish the race.

Karma

2008-11-15T09:05:00.004+10:00

Since Bruce has now published my interview on the Mothcast and revealed all my ideas about new moths I guess its time to post some pictured of whats in the shed.

When we did the interview, just before the worlds in July, my plans were to build a stressed ply hull for a plug and build a carbon / foam shell. But since then I have acquired the damaged hull of Karma Package Deal and as I still think the Hungry Tiger is the best hull in the water, and Thorpey builds lighter than I can, I decided to develop my low windage ideas around the Tiger hull. About 100mm of freeboard was removed along with flares and most of the foredeck. The main deck is the cockpit flipped over. Lots of material reuse in the internal structure but I still threw out 5kg of surplus materail.

The photos show the hull with deck panels sitting on top loose. The insides are complete with all hard points for wings and gantry plus fin case and mast tube. Deck should go on this week.

As I indicated in the interview the mast is a little forward from std at 900mm from the bow because that is where there was some framing, not the 500 of Chainsaw Mk2 or 800 of Chainsaw Mk3. The fin case is 150 in front of the Tiger position.

Foils are underway, gantry is complete but rig and wings will take a while. I need to sell the canoe first.

Still ventilating the rudder

2008-11-10T20:30:00.002+10:00

Although I finished a close third to Lea I really did not have a great race. The rudder continues to ventilate at high speed, despite careful fairing and sanding with an accurate profiled template.

Again we had 9 moths starting but again only three finished with a mixture of gear failures and lost enthusiasm from those who withdrew. It was a gusty westerly which started out at about 12kts with big holes and ended up as a solid 20. Lots of fun and plenty of swims.

Dave who usually wins each week had an off day. Not only did a few of us cross him up the first work, followed by Andrew and Luka putting on a fair chase, but then he managed to break a centreboard brass pushrod and so pulled out of the race. From my point of view it was a good feeling to be with a few fast boats at least up the first work.

But then my ventilation problems returned? Swims from spin outs and some from poor gybes, but I did nearly catch Lea as the wind freshened towards the end.

Analysis with Andrew concludes that my rudder is more vertical than his, the same molding and he does not have a problem, going very fast at last. So this week's exercise is to adjust the T joint connection for a few more degrees of forward rake. Not so hard with the detatchable T. And the rudder box has plenty of scope for more range.

Next week we have an interclub at Balmoral. Most of the StGeorge crew are going. It will be good to mix it with the Balmoral Bladeriders and Woollahra fleet. At this early stage the forecast is for a moderate southerly, at least that tends to keep the yacht and skiff fleets clear of our race course, othersize its very crowded.

Foils for sale

2008-11-07T08:15:00.003+10:00

I have two used foils to sell.
Two centreboards/main foils. Both are carbon moldings finished in gloss white two pack. Std 120mm chord and sections (within my building tollerances) They have flaps and pushrods installed. They are from my mold as used by Andrew, me and Thorpey for foils under boats like RTFM/Revolations, Sector 7G, Butterfly wings, Tiger on a Chain, Cahinsaw.etc.
1. Main foil #1. Built for Tiger on a Chain and used from late 2005 to end of 06/7 season. Damaged at Sunshine nationals and repaired and used extensively afterwards. 3.75kg. $500
2. Main foil #2 Built for Tiger on a Chain and used for the 07/8 season, never damaged. Fast enough in the light to win three heats of last NSW champs. Has new hinge and bottom gap seal. 3.2kg. $600
Both have the normal 7-8 degree forward rake. 900mm span main foil, centreboard length about 1350mm.
No rudder but I can convert the old foil to rudder rake/span if someone wants it.
Suit foil conversion of an old Axeman or Tiger.
They will get you flying easilly but will not win any championships.
Pick up Sydney.
No rudder box, tiller, deck pushrod or wand included but I might be able to assist with some bits and pieces if someone needs a complete set of gear.
Contact Phil Stevenson
ph Aust 02 98161028
phil(at)moth(dot)asn(dot)au

St George Moths 1/11/08

2008-11-02T12:37:00.002+10:00

First heat of the Club Championship.

We had 9 boats rigged for a moderate southerly but it seems we are a slack lot and only 5 made the start line on time. A couple of others started late but with the wind a bit gusty and coolish there were a few excuses to pull out and only three of us made the full distance. Dave won as usual, with Steve chasing and me a way back.

But for the first few marks I seemed to be hanging in there, still keeping Dave in sight and rounding ahead of Steve, but then a port tack downwind showed up some major rudder ventilation problems and 3 swims later they were gone.

Last week at sunshine I was having occasional ventilation at speed, so during the week I had glued on a 2mm glass rod and re faired the leading edge for a sharper entry. It worked OK upwind and downwind on Std but there must be some assymetry there somewhere and as soon as I built speed on port, the rudder vertical would let go and the boat gybe.

Subsequent downwinds were sailed as slow as I could to keep the boat flying but not ventilating, unusual way to be racing.

Today I am making an accurate sanding template to clean up the leading edge, something I should have done last week I suppose but we learn the hard way. I hope to compete the adjustments and do some trials mid week so I klnow its right before next week's race.

ZHIK regatta at Sunshine

2008-10-27T06:52:00.003+10:00

A great weekend at Sunshine, South Lake Macquarie. Lovely warm weather and a nice 12-15kt wind both days.

This was a mixed class yardstick regatta for single handed dinghies. The moths were in div 3 with Hayden's IC sailing three laps, while divs 1 and 2 included Spirals, Sabres, Contenders, Impulses and OKs and they all sailed 2 laps. Latest VYC posted yardsticks were used with the lap count included in the calculation.

The slow boats started first so it got pretty crowded at the first top mark. Then once past we sailed by ourselves for a lap and then caught them again on our third lap. At least it kept the fleet in the same wind as much as possible and sailing over a similar time span, things that matter in yardstick calculations. But the wind was so consistant it probably did not matter much.

We had 11 moths from St George, Balmoral plus Ben from Woollahra and Rod Ray down from Qld. The other classes were well represented by champions and top sailors. Total fleet was about 55.

In perfect foiling conditions the Moths went very well. Dave Lister was fastest and was I think first to finish in 3 races (having a gear failure in the 4th), meaning he passed all the other classes twice. In the last race he lapped Hayden Virture sailing the fastest IC in the country. Hayden commented that even sailing his older slower boat last year at McCrae against top ACats he had never been lapped before.

