scott.projectsomewhere

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.

The Moth has provided a nice diversion to the usual weekend 18′ skiff racing over summer. But the 18′ scene doesn’t stand still when the boats aren’t racing. There’s been plenty of jockeying for position with crews, new boats and boat allocations in the last few weeks.

Rumour has it that the Rag team will be the only one of the top 5 or so to stay together for season ‘08. It’s pretty surprising to go from the new combination last year, to the relatively old hands next time around. Big changes are afoot for Asko, Fiat & Smeg - all losing their skippers. With Macquarie and others losing long-standing crews…

At least it will give the new teams from last year a chance to step up and give the former top boats a run.

And contrary to the chicken little’s on sailinganarchy, the sky isn’t falling and the 18s aren’t going to disappear. But thanks for the concern.