It's a Revolution

No I am not talking about Doug Lord.  Since I purchased my cameras many friends have asked what I was using and subsequently bought the same camera's.  George Peet has yet to produce something but here is the first footage from John Harper.  My dentist and the fastest dentist in the world.  If he would have shown me this before I went to Sydney I would have been very torn on whether or not to get on the jumbo and head south. 

To think I could be doing that versus this

DN Worlds will be somewhere relatively close to home a month after I get back from AUS moth nationals.  As Harper would say  "Think Ice!"

Pimping Moth Videos

Well somehow the wise U.A.E has been able to censor the voice of the moth world there.  But with a little collaboration they have not been able to silence him.  This is his first video after the critically acclaimed "Vlog" series and I do think he has made some dramatic improvements. :)

Enjoy unless you are epileptic.  I probably would not watch the video then 

"Play my Game"

by

Figjam

Oh yeah just in case you missed it here was my first edited video with the new cameras.

"A Day in the Harbor"

SIRs Report

Charlie McKee, [16 year-old] Hans Henken, and I traveled to Sydney for this event – it was the first chance for the US fleet to check in since the Weymouth World Champs.

Day 1: I ended up with way too good of a start in the first race – after 30 seconds I was a hundred yards ahead of the fleet, and the scariest boat in the harbor – the Manly Ferry – was inbound at 23 knots. Sydney Harbor gives right-of-way to these ferries, and their unwillingness to turn away from a sailboat is legendary. I got across his bow, and found three marks in the water that could have been a weather mark. I chose poorly, and took every boat in the fleet but Charlie and Scott Babbage with me – we all were DNF. Race 2 wasn't much better. Another good start, duking it out with Scott for the first three laps and putting some distance on him by the fourth. I lost count and sailed a fifth lap – this time only bringing four boats with me. Again Charlie got it right, crossed the finish line, and took the bullet. I went across in second – after sailing the extra lap!

So my realizations after day one: I might be color blind, and I have a hard time counting to four. In my defense, racing on Sydney Harbor in a Southerly is effectively like having a race course across a freeway. Between dodging 49ers, ferries, and tour boats that try to make you capsize, counting was pretty low on the priority list.

Day 2: Race 3 gave us a morning start in a dying Westerly. Charlie had a bad feeling about it, and he was right. They started a race and the ultra-lightweight mothies flew away with Scott, Hans, and Mathew Day finishing relatively fast in the fading breeze, the rest of is eating DNFs when the time limit expired. Race 4 added the Lasers, and the course was like a crowded market. The Southerly had fully come in by this point, the RC taking almost 2 hours to anchor in the stiff breeze. The Lasers had no idea of the issues skiffs and moths have moving around a mine field of them at 20 knots, and one Laser got speared by a 49er. I probably didn't do much for the goodwill of the moth fleet by shooing them away as they constantly came up and tacked 4 feet to leeward. Eventually the race started, but mass confusion meant only 5 moths actually on the line at the start. Scott and John had sailed in the go race their 18-footer “Rag and Famish” and I don't know where everyone else was. Charlie, Rob Gough and I had a good battle with Rob winning. I had a capsize after trying to dodge a “Rag and Famish” spectator boat that was inside our course.

Day 3: Another full-on Southerly, but post-weekend meant very little traffic. I could stretch my legs, and I led from wire to wire in 20 knots. On race 6, Dave Lister was pressuring me down the run when my foils ventilated and wiped me out right in front of him. I almost caught him in the end, but he took the bullet – he is extremely quick in the breeze. I finally put a race together without any big mistakes and took the bullet in Race 7 for a 1-2-1 day, 11 points out of first.