When Saturday's results were posted it was obvious that this fleet of moths were sailing a lot faster than the VYC rating. Moths filled the top 8 places by big margins. The other discrepancy was that the three Bladeriders were given the lower rating of 79 instead of the foiler moth rating of 83. This shuffled Rod and Alister down the list a little and it seems illogical to split the class this way.

Regardless the top guys were sailing about 10 minutes faster than the rating in a race well shorter than an hour. (Sorry I do not have the numbers in front of me). Dave beat me by 10 minutes and I beat all the other classes on VYC.

The VYC yardsticks are developed from mixed class racing results around Aust. There is very little of this racing in NSW, especially in summer, so I suspect that the ratings come from the days when Rohan was sailing in Melbourne club and regatta races. The 83 Moth rating would be how fast he was going when he had his last Prowler, and the 79 BR rating would be from when he began racing and promoting BR.

It looks like in these conditions a number more like 70-72 would be appropriate.

Back to the racing: Rod was closest to Dave with Ben and, in the races he sailed, Luka on his brand new Prowler not far back. There was some good racing in the bunch with places changing due to bad tacks or gybes. There is not much variation in actual boat speed.

I had some good bouts with Lea and Alister and ended up 5th overall.

Well done SLMASC.

Just an update

2008-10-12T16:28:00.002+10:00

Lots happening in the mothoshere, Bladerider's bid for the Olympics, new Mach2 announced and as well as all the politics I have been sailing.

I have posted previously and elswhere that I disagree with an Olympic Moth. I see too much money and energy being diverted from the present development direction of the class into ISAF and class politics and then into selection, full time sailors, funding and such all with serious potential to disrupt or even redirect the tremendous steps forward and growth in both amateur and professional interest in moth.
I can not see the bid being sucessful anyway against the Finn and Laser lobbyists, but damage could be done anyway, just over a shorter period than if a Moth is selected.

The Mach 2 got a mention prevously and there has been quite a frenzy, Simon's Blog, press releases and lots of computer graphics. Nothing substantial yet, but I guess that if they do actually ever build anything, two of the worlds bess Mothies behind it will at least make it perform well.

Rohan is not pleased though, and bagged the builders of the early Bladeriders (now signed up to Mach2) for building crap boats. He admitted that he masked the fact three years ago that the boat was below expectation and won the Aust Nationals with it. Good sailors often make bad boats look good. The first title to BR. Maybe AMAC and Simon will do the same with the first batch of Mach2 in January even if they are below expectations? Development time is fast running out with no Mach2s sailing yet.

Enough moth politics.

I have been sailing.

Had a weekend away on the IC but back on the Tiger this week. The repaired Prowler foil is great, a big step up in speed compared with my old main foil. Still not completely finished and painted but solid and fast by my standards. Had a good race with Lea yesterday until he snuck away on the second downwind. We are both looking forward to the return of Clive, Grant and Chris from excursions and the improvement of Andrew now he has bought Scott's second broken foil. (Repairs to be completed yet.) There should be a close bunch in the mid fleet all with either Prowlers or Ilett foils under Hungry Tigers.

We all still have about 10 minutes to improve to get near Dave though. But he is being helpful and some improvements are coming hopefully. Luka gets his new prowler this week and should at least be closer to Dave than the older boats are. Steve can get up the front too.

St George now has 7 Prowlers, 2 Tigers, 2 Gilmore Alphas and and 3 scows. Not a bad Moth fleet when everyone comes to play.

Progress on Karma is slow, Removal of the flairs and freeboard (which included all the damaged bits) lost 7kg. The hull and two deck panels which will be recylcled weigh only 5kg. I could not build these as light as Thorpey so not point replacing them. I have filled in the old big fincase holes and built a new tube (foam sandwich) to take the unstayed mast, there is a new tiny fincase to build and a supporting bulkhead, then some hardpoints for wing and gantry mounts. It should still end up very light.
But there's more to come. Time and money permitting.
To Be Continued.

A good weekend.

2008-09-22T08:07:00.003+10:00

Saturday at St George was a nice relief. After some dispute with the club managment we settled our differences and an initial 12 moth sailors registered with the club to sail the season. Another 3 or 4 were unable to make the day but will be there in the next few weeks. Some of the admin people who have had gripes about mothies were absent and we had a good chat with the club president and the new race officer who are with us in building the class.
After that we went sailing in a gusty NW and big run out tide. Dave Lister is still decidedly fastest, at least until Luka gets his new prowler. Meanwhile Luka is our finisher/recorder.
A short course w/l and 5 laps. I am not sure anyone did the whole lot as there was a bit of stopping and adjusting settings. It did not matter as the pointscore starts next week.

Sunday I went to Woollahra for the around the Harbour marathon. Only one other moth turned up, Marty, so I am not sure what has happenned to their building Moth fleet? Marty and I are second division moths so we were not going to stay with the 49ers and 18, but we beat everything else and had a great sail in a 10-15kt NE and beautiful sunshine.

These two days sailing were very rewarding. For maybe the first time in 4 years the control system was working properly and I felt comfortable driving the boat fast without concern about launching and crashing. So the winter work on the system and all the help from the other mothies has been well worth it. This is why islolated mothies have so much difficulty getting the system sorted for reliable height control, and why those boffins working on more complex boats are up against the wall and may never get it going well. The Moth network is invaluable.

Another week in the shed coming up. Last week I helped laminate some new foils for Mark Wolney's new Gilmore boat. His materials, my slow mold but in his budget. Now they are done I am back to my toys. I have bought the damaged Ilett foil from Scott and repair is underay. I hope to have it under the Tiger next weekend and look forward to a boost in performance.

Meanwhile I have started work on the damaged Hungry Tiger hull which was once Steve Donovan's Karma Package Deal. I have removed the flairs and 100mm of freeboard including the damaged sections plus the big fin case and have left a hull shell, foredeck and aft deck panel, all beautifully built by Thorpey and weighing only 5kg. I will add one or two kg in fincase, wing mounts and assembly but its still going to be a very light hull. Progress will be slow until I sell the Canoe to fund the carbon tubes. This will become the 2009 version of the continuing Chainsaw, minimum moth experiment. 20kg target? ambitious! No photos of this project to date.

