scott.projectsomewhere

Another interesting weekend of testing and tooling around on the Moth.

John and I took delivery of our new CST Composites High Modulus rigs on Saturday morning. We only had 1 set of cam spacers between us, and I had plenty of other boat work to complete, so John put his together. It was perfect to have one known configuration and one new setup to test the differences.

But in true Moth fashion, we decided to change a lot of other variables at the same time.

I’d replaced my twice-broken pushrods with 2.5mm stainless, and that had made my boat nauseatingly responsive. The added stiffness of the new pushrod and the new control cable meant that I was bouncing my way along. It was safe in big chop, but surely couldn’t be fast to be flapping away underwater. I’m still amazed with the performance changes that small modifications to the rate of change in the bell cranks has… let alone taking out flex in the rods.

John also put his new special, thin, foam-cored, hollow-backed centreboard in, but after a couple of hundred metres went in to change it for the old one. Another couple of laps around and another broken pushrod later, the new one was back on. The fitting tool (rubber mallet) would’ve been getting a workout.

So after all that, was the new mast faster?

Who knows.

John did manage to foil a bit longer in the marginal breeze, which hadn’t happened before. On Sunday morning with the same configuration he was a touch faster through the water but I still managed to win the majority of our 10 or more races.

So this week the masts go for bend testing… then more testing in two weeks time. Given how fast (like stupidly fast) Dave Lister is with his CST mast, there is definitely promise there.

Being on the water that early on a clear Autumn morning was definitely cold. Almost UK cold. My rudder decided it wanted to ventilate more often than normal, despite sort-of solving that problem a couple of weeks back. Luckily I could stay toasty and dry with my Zhik Superwarm gear. I think a beanie and some warm gloves are the go for the next few weeks.

What else can I spruik in this post?

New wands, bellcranks and wand fittings this week. More sails arriving soon. New shrouds in a fortnight. New wing floaties. New wing covers. The guys in my office are amazed with the amount of stuff that I comes through the post for me… and more than once I’ve received stuff that I’d forgotten I’d ordered. It’s almost like getting surprise christmas presents every day… except that I’ve paid for them.

I’m going to pass out when I work out what this little jaunt is costing, even though I’m not technically a privateer. F#$k me it’s beyond ridiculous.

But to top the weekend off I worked out how to pull off foiling tacks. Given the amount of blather about it on the interweb I thought I’d better try to get it working… and given that some think I’m one of the contenders for this regatta, I’d better know how to fack.

The boat that will revolutionize the 18′ skiff fleet and save the World has been launched in Switzerland.

Or at least it’s been test sailed (not exactly in foiling form).

And there’s even photos…

BYRA’s annual marathon around Lion Island is on this Sunday. Given the right forecast this event should be perfect for the latte-sipping, prius-driving, trophy-seeking Mothist.

If it’s more than a drifter, I’ll be there for the Le Man’s start at 12pm. But we won’t have a good forecast til the morning of.

Hopefully we do better against the assembled fleet of Northies, Spirals, 14s and other stuff than the guys in the UK did at the Glyn Charles race.

I couldn’t have asked for a better end to the weekend today. 25+ degrees. Sunny. Windy. Beautiful.

With John away, I spent the day blasting around the harbour with Alan and then Marty. At times it was a bit tough fighting our way through the chop whipped up by the 150 odd keel boats racing, but we managed.

A few tweaks here and there means my boat is now eating up the waves downwind as well. It’s amazing how tiny things make a massive difference. Who knows how fast it is, but at least it felt good.

Ahhh… now the long wait til next Saturday.

St George’s Anzac Day Race was an interesting affair… albeit all over pretty quickly. I had a long list of boat work to do before the start, so I got on the water early and did some testing. Then I came in, made some changes, and went back, then came in and swapped some gear…

But all that stuffing around meant I didn’t make the start. Oh well. I joined in on Dave’s last lap and didn’t manage to pass him around the track.

The rest of the fleet raced around the 4-lap track in close to 30 minutes. All done and dusted by early afternoon.

I stayed out and did some more testing and training. Plenty more still to do.

And today was no better - with a longer list of boatwork, by the time I was finished there was no wind left.

Not my weekend so far. Lucky there’s another day to go.

A web site has been setup by Phil to keep everyone up to date with the progress of the IMCA Australia bid for the 2011 Moth Worlds.

IMCA should vote on the proposal at the upcoming AGM in Weymouth in July.

I’m dreaming about the prospect already. Belmont is just incredible. Lake Macquarie is literally Moth heaven. Garda is beautiful, but Belmont will give a 100+ boat flying Moth fleet the most unbelievable conditions for racing.

I’ve wanted to take my boat up there to train for the last couple of months but now probably won’t make it pre-Weymouth, with time rapidly running out.

Here’s the club on google maps.