Day 4: Scott got a great start while I got rolled, and he took a strong lead to the favored side. After one lap I ran him down and led for the next lap and half, when I found a big hole. Charlie caught and sailed through me to leeward, and the order at the gate - Charlie, me, Scott - was how we finished. This effectively sealed my fate in third - making up 12 points on Charlie and 10 on Scott would be next to impossible without a major piece of luck. Then World Champ John Harris turned it on – getting into form to lead Race 10 up the favored side. Scott held onto second with Charlie third. After the race, Charlie and Scott realized that whoever beat the other in the last race would probably take the regatta – the stage was set for the final race. Everyone got a good start, with Scott and John heading hard left while I tacked up the middle to stay away from the Manly Ferry. Charlie shipped it hard to the right, and on his way back I tacked safely to leeward of him, comfortably on layline. Scott came from the left without avoiding me and over I went. I righted my boat and worked my way back up to third, while Scott's penalty turn took him back in the pack. Charlie finished a safe fourth place, winning him the regatta – with Scott in second and me and Hans rounding out the top four.

Overall it was a sweet result for Team USA - I don't think any of us imagined owning 3 of the top 4 spots at this regatta, but it was only our teamwork that made it possible. Charlie and Hans are staying in Melbourne to keep sailing, while my services were required in Hawaii, building a deck with my father and spending Christmas with the family. I'll be back in Australia for the big event – the Australian Nationals – where former World Champ Si Payne and designer Andrew “Amac” Macdougal will be in town on the new Mach 2. There are even rumors that Rohan Veal will be there, which would mean the three most recent World Champs on the water, making this the most contested Moth regatta in recent memory. 
-Bora

First day in Sydney

Well I had lots of action yesterday rigged two boats, had two sessions had a photog ask for some of my time I think it was mainly do to my color cordinated sail and boat.  Took some video that already has given some good footage of what is happening with the foils going through the water.

Tonight I will try to put together my first full length feature as Bruce and Luka called it.

Here is a picture of the color matched boat and sail.  Always liked a red boat.

A little tease

So George and I were just playing around with some of the new equip, a little tease of what is to come in the next couple weeks, here is the video.

Boat is now in Australia and I am leaving on Friday, so the migration is coming.

Out

Twice the speed of sound

So the Mach 2 site has gone live, quite a few new pictures that have not made it up on simon's site that are fun to look at.  Looks very nice and it is exciting to see another design.  It is interesting that the boat comes with a msl13 though I though a msl14 was in the works.  Who knows what Amac is up to but I am sure he has been working hard to improve the sails. Now with the shadow that big blue is casting over the moth world.  Either way lots of action and equipment choices to be made before next Aug.  What ever happens competition is good and everyone will end up with better gear.  I think this is a very exciting time to be a mothie

Tis the season

With the australian summer rapidly approaching, all of the moth sailing peanut gallery have seemed to take up residence on Scott's blog.  Hope he keeps posting. I wont even have to go on a message board to hear some good old whingeing, that I can add more of my whingeing on top of.

It is going to be  great summer, and with all the video equipment that arrived today it should be well documented on the water.

New Moth Drill

Sitting here in the frigid north dreaming about warmer days, I was thinking of fun things to do when I get to go sailing next.  George and I always joke that we are like fighter pilots on our moths, and  after thinking back about the cafeteria at WPNSA during the worlds I am sure there are many other moths sailors that feel the same way.  Recently George and I have started playing follow the leader.  Where the goal is to shake the other boat off your tail.  Why not take it a step further and have a "dog fight" it could be really fun and good for boat handling.  In the "dog fight" the right of way rules still applying, especially no hunting!  Two boats could "engage" by coming at each other on a reach.  After the initial cross the two boats would either try to tack or gybe to change direction and get after the other boat.  Foiling tacks would be the equivalent of gaining altitude and potential energy since you would gain distance to windward.  If successfully pulled off I bet this would be a heck of a lot more entertaining than watching a match race.

So those of you who have a training partner.  Give it a go, let me know if you also enjoy chasing another boat around in circles.  Maybe we could have the unofficial moth dog fighting championships this January in Australia.

Lights Camera Action

So I now have 4 cameras for filming moth stuff.