On anther story all together St George skiff sailor Bruce Gaunt has been experimenting for a few years on a 16ft long moth like monster. 12 sqM sail on a big rotating mast, 3m wide wings and all very light. Now he has foils for it, and it has flown, by all accounts with some success. While I voice opinion against big boat foiling experiments around the world, Bruce has succeeded due to his concentration on weight saving and because he is in the circle of knowledge in the St George Moth foiling fleet. He has the systems working.
I am still not sure why he did it, must have cost heaps more than if he had just built it as a moth. It will be interesting when he lines up against the moths, will it be any faster?

New Season underway

2008-09-14T09:11:00.002+10:00

A beautiful day to start the new season. 28 deg C and a good northerly.
There were 8 foiling moths out testing at St George. Plus two more owners there to assess and prepare their boats. No race yet but a good show of enthusiasm.

No serious problems from anyone. A couple of broken wands and I had some issues withmy new pushrod system which will fix OK during the week.

A good day all round

New moths, a boom?

2008-09-05T08:27:00.002+10:00

The two year Bladerider boom has had anamazing impact on the Moth class. Suddenly people arre seeing moths as a growth industry with profits to be made?
Simon Payne has anounced a new production moth in association with AMAC and McConnaghy.
This must mean AMAC has disposed of his Bladerider interests and must also have something to do with why Bladerider has left McConnachy's.
Although Bladerider has made about 200 boats its not really clear to me that they are yet profitable. Its because of all the expensive Australians in Melbourne and flitting around the world, who must be soaking up a lot of the revenue. Add to that the first year when they seemed to need to replace about half the output due to failures. And now they are moving factories and starting up new product lines which must all be costing a motza. And I wonder if they will still be buying KA sails from AMAC?
And now the Mach 2 (Payne/AMAC) moth is going to start the whole process off again, more tooling, more development and associated failures and rework, more money invested and hopefully a whole lot of new moth buyers.
Meanwhile John Ilett has moved his hull production offshore and will concentrate his small workshop on foil production and boat assembly.
And Velociraptor in UK are promising some improvements after the WC exposure to potential customers.
I just hope that the total production capacity does not exceed the market volume.
In the past 5 years two other successful moth builder have decided their business time is better spent on other classes. Both Thorpey and Full Force decided that the continuous development of the moth was not worth chasing. The both had some serious money invested in molds which now sit idle, not goood for business.
While more builders and more boats is great for the class, there must be a finite limit to the number of people who have the $20K to spend on a toy which many will not even be able to sail first go.
Businesses going broke and upsetting customers would be very bad for the class, so I hope no one gets burnt.

Coming out of hibernation

2008-09-04T13:47:00.007+10:00

The winter refit is complete:
New rudder and foil: With removable horizontal:

New hinge and gap closure on main foil:
All with new gloss two pack finish, flash!

New wand and pushrod system :

Also in the yard is Andrew's remodelling of 9332 with new gantry and foils:

Racing starts in a week or two.

4 moth clubs in Sydney now with Woollahra joining St George, Balmoral and Northbridge/Seaforth, all with viable fleets

Olympic Moth?

2008-08-13T18:35:00.003+10:00

During this first week of Olympic Frenzy (at least in the media and at sports other than sailing) Scott has blogged a long and considered post regarding the nomination by Hong Kong (where there are no moths racing) of the moth as one of the single handed classes for the London 2012 Olympics. Of course the worlds loungeroom internet experts have been advocating an Olympic Moth for a couple of years but this time the nomination is apparently real.

The comments and discussion following his post shows some diversified thinking within the existing class and my contribution will be seen as negative to those who think an Olympic Moth would be progress.

The way I see it Olympic selection would be good in these aspects:
a. Olympic sailing might actually get on television instead of gymnastics, swimming or synchronised drowning.
b. Some small number of highly slilled sailors (some existing mothies, but mostly existing olympic aspirants) will get full time funding to raise their standards even higher.
c. Some builders will get heaps of orders from government subsidised organisations who are willing to pay above the market price of present moth sailors for something which is marketted to them as slightly better than the rest
d. There will at least initially be more moths sailing.
e. Some people might actually consider a sport exciting enough to take up after watching it on TV. (I included this one because other people believe it but I do not)

Against this I see these negative points with respect to the moth class:
1. The influx of new numbers and the pressure from IOC/ISAF/Govt funding/full time sailors will all change the culture and direction of the class.
2. Events will need to be of higher standard than our present amateur run affairs, requireing professional PROs and better venues than we enjoy using in Aust and I suspect in other moth racing countries. (The countries with fleets not the ones with a few individuals)
3. I forsee pressure to change rules in areas like, a lower wind limit to make all racing on foils, one design to cut development costs.
4. If the IMCA members are reluctant to go with these changes a one design split will happen, just as it did before, the Europe in the 60s and less successful ODs in other countries.
5. An ultimate reduction in numbers because as the full timers and their backers raise the standards, the part timers and amateurs will loose interest and drop out. This happens in Aust will all classes selected for the olympics, even the laser numbers are propped up by the masters circuit, not olympic aspirants.
6. In a while the numbers lost will exceed those gained.
7. A one design moth will still only have a limited life before either
. sailing gets dropped from the games because it is too expensive to run with limited TV money returns, or
. something newer and flashier comes along to replace it, or
. the troglodites revive themselves and vote the Finn back in.
8. So the next step is the moth class ends up loosing the olympic full timers and the amateurs and vanished into a puff of ego.
9. And I doubt any of the TV lounge lizards will last long in a moth.

Think about it?

Do the IMCA members really want to be lead on by the armchair internet sailors, a blinded media or an ambitious few mothies at the risk of killing the classs?

My vested interest is that I like designing and building my own boats, I am not interested in one design, nor in buying other peoples products, (even if I do at times buy components).

I think also that the class has come such a long way in the past 75 years and really has lead the way in so many aspects of sailboat design. It would be a real shame if this move were to curtail that development when there is so much further to go.

Sidetracked

2008-08-04T10:40:00.005+10:00

I have spent most of the last month working on my big boat. Sorry about the lead poisoning of a Moth blog but long years of poor maintenance meant that a big job was needed.

Breakfast is 31 years old and I designed and built her initially as a 1/4 tonner but it has been subsequently altered to better suit its main purpose as a fun day sailor or weekend camper on the Harbour.

