Olympic Moth?

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.