Two Wide Hero Helmet Cameras.

each of those films at 30 fps at 512x384

One Sanyo Xacti E2

60 fps at 680x480

One Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA6

for general Amac antics

On a side note I was cruising the Zhik site looking at the gear and stumbled upon the Zhik team page.  The moth team consists of Scott Babbage, Matt Belcher(who will be missed), and Luka Damic.  After clicking on Luka's  profile I noticed he got 3rd in the Australian Nationals last year.  I understand that I did not count in the Australian results but for the overall I could have sworn I got 3rd.  

This year there should be more internationals coming with Andrew Brown, Arnaud, Simon Payne, and myself.  Since I have not heard anything about the Australians changing the not counting internationals rule I am thinking of ways to either warrant the entry fee or make a side competition.

Simon suggested that we should expedite our Australian citizen application so that we could could count, in one of the more hotly contested regattas of the year.  That would be the ideal solution but I am not sure we can make it through all the red tape in a matter of three months.

Another thought I had was to video tape the whole event from my boat and put American flags on top of all the Australian boats.  If the videos made it to the web it would look like a 4 boat regatta with a whole bunch of American flags flying around the water....

A third idea for the internationals was to have our own competition of who can drive a top Australian farthest back in the fleet,  Sort of like a multiple team match race.  Since this would be unofficial, and I think it best that we provide prizes for ourselves.  Perhaps some libations at a local bar reliving the new Australian swear words that we could learn during the day if we were to do such a deed.

I really hope the Australian Moth Class lets people who have traveled from halfway across the world count in their national championship.  It would be the right thing to do.

Videos

Flying High

Magic Carpet Ride

Crashes

I am soon to improve my video taking and publishing, with two months of Mothing coming up in AUS expect a lot more videos soon!!

Wow- I just cannot believe how time flies

I have been really lazy about updating the blog and feel bad about that, but at the same time I have been fighting the good fight every chance I could. I have been to the US Moth Nationals, Glacier National Park, Melges 24 Traverse City Invitational, Beneteau 36.7 Nationals, and US Melges 24 Nationals.

US Moth Champs, Cascade Locks Oregon:

Let me start out with the US moth champs in Cascade Locks. This place is basically heaven on earth and it was good to see Simon and Rohan like it as well. We ate pizza at the local bar, listened to a talented Jack Johnson knock off, and in general had a good time. The sailing was awesome – we saw everything from a dying easterly to a full-on westerly. I set a new personal best speed at 27.1 knots and tried out a new spoon system for my wand, which seems to be the best wand I've had yet.

Here's a quick rundown on what I've been doing with the wand. For a while now, I have been going longer wand with flex. Now that I've put the spoon on, I'm going shorter with a very rigid wand and it seems to have a very positive response. The boat will fly at exactly the right height and will come down fast when it gets too high. On the down side, the spoon is a weed rake and in marginal foiling conditions it is a BIG drag if there is any weed around.

The racing was so fun. I was very lucky a couple times, and was able to pull straight bullets for the regatta. It was very impressive how much everyone else had improved. Even though they were not right on my heels, the next 5 boats seemed to be in a constant dogfight for the 2-7 spots. It was awesome to see, and with Charlie and Hans coming to AUS this winter I am sure that the bar will keep getting higher in the States. The moment of the regatta for me was in the very first race, going bow to bow with Morgan Larson. I nearly wet myself in laughter after hearing about the carnage that happened behind me after he ducked.

At the end of the regatta I was fortunate to take out my favorite moth crew and go for a little two up sailing. Mr. Clean made the picture notorious and I still get a lot of comments about it. I think with a little more practice Simon and I will have to throw down the gauntlet and see if we can beat Paris and Sterling Henken in some double handed racing.



Glacier National Park:

WOW!
To all the internationals that are coming here next year to sail the worlds, take an extra week off, drive up there and see what has to be the most spectacular piece of road ever! I had the pleasure of having a navigator on the way back to Michigan and was very very happy I was able to convince her to spend a couple of days there. We went hiking, white water rafting and sightseeing. I’m going back after Worlds no doubt.