It has been completely repaintd and all rigging replaced. There might be some twilight racing coming up for the old girl next summer.

Winter Project

2008-06-12T21:11:00.002+10:00

The Tiger is dismantled at home and some upgrades are happenning.

The wand and pushrods are being replaced with lighter stuff and the conduit through the foredeck is being replaced with a carbon tube which better aligns with everything for significantly less friction.

The flex skin flap hinge has to go, as it has become very stiff as the resin has aged, a shame but it was worth the experiment. Might try it again someday with more research into suitable resins.

Planning a better fit for the fin case cassette which makes up the space between the old 200mm wide centreboard shape and the 120mm wide foil strut size. Similar treatment needed on the rudder box and gudgeon fittings.

After sailing Dave's boat briefly its easy to see how importat all this is and how slack I have been with tidying up the mechanism and set up generally.

Once all that is finished a new better set of foils is on the menu.

Phil's Form Guide

2008-05-15T08:27:00.003+10:00

This close to the Moth Worlds in UK it seems that it is the duty of all moth Bloggers to post a form guide and pick some winners. Scott has posted his at: http://scott.projectsomewhere.com/2008/05/14/the-form-2/
and being modest has not put himself on top. But he has sailed against most of the protagonists and has a better idea of what is needed than most.

For what it is worth here is my take:

The BIG factors are boats, weather and weight.
1. BOATS I think it will be unlikely that a boat other than a Bladerider or Prowler will win. I have not seen any evidence of other fast boats attending, they are either too new or still under developed. I may be wrong, it is posible to build a boat good enough as Dave Lister and John Gilmore have shown here at home, but Dave is not going to be at Weymouth.

The fast Prowler Zeros are with Scott, Simon Payne, John Ilett and Ben Croker. The obvious good Bladeriders are with AMAC, Bora, Matt Belcher, Graham Vials with John Harris, Andrew Brown and probably a few others close behind. This leaves people like Adam May out because no matter how good he is I do not think his boat is complete yet and that leaves him in a similar position as last year, unprepared.

2. The WEATHER is expected to be lightish, 8 to 12 kts mostly I understand. This will count out anyone over 75kg, Big Ben is obviously going for the holiday. If the wind is at all patchy expect the very small people to romp it in. At easter in less than 10 kts it was obvious that the fly weights were the first to fly and in minutes they are a leg ahead of anyone who does not fly. And the lightest skippers stay in the puffs longer and just get further in front.

3. So who is the lightest WEIGHT? Of the top Australians Matt has it, Scott is smallish but after a couple of seasons on 18s has bulked up. John Harris says he is heavier than he looks. Alan Goddard is light enough but he does not yet have the boat speed for a top placing. Of the foreigners It looks like Graham Vials is small enough and Simon and Adam are pretty small too, if Simon has not spent too much time on that famous rowing machine bulking up. I have never seen Bora or Brownie but I get the impression they may be a touch bigger.

So when you take out the people who are un prepared: Adam, May and John Ilett are still finishing boats, much too big like Ben, maybe a touch big like Brownie, (John and Bora?), then those that are left are:

John Harris: Going well in good winds but despite having all the right components seemed to go poorly in the light at easter.
Bora: Only sailed one moth regatta, and did well but from reports was not quite laid back enough for the big one, looks good on video tacking reach to reach but thats not really racing. But Scott picked his as #1?
AMAC: Has had a year getting over the intense 3 years of developing, designing and producing Bladerider. He has been sailing a bit but I doubt he will have the inovation this time without the full time involvement. He will be relieved from being chief BR repairman I hope which might improve the preparation of his own boat. He is a self driven sailor who deserved a WC win after plenty of minor places over decades.
Simon: Full time program, right boat, right weight, local practice, prevous champ, but I just feel he might get beeten at the post by the fly weights.
Scott: Similar to Simon without the full time moth program, but a lot of other sailing to fill the gaps. He is younger than Simon and maybe a touch lighter so I give him an edge.
Vials: Seems to be the find in UK this year. Pusuit race winds do not count, but he did very well last year at Garda on a boat which was self destructing, and I got the idea somewhere that he is small and good in the light.
Matt: Got everything right and has proven at the Aust nationals and at NSW champs over easter that he is very fast in the light. He is the first to foil and goes a long way with each gust. He was world #1 ranked 470 skipper last year and that means he can handle a big regatta pretty well (even if he lost his way round the pq moth course twice at easter, which probably cost him the regatta.) And he is Australian!

What else might affect things?
Sails? I suspect that the light winds might show up some equal or even better than the longstanding #1 KAs. I observed at easter that the front of the fleet included much more variety than has been normal. Scott has a Truflo while the rest seem to be all KA, maybe that will have an impact.

So my pick, Matt, and the rest in back order as above.

Addition to the family

2008-05-15T08:20:00.002+10:00

Well no sailing for a while but there has been an increase in the Moth population at the Stevo household.
Andrew has bought Roger Quinn's Mk2 Prowler, AUS 9332 which has never worn foils but comes in pretty good condition with everythhing else to normal Fastacraft standard and minimum weight. His winter project now is to build some foils and put together the linkages. It will be yet another boat for the expanding foiler fleet at St George SC next season.
Andrew sold AUS9323 Shenanigans three years ago and has spent that time skippering Brad Greenrod's 12ft skiff, Datacall.

2008-04-29T14:23:00.002+10:00

No sailing last weekend because I did some damage with a chisel in the workshop. On the mend now. Story of last St George race for the season is on Grant's Blog: http://grantweymouth.blogspot.com/

Some wind, but less water.

2008-04-21T15:51:00.002+10:00

Low tide and big winds at St George for Saturday.

The wind was good enough to make for challenging sailing and some fast rides. Unfortunately it also broke the primary strop for the vang leaving a longer secondary one which meant I could not pull on the vang fully for most of the race. This meant my upwind speed was off pace but did not affect the rides downwind.

I had two fast swims going over the falls when reacting slowly to over height at speed, but the biggest crash was from running aground at speed when sailing quite high. The low tide fooled me. That part of the river is normally deepe enough even for low riding.

At least it proved my new T joint is up to standard, no dammage, but the mounting pin for the CB was so bent it took quite an effort to extract it later when coming ashore.

