scott.projectsomewhere

The change to high-modulus carbon rigs in the 18 fleet seems to be causing a few headaches for the Fiat guys who are leading the charge…

Although they’ve got the tuning sorted and the boat is winning races, peeling the gooseneck off the rig and having cracks appearing at the D1s in not a good sign after only a couple of weeks on the water. But I’m sure they’ll be able to fix it given the amount of carbon fibre resources they have behind them.

The silver-spooners should be putting their new rig in the boat soon, but apparently without the aggressive head profile that Fiat has gone for. With too many spies watching the harbour, their sessions have resorted to having to traipse through 200m of mud in a Palm Beach low-tide to sneak a tuning run away from prying eyes.

At 180kgs of boat, if nothing it would be a good workout for the quads.

Meanwhile, the only socialist small business owner in the country has been busy dreaming up some wacky ideas to combat the seemingly bottomless R&D budgets… and you thought jib-booms were weird!

Could the foiling Moth be regaining the popularity it had in the 70s?

Somehow I doubt it. But even so, I’m constantly surprised by the names of new Moth owners I see popping up all over the shop.

Chris Nicholson, James Spithill and Matt Belcher in Australia, Charlie McKee, Zack Maxam and plenty more in the US. The Bladerider publicity machine is pulling in new Mothists like never before, and it seems that the Moth is fast becoming the plaything of the cashed-up rock-star sailor.

That’s not to mention the amount of interest in the 18 boatpark week after week - a morning demo there would definitely pull a crowd.

With so many new faces, and so good sailors putting in so much time on the water, there’s sure to be a shakeup in the pointy end of the fleet…. eventually. It’s got to be a matter of when, not if, the early-adopter advantage wears off.

… about time to get my new boat on the water I think… before I’m consigned to one-hit-wonder status.

That’s if they all end up joining the Moth class of course… but that’s another issue.

At least the downhills are where we need to put in our practice after this week’s 18 footer race…

We started well on the Rag, on time and on the line thanks to the start-line proximity gadgetry in the Velocitek SC1. Unfortunately Woody wanted to waste a bit of time heading left when the tide said go right, and Cocko and the Fiat guys got the 30 seconds they needed to take the lead… which they never relinquished.

We plugged away, getting smacked around with F&P tacking on top of us a couple of times at the top mark, but rounded comfortably 3rd. A double-gybe courtesy of the the sponsor boat put us in 4th by the wing mark.

The next upwind was more of the same, plugging away, snakes and ladders, etc etc.

But downwind again was a disaster, with the breeze bringing down the following pack, and swallowing us, along with the couple of boats ahead.

We picked off F&P and Asko on the next work, only to have Asko take the inside running downwind and, with a double-gybe on the line courtesy of spectator boats, we lost them by a metre or so. 5th to go along with last week’s 7th. Not appalling, but not spectacular.

Bugger.

So plenty of work to do yet… especially seeing as the 18 fleet seems to get tighter and tighter as the years roll on.

Another great post by Andy Rice on the IOC’s elegantly titled “REVIEW OF THE OLYMPIC PROGRAMME AND THE RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE PROGRAMME OF THE GAMES OF THE XXIX OLYMPIAD, BEIJING 2008”

And the money quote… “Weight category events should not be allowed, except for the combat sports and for weightlifting.”

I guess now the only justification for the Men’s Heavyweight Dinghy event is the hull weight of the boat - since sailor weight would be against the wishes of the IOC and all.

Maybe the Bladerider could just add 130kg of lead to the hull and throw it in as an entry. Ummm… maybe.

Now I’m not trying to have a go at all the great, incredibly talented Olympic sailors here. They’re good blokes, doing something they’re passionate about. Good on them. But anyway… here goes…

Commiserations to all those Tornado sailors and high-performance girls who have been jilted by the recent ISAF Olympic event selection.

They must feel pretty ripped off.

But it should represent a pretty good opportunity for the Ts to free themselves of the sheltered-workshop of Olympic class yachting. Just think, no need to go to Medemblik or Kiel. Why not try the Hobie route of major events in Tahiti, Fiji, Guadeloupe or even Garda? Sounds nice to me.

No need to pervert the class administration towards bullsh!t politics either.

Maybe local (or indeed National) fleets could be re-established, after the one-or-two Federation funded teams go back to regular jobs like everyone else and the playing field levels (somewhat). Perhaps there would be no need to join the exponentially increasing cost of the traveling circus that is the ‘circuit’ in order to be reasonably competitive.

Maybe.

Oh well, even with this absurd decision, Olympic sailing’s saving grace after the inevitable Qingdao debacle will be the passionate support of the English (since they only seem to win medals at sailing). After that, who would want to pay for the horrendously expensive and media-invisible event?

It makes me think… after another glamour week of racing on Sydney Harbour… that quote comes to mind “If a tree falls down in the woods and no one is around to hear it- does it make a sound?” and it’s butchered derivative… if Olympic sailing gets turfed but nobody sails the boats anyway, does anyone really care?

Maybe, with sailing out altogether, the National federations and their constituent clubs and classes could then focus on growing sailing participation at the grass-roots, rather than the current focus on the top %1.

Maybe all the awesome sailors currently living the dream would wake up and want to sail interesting, fast and challenging classes? Maybe.

With Olympic sailing voting itself into irrelevance… anything is possible…

The 18 Footers race rate a mention in The Daily Telegraph today.

Nice work. Nice photos.

Now that just needs to be done every weekend…