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.