A couple of reaching legs were at minimal control and scarey speeds, especially in close company with Grant and some of teh skiff fleet on reciprical course gojng upwind. Dave lapped us as usual but I had the normal close race with Grant which considering the vang position is encouraging. Finished 3rd but beat the other four young guys who DNFed.

Last race of the season next Friday. Might have to resurect the canoe for winter as the water is gettng chilly.

St George sat 12th April

2008-04-14T07:57:00.002+10:00

Another light day. Although I made more adjustments to the wand linkage, I did not get foiling at all. It tried a couple of times but mosly I disconnected the wand and sailed it in low drag mode.

After a tangle with some bigger boats in the mass start I got away from the other moths and close to the leading skiffs until we turned at the moth windward mark. From there on it got lonely, I had a big lead on Grant until he started to just foil. He gained a bit then I engaged the wand and did one work, with hopes of flying, but in reality sailing low with high drag from the wand and down flap. He gained enough to cross once. Then on the downwing leg I reverted to low drag and sailed square, while Grant reached off trying to fly. I gained heaps and in the end he gave up and joined the others and went home. I did too after a couple of legs as there was no point drifting around by myself.

OK I know my boat goes well in the light but it would be nice to have someone to race against, they might even learn how to do it as well if they spent some time practicing. It is disturbing to me that the new generation of moth sailors do not want to go sailing unless they can foil. Two or three did not bother to rig and several others did not even show at the club.

They will miss a lot of sailing at the ends of the season, and as seen at easter will have poor results at significant regattas if the weather turns light.

I commented that the 5kts winds used to be really competitive in prefoiling days, there were a lot of fast boats nd it was close at the top.

It would be bad for the class to only sail when there was enough wind to foil. I like the moth to be an all weather boat like it always was.

Maybe the designers need to look at more design allowance for light winds and not solely for foiling. Mostly we need to maintain an attitude that we race as soon as the committee can set a course, just like all other dinghy classes.

2008-04-07T11:31:00.002+10:00

Back to club racing and back to reality. A moderate 10 kt wind meant I was again well behind the fast foiling boats. I managed to stay in touch up wind but as soon as we go downhill I am so slow. I made some adjustments to the flap to get more down movement but did not have the wand mechanism working well enough.

But afterwards Dave sided up and offered me a ride on his boat. I did not hesitate, I had never had a go on one of the well sorted fast boats and wanted to find just how different they are.

It would be an understatement to say I was more impressed with his boat than he was with mine. I found his ride height so dominant with no body movements needed and when going quite a bumpy ride as the wand very powerfully controls the flap. By contrast Dave wondered if my wand was even connected!

But the speed was daunting, reaching it accellerated easilly and brings the apparent way forward so hiking and sheeting just make stil faster, requireing a strong bear away to keep the sail full. Fast and Low! I certainly have a lot of work to do. At least the rigs look similar.

Just a brief sail ina fading breaze, but well worth it. Adjustments next week.

Weekend off

2008-03-30T14:58:00.001+10:00

No sailing this week. I took my dad model flying instead.
Also since they a say you are only as good as your last race, I thought I would have one more week of glory.

2008 NSW Championship

2008-03-25T08:06:00.002+10:00

You can read a more unbiased account elswhere but here you can read what I was doing.

Results were somewhat better than expected (understatement):
Friday: 3 (Inv), 7, Saturday: 14, 13, 1, 1, Sunday: 3, 3, 1.
= 3rd overall and first master (over 40)
Results are here

Friday was drizzle 20kts and big waves reminisent of Black Rock 2005. There was some damage to a few boats and some retirements, even some good boats who did not get wet at all.

My Tiger was foilng quite well upwind and I sailed conservatively downwind with only one swim in each race. Getting past the big rollers was a challenge, I remembered Rohan's advise from 2005 about following the crests and only bearing away when there was flat water ahead. I spent a lot of time slowing the boat down rather than going over a cliff into oblivion. My back ended up sore form the repeated body movements needed to trim the boat bow up and bow down.

3rd in the inv race just behind Matt Belcher was encouraging. He was faster but had many swims both upwind and down. Scott was a leg ahead aparently comfortable in the conditions. Les Thorpe and Dave Lister both broke gantries, three scows lost masts.

For Heat one a few more hot boats ventured out, I sailed a similar race and gained a 7th, well back but a good number to start the regatta. Prowler Zeros were 1, 2, 3 and a long way in front of me.

That evening at the RSL there was a lot of talk about downwind sailing in big waves. One idea canvassed was to heal the boat and pull away hard as you crest the wave, this drives the bow down and prevents an over the falls breakout (you have to have done it to understand what that means, but it usually means the foils find air, the bow finds deep water, your shoulder finds the shroud, and you go looking for the centreboard to climb back on to). The bear away is followed by a strong luff up which raises the bow (if the boat is still healed) so it rides over the next crest.

I practiced this on Saturday morning, whenthe wind had moderated slightly, but the waves seemed the same. It is certainly faster to be passing waves downwind that waiting for a flat patch to go ahead. When I got it right I also gained lots of ground to leward and was at times able to gain on some boats which I would have expected to be losing out to.

But the wind gradually lightened, and combined with the fleet filling out further with over night replacements, and repairs to boats and egos, my places dropped to about where my seedingd from last week predicted, 14th and 13th, generally losing several places on the last downwind.

My observations of the boat and foils were that the wand was working very well in flexing the top skin hing upward, so my ride height was well controlled and I had few over height problems, (upwind the ride was quite bumpy as the wand bounced over the waves and the flap responded quickly) but also that the wand and bungee were not good at pushing in down flap when the boat was too low, requireing a lot of work on my part to roll body weight aft and trim for speed to maintain ride height. This was OK when it was windy enough but as the breeze slackened to maybe only 12 kts iwas sailing wider angles than most people just to stay up, and consequently losing places. So I have to improve the hing or linkages to get more down flap.

Back to the regatta:
Saturday afternoon the wind died to about 5kts, still steady from the south but the waves vanished. Prestart the boat felt great.

I trimmed a little bow down in the rudder foil to help trim the boat without sitting a long way forward. This also presents the two foils at a couple degrees +ve incidence which is here min drag is for these cambered foil sections. Its important not to move too far forward and trim the boat bow down as this brings the foils into a high drag area.

