scott.projectsomewhere

There’s a few interesting bits and pieces floating around on the
web this week…

Moth UK has published a
short review of the new Prowler
Mk4. From Rohan’s
reports it seems to be very quick and easy to sail. Putting
plenty of time into the 49er fleet at the recent Go For Gold
regatta in the right conditions seems to have proved that. Victor
also took some good
photos of the boat in action.

Then SailingAnarchy
have posted a
photo of a new boat being trialled in San Fran. Looks very much
like a Moth - just not as good. It might be set up to handle the
chop on SF Bay a little better than a foiler… maybe… but given
the low freeboard at the bow it’s going to be painful downhill all
the same.

There looks to be just enough interest to scrape a foiling Moth
fleet together for the SIRS regatta on the Harbour later in
December. What a flying circus that will be.

And another thing… I’m thinking of putting together a 2006 Moth
calendar. If anyone has great Moth sailing photos - no monofilm cjs
please - send them through. If anyone is interested in getting one
tell me. If there’s no interest - great - more photos of me?

I’ve also got a ride as main trimmer on Atomic in the Canon Big Boat
race. It’ll be interesting to see the two super maxis Alfa
Romeo and Wild Oats go head to head for the first time.

Luckily I’ve been able to get leave to do that race, as well as
SIRS, Moth Nationals, 49er Nationals and the JJ Giltinan 18′
Worlds. If I had’ve known it would be that easy I might’ve asked
for the 29er Nationals and Sail Melbourne as well… or maybe
not.

And despite running aground on Friday, the centreboard on the 18
held up during our training session last night.

And… in other news… Ronstan has started a competition to
name
Rohan’s new Moth campaign. Win some Ronstan gear by suggesting
something along the lines of “Ronstan ………. Moth”. Or win
nothing by sending me suggestions that Ronstan won’t be
using.

Update #1: A
few photos of Rohan’s new signwritten boat on flickr.

Back in the early days I posted about the new
toy of the moment - my Powerbook.

Well after ebaying it yesterday, I’m putting in an order for an
upgrade… yay.

Racing at the 18 footer league was cancelled on Sunday with winds
gusting over 35 knots on the Harbour. The strong winds however
didn’t stop the fleet from rigging in the pouring rain, only to
stand around past the 2.30 start time - then de-rig again.

At least the gear got a wash in fresh water for once.

No mothing on Saturday either with family committments in
Newy…

But at least I got a sailing fix on Friday night, with the final 18
footer twilight races. We were running 5th in the series, but
nailed the first race (despite running into Bradley’s Head) to
close the lead on F&P. The last race started after the sun went
down in sub 5 knot conditions, and we had a shocker. Instead of
holding in with the fleet to take 2nd place overall, we went the
other way and came 2nd last… to finish 3rd in the series.

Other news has it that Rohan has been winning as
usual in Melbourne, Luka,
Phil and Steve have been having fun with their new foils at St
George, and Pete has launched his foiler at Balmoral. Interesting
to hear Steve delaminated his centre-case, Pete kicked and broke
his control rod pivot, and Luka went close to breaking his wing
bars. Fun fun. I’m looking forward to the Interclub event at St
George next week - with 5 foilers to race against for the first
time!

I’ve also printed the stack of photos taken during the SMH photo shoot with Jon Reid. There’s a flickr gallery sitting
waiting to be published as soon as we get the go-ahead.

It wasn’t long after my vague previous post
went up that I started fielding calls and emails.

I’ve been told my comments were ill-informed. So if there’s a
clarification to be made, so be it. From what I’ve seen the facts
as stated stand up. If I’m wrong, I am more than happy to make a
correction and an apology.

I’m sure there are valid reasons for this particular situation. I
could only speculate on what they are.

I wouldn’t be particularly happy if I was in the situation
described, thankfully I’m not. However it has happened to many in
the Moth class in the past and will continue to happen in future.
Such is life.

But if I was on the receiving end, I wouldn’t hesitate to spew
well-deserved vitriolic criticism on the offenders via my blog…
to all 3 of my readers…

How would you feel if you paid $4k and waited for a year for a set
of hydrofoils, only to get a set that had already been superceded
by the next generation foils… which came out the week before you
received yours?

More to come…

I knew saying anything about 18 footers was a bad idea when I was
IM-ing quotes away for yesterday’s newspaper
article.

The latest off-the-cuff comment from the blokes running the league
was along the lines of… “you bad-mouth 18s again and we’ll take
your boat away…”

Sure it was said in jest… hopefully…