The P&B sail looked good with a little cunningham and virtually no vang. The lower luff curve reduction for the stiff mast seemed to make achieving a suitable shape for light winds much easier. I suspect the KA sails were needing so much load on the mast to flatten, that the stresses in the sails were preventing freeing of the leach. If the sail is too full it can not be squared out downwind enough in the light either.

So Heat 4 ended up a one lapper with a close battle between Matt and I. He understood the top mark and his two extra tacks were about the difference at the end. Ht 5 was similar except he lead all of the way, and even opened up a bit with a short foiling burst downwind on lap one. Then he forgot the middle mark of the second lap and slipped back allowing 4 boat through.
2 guns. People wanted to look at my foils, some thought I had changed to centre board and rudder, not true.

Sunday, light again. I would have been happy to go, but in fairness, the wind was very light, switching and there were glassy patches. A lot of people did not even rig. The RC decided he could not set a course accurately enough and deferred for 3 hrs. Matt commented that it looked like better conditions than it will be at the Olympics.

By 2pm there was a light SE and a course was set. When we started the wind went lighter and tried to switch left. Matt rounded first, I was about 5th at the top. It faded downwind and the race was shortened, I slipped past two for a 3.

Ht 7. The wind went to NE and settled at about 5 still not quite enough for the fly weights to foil. I got covered a bit after the start and did not round well. Matts Belcher and Day plus Scott lead out and occasionally foiled. Alan G foiled past me at one point. Then on the secon lap Matt B had a relapse and forgot the middle mark again, Matt D followed him and I was back in the game. Ran past Alan to the finish and 3.

Last race was a match race most of the way with young Sam McKnight sailing what wouuld have been the ideal boat for the conditions, a Hungry Tiger without hydrofoils. He had speed but I managed to get around the first lap ahead and he stayed below me up the last time when he should have tacked for clear air. In theend he clipped a mark and his circle left me with a goodlead. He still finished 2nd.

I think the places of Les, Sam and myself show that the Hungry Tiger is still a top performer in sub foiling conditions. Also my sail and the new Truflos (used by Scott, Les, Sam and Ben Crocker) seem to have closed the gap on the KA dominance of the last several years. Maybe the slightly smaller luff curves make them better in the light.

I also think that my new foil with no hinge gap on top and minimal on the bottom must have helped. Maybe my foil mold also has a lower camber section which would be less drag in the light also.

A good weekend, Lovely place to sail and very well run by JBSC and Steve Lymbery.

St George race Sat 15/3/08 and States Preview.

2008-03-17T13:37:00.005+10:00

At last everything worked and remained intact. A very nice day, wind, temperature and no repairs. The boat was flying easily and with full control. No bunny hops, no crashes, no swims. Smile.

Not fast enough yet especially downwind so I ended up behind Dave and Grant with Clive nearby after going back to round a mark the right way. They seem to get up a bit quicker and also ride at a more consistant height. But I think I can improve that.

My boat seems to have the max height control functioning, the wand is pulling up the flap when needed and in fact the ride over small chop feels decidedly bumpy as the wand moves the flap up and down with ease. So the top skin hinge and the linkage are working and friction is under control.

But I still have some issues when down low. I think my flap is not going down far enough or easilly enough to provide the extra lift needed at take off and when the hull gets slightly too low. I do not think its in the linkage, but rather that my gap sealing carbon flap is too stiff and is resisting the flap down movement. Its due for a trim tonight.

Then I have to do a thorough check of the whole boat before we are off to Jervis bay on Thursday for the three day NSW championships. 8 races. My body will need some recuperation after that, its too late for remedial maintence on me.

WRT the Moth champs we have 17 entries so far with about another 10 expected when we get there. All foiling except for 5 scows, including inerstate visitors. The weather looks like cooling off a bit but will be over 20 C so nothing to worry about. Winds look line starting out moderate and dying off, followed by a sea breeze. Typical easter on our coats as is the forecast rain on at least one day.

Should be a good weekend sailing in paradise. Looking at the expected turn up I seed myself between 10th and 15th, my normal top half target, I'll verify or have excuses next week.

St George club race on 8/3/08

2008-03-10T10:52:00.002+10:00

I finally finished the new foil with the flexing top skin hinge and bottom gap seal flap. There was a nice 10 knot breeze with a little more sometimes and a little less near the windward shore.

The boat seemed to go well. It felt fast and high upwind and smooth downwind. The wand was not quite right and the flap was not going down enough, but at times I was pacing the fast boats only to lose heaps with my poor technique in gybing. I still can not move fast and smooth enough to stay airborne long enough round the corners.

It was certainly flying earlier and easier and in the light patches was also fast enough down low to lead at the first mark.

The bad news is that the foil detatched itself again, but at least Dave found it and with very litle damage and better security, it will be going again next week.

St George Interclub on 1/3/08

2008-03-03T07:30:00.002+10:00

We had 9 moths on the beach and a good onshore southerly of 20+kts.
Date Time Dir Knt Gust
01/04:30pm S 19 28
01/04:00pm S 20 27
01/03:30pm S 19 28
01/02:57pm S 19 30
01/02:37pm S 18 28
01/02:30pm S 17 23
(from BOM for Kurnell)
Like we get every time the NSW moth interclub comes to St George, but at least this time the sailng committee were going to run the race.
Launching was difficult, a long wade out to assemmble the boat then another one after it drifted half way back again to the deep water, all in the waves and wind.
Doink broke his wand in the process and big Bruce did not make it out at all.
Then Luka had a big crash and destroyed his 2 year old Prowler centreboard and foil. Bad time with two weeks to the states.
Donosan was having great difficulty keeping his new Zero on the water and opted to bail out and change a few things.
So at the start was Dave, Peter, Alan, Grant and me. I had some hairy rides with very little height control so I figured something was disconnected and wound the tiller to keep the bow down and the boat in the water.
Dave got away well but at he first marke Grant, Pete and I were close together, then surprisingly I was still with Pete at the lee mark while grant headed off in another direction and got lost.
There was a lot of swimming. I saw Dave in at one time and Pete was having a few more than me, so we stayed in touch. Dave broke something and went home, Alan struggled and departed, leaving only Pete and me still racing, and since we were quite close it became a real race.
I figured I was less than a swim behind him so was determined to stay upright and rely on him having a dip. But for the last two laps we had only one each and although I got inside him on the last windward he was faster to the line and won by 50 seconds.
I was pleased that the sail mast combo worked well. The slight luff curve adjustment to the P&B have matched the old stiff Thorpe mast to a T and I am now happy with both light and heavy shape and control. The low drag head certainly makes tacking easier in the blow in comparison to my old sail.
Sailing low in those conditions was only a little slower than flying and the stability from the big foils make it much easier than the prefoil days. It meant I enjoyed the race and made the finish so it can not be all bad. I can see some advantage now in being able to disconnect the flap and wand in extreme conditions as well as in the very light. I have some ideas for a simple method to achieve that so stay tuned.

2008-02-28T21:21:00.002+10:00

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.

2008-02-28T09:57:00.002+10:00

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.

2008-02-18T07:25:00.002+10:00

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.

2008-02-15T10:24:00.003+10:00

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"

2008-02-14T09:09:00.003+10:00

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

2008-02-03T09:58:00.001+10:00

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.

2008-01-29T12:38:00.000+10:00

I am back to my moth sailing again after a pleasant but not greatly successful Canoe regatta and a short break from sailing altogether.

Saturday was the club's round the bay race for Australia Day. 10 foilers and a really nice sunny day with a moderate 10kt easterly, normally just enough for me to foil with advantage but lack of time in, and on maintenance of, the boat certainly showed and I struggled into last place.

I had re attached the main foil to the fin last week and done a nice new paint job, but I got the pushrod length wrong and to start with was not getting enough UP flap, and that leads to frequent launches and crashes. One of these must have pulled the pushrod out of the flap connection because after a while I was struggling to fly at all, except by moving my weight way aft in the strongest puffs, which usualy got it going. A quick rush forward while trying to hike got it level and I could sometimes keep it going for a few hundred metres.

I got upwind in front of one boat but once we turned Clive foiled past me and away as I sailed way too high trying to take off with no flap control. At least a bit more wind came through and I managed a few semicontrolled rides to get home, managing to split one wing tranpoline on the way.

So a big list of things to do to the boat this week and a planned early trip to the club next Saturday to set everything up properly and catch up with some other maintenance. Then a lot of practice tomake up for lost time.

2007-12-10T07:51:00.000+10:00

There is a continuing debate on Sailing Anarchy with the Phoil Phanatic Doug Lord about foils, wands, and flying. I recently posted this list of things we did in camp Stevo while trying to make moths foil:

"Here is a list of at least some of the experimental foil setups Andrew and I tried up to about 2005:
* Bow rudder and foil plus main foil, no wand,
* Manual incidence control of bow foil.
* Bow and stern ruders with centreboard, foils on bow and board.
* Bow and stern rudders with foils and no centreboard at all.
* Foils on CB and rudder, no flap no wand,
* Foils on CB and rudder, trailing edge wand on both,main foil with dihedral to induce righting moment with leeway.
* Manual adjustment of main foil incidence,
* High rate manual rudder flap adj, via tiller ext for reaction to waves.

We were the only people in the Sydney Moth scene trying anything at this time. There was not a lot of sucess from these experiments and only a few ideas are worth saving for the future.

We then went to the Melb Moth 2005 WC and saw how well the Ilett system worked, talked to John who was very generous and helpfull, and came home and started doing it his way.

With the exception of Andrew's tilt rudder system adopted by the Bladerider all of our subsequent work on moths has been in learning how to make the foils as strong and as light as the professionals.

We have tried and will develop some more ideas to try WRT to general moth layout but for now we are content to make only subtle development changes to the foil system. "

2007-12-02T07:40:00.000+10:00

The new main foil has been sailed with sucess. It seems to take off earlier than the old one and it weigh about half as much. It floats nicely, certainly in the ball park with the factory jobs.

The race was 3/4 drift with the last lap getting enough wind to fly. I was with Dave when the wind came in and seemed to get out of the water as easilly as he did. But he has heaps more speed and sailed away to win. Then Grant caught me too.

Some rig develoment to do when I get back from the Canoe WC, but I am looking forward to trying to get the moth up to speed. It should be a lot easier than it used to be with 10 boats and a lot more knowledge amongst the sailors who are all willing to share.

This is the new foil with the No-Gap hinge. It seems to make a difference.

Now it has proven to work I can paint it nice and shiney.

2007-11-25T09:55:00.000+10:00

The Moth fleet at St George continues to grow. There have been new boats in each of the last three weeks and there are a couple more coming before Christmas. We will start 2008 with 10 quality foilers plus a few low riders and even some scows.

I have some catching up to do. While I have been sailing the Canoe in preparation for the IC worlds, the younsters have been practicing hard.

I have almost completed thenew main foil and might give it a try next Saturday. Its club Champsionship, high tide and hopefully a good foiling breeze.

I need to spend some serious time on my moth sailing, some equipment updates and tuning. There is really no reason the old Tiger can not be as good as the newer boats.

2007-11-06T18:01:00.001+10:00

The smooth foils were an improvement but the young guys who sail every week are now well ahead. I will get more serious about some moth practice once the Canoe Worlds are over.

2007-10-28T19:22:00.000+10:00

Some progress at last. I have molded a new main foil and centreboard. Different technique to last time and considerablly lighter, at 2kg. Will have to see if it is as strong as earlier versions.

Meanwhile had a sail of tiger last week and determined my sailboard mast was not stiff enough. I had some more bits of tube so have made up a stiffer one for next time.

On the good side the new AMAC 10% style mods to the wand and flap linkage has made the boat much more easy to sail. No crashes, no launching and easier take offs. The boat feels safer now to drive it hard without fear of launching at high speed. The old foils are home this week for a spay job, smooth is fast.

2007-09-19T11:04:00.000+10:00

Andrew and I had a sail of Tiger the weekend before last. Marginal conditions but we figured recent trimming of foil and wand angles need further adjustment. Foil is back at home this week for some minor padding so we can maintain the necessary angle of attack.

Off on Holidays soon, so the workshop will get a clean out ready for some foil making. Need to start out getting our verticals down to weight and up to stiffness. Then some experiments with different ideas for horizontals. Have invested in some much needed vacuum gear.

All in preparation for the 2008 Chainsaw replacement:

2007-09-03T22:32:00.000+10:00

Chainsaw is gone. Eric has it in the Balmoral shed.

It now time to get back to the shed and the foil mold and do some improvements as both Andrew and I plan to make some new moths in the next 12 months and some development work is needed.
I have bought a vacuum pump so at least we should be able to shed some weight from the laminates. We also have some new ideas for manufacture and design to try out so now with the workshop warming up expect some new Stevo creations to emerge.

2007-08-26T21:36:00.000+10:00

Some moth activity this weekend even if I did not get sailing.

Eric has committed to buying Chainsaw. He had a test sail late last season but has had a busy winter, he finally decided he needed a moth for the summer. He will sail out of Balmoral in Sydney.

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon with Tiger on a Chain checking foil angles and wand settings. Luka was there to assist with knowledge gained from Garda and helped me make a few adjustments which should improve take off and height control.

We improved the fit in the case and restored the angle of attack back to a few degrees positive. I also found some slipage in the wand pushrod and reglued one loose joint. This will mean the wand flap response will be much more positive and more reliable.

Looking forward to a sail of the boat on the weekend after next, as next week will be the last weekend away from sailing for the next 8 months, and a rare chance to do something different away from the water.

TOC AUS 9343

2007-08-21T09:49:00.000+10:00

The Tiger is of course a more dignified lady.
It eventuated that I had been buying various Thorpe moth components for my various boats, over the years that Mark dominated the (at least) Sydney moth scene. After a frustrating 04/05 season I shouted myself the biggest part of the Hungry Tiger, a new Hull, which pretty well completed the whole set.
It was probably a year or two too late as the foilers were already dominant, but it was something a moth fanatic had to do. Sailing the Tiger with conventional fin and rudder, and doing it reasonably well in moderate to strong winds, will remain one of my most rewarding and proudest sailing achievements. Racing other moths and bigger boats around the course at amazing speeds and on the edge of control was fantastic.
But I knew that era was over so Mark built the hull with the extra hard points needed for foil, wand and gantry. This was built concurrently to RTFM/Revelations #9344 so it can be argued that either boat is the last Hungry Tiger built.
The spars are genuine Thorpe and the wings were the Prepreg tubes made with Snubby for Chainsaw. All nice and light.
The foils were made as wet layup in a new mold as Fastacraft clones. Andrew had designed the tilting rudder box now employed by Bladerider so TOC was the second boat to employ it after his #9323. I initially used a big 900mm span rudder foil in an effort to lift my 85kg but this year I bought some BR prototypes and used one on each boat. A box Gantry was fitted earlier so now the configuration is almost standard.
My 5 year old Truflo sail is getting tired and is too full for fast foiling so late last season I bought a P&B sail from John Ilett. It is a reasonable KA clone but since it has the fashionable huge luff round the old faithful STIFF Thorpe mast does not work. I tried it but the sail just would not flatten. So now I have recylced a sailboard mast which more closely matches the requied bend and stiffness.
Now to learn a few lesons about foil angle of attack and wand settings from the Garda experience of others and the boat should be up and flying again for the new season.

Unless someone decides to buy it of course.

More on Chainsaw

2007-08-21T08:51:00.000+10:00

Some history:

Chainsaw has had a few lives.

The first version was a ply hull with balsa/carbon laminate chines which I sailes at the 03 Milang nationals with alloy wings and again at the penultimate 04 Cootharabah nationals with carbon wings. At that regatta the laminate chines split from the transom and the hull was roughly patched up to compete on the last day.

After the regatta it was used as an experimental base for some early hydrdofoil experiments, including a bow rudder, trailing edge wands, flap less main foils, dihedral and a few others I forget to save embarrasment.

That first hull was written off at the end of that season cut up and dumped, and in the winter of 04 I built the second Chainsaw hull which became the basis of the 04 version of my moth.asn.au biuld a ply moth series articles. This is the best hull shape of the series, most like a modern Hungry Tiger/Prowler/Bladerider shape.

But based on the earlier foil experiments I put the mast and wings much further forward in an effort to separate the foils without going to a gantry. It also had low freeboard, flatter wings and an elevated trampoline in an effort to reduce wndage. Foil development however progressed very little, with carved timber foils and poor upwind performance coupled with poor downwind height control. Not huge sucess as a foiler. This is the boat I sailed baddly and slow at the 05 Black Rock worlds.

The season ended with me sailing the boat with conventional centreboard and rudder, winning a heat of the NSW chaps in light winds and giving some confidence in the hull shape.

The boat was stripped down and left without decks for a year to dry out, while I sailed my new (Hungry) Tiger on a Chain which reused the carbon wings, plus Thorpe mast and boom.

Chainsaw was resurrected in the winter of 06 while I was concurrently building my new Development IC. Both have unstayed masts and so mast and sail development exchanged ideas between the boats.

The 06 Chainsaw involved stripping out the hull, relocating the fincase and installing the new tube mast step a bit further aft. It has struts to elevate the alloy wings which are further aft and cantelevered out of some glass tubes bonded to the struts. The lot is a relatively cheap experiment in configuration and structure, but is remarkably stiff and strong, and surprisingly light. Mytermis minimised. I simply eliminatd as many moth components as I could.

06 Chainsaw benefits from the foil mold I built after the 05 Worlds with generous advice from John Ilett. Both TOC and Chainsaw have home made copies of John's early model foils and this has at least assured reliable if not competitive foiling. At least we stopped breaking things and losing them in the bay.

So Chainsaw now is a viable foiling moth which is availabel at a reasonable price because not very much of it actually cost me very much, mostly being left over bits from other boats.

It has encouraged me sufficiently to build furter on the theme and I will be building a new improved, lighter, simpler, faster and even more minimalised version when I have the shed space available.

2007-08-07T15:48:00.000+10:00

This a pic of my other moth.
A collection of components arranged in a somewhat different configuration than what has become moth normal.
All who have sailed Chainsaw think it is a good idea and well worth pursuing in my next moth.
Consequently I am selling off both Chainsaw and Tiger on a Chain so I can get stuck into a new lightweight and maybe even more radical version of this experiment.
Ads for both boats are on the Aust website For Sale page.

Just Starting

2007-08-07T15:25:00.000+10:00

Since everyone is doing it I thought I would have a go too.
This BLOG will report on my Moth activities and ideas.
I like to think I can help the moth class continue to be the hive of inovation and development it has been for over 75 years.