Traverse City Invitational Regatta, Traverse City, Michigan:

After hurrying back from Montana, I literally drove straight to Traverse City to defend the regatta we won last year on USA 660 Flyer. This time was different, only two of the five people had ever sailed with anyone else on the crew beside myself. It was going to be a little bit of a learning experience on USA 12 “Don’t Panic”. Brian Poppert, the owner, did a great job setting up the boat and after Day one we had an almost untouchable 13-point lead on second place. Lucky for Paul Hulsey and his crew on the Hoodlum it was not untouchable and they sailed an awesome last two races on Sunday to take the victory by one point. I was happy to see such a good bunch of people succeed on their new boat.


Beneteau 36.7 US Nationals, Chicago, Il (Natalie J):

This event was all about fighting the good fight. One week before the regatta we had our primary trimmer and the bow guy bow out. Nearly catastrophic, but this event was all about getting Pops on the water and we pushed through. We picked up some people, Patrick McMath, Bob Hillier (from Line Honors), and the one and only Mr. Clean. The first hurdle during the regatta was weigh in, Paul Hulsey came in 10 lbs heavy! The little bowling ball! Alan and Paul were the last two to weigh in and they had to do it the morning of the regatta, we had allotted them 403 lbs. Should have been no problem but when Paul stepped on at 10 lbs heavy the panic started to hit. I sent them to the truck, told them to crank the heater and tried to get them to puke. In the mean time I was stalling Janet Baxter at the scale, trying to get the boys every minute I could. 40 min later they came back and tried again. We were still one pound too heavy. Alan pulled some zen budda trick and bounced up and down a couple times, stepped on the scale and by some miracle was one pound lighter!!! Amazing does not quite do it justice, and how Phil was able to keep his cool while half the crew was running around messing with weigh ins was another little miracle.

The racing was fun we had better boat speed than last year but still not up to the top boats pace. There were two races that we should have won which would have pushed us into the top 6 but it was not to be so we will have to practice and try for next year - which will be on our home water at Bayview Yacht Club.

For me the best part of the regatta was to see how the establishment in the Beneteau 36.7 class screamed bloody murder at the sight of Mr. Clean, it was like he was sun light and they were vampires. By the end, the people who had any sort of good head on them warmed up to him and the ones that were dumb did not. Their loss, he is a great friend of mine and when you take the time to realize he is only telling it how it is (armed with a hand grenade with the pin already pulled) you can start to appreciate him a little more.


Melges 24 US Nationals, Charleston, SC (USA 757, “Simplicity”):

This was the third time I had sailed with Simon Strauss, and the first time in the new boat – nicknamed the Boeing Boat). Simon has committed to make a serious run towards the Worlds next year in Annapolis, and with that kind of commitment he might as well be the pied piper for me. Our team consisted of Becky Damore, Rich Core, Jane Delashmutt, Simon Strauss, and me. Day one blew 15-25 knots and it was tons of fun. Tightened the piss out of the rig, dropped the leads back and went racing! At the end of the day we were in the lead by two point and we were a Corinthian team! Note the word “WERE,” - after a couple beers enjoying our good first day, I got the dreaded e-mail from ISAF requesting a clarification on my Category 1 classification. Next thing you know, we are kicked out of the Corinthian class. Day two we extended our lead on the fleet and now were winning the regatta by 8 points after a day of light and current-dominated conditions. Day three would be only two races. We had an average first race but still held the lead by a point. The final race – a five legger - we sailed smart for almost the entire race. Had we finished at the final leeward mark we would be National Champs, but we got caught out on the wrong side on the final beat, and ended up finishing two points behind first place Full Throttle and one behind Team Barbarians. One beat away from being a Melges 24 National Champion - guess there is always next year. We didn't go to win the Corinthian title, but now that ISAF has reviewed me and reinstated my amateur status, it's only fair for the Class to award Simon with the Corinthian National Champion trophy. They said they'd planned to do that, but we're still waiting.


>


International Moth Update:

I have been avoiding the Mach 2-Bladerider mess for a while, I think it is only good for the moth class to have more competitive, easy to purchase boats, and we have to remember that we're in a development class. Obviously the timing was right for Amac to make it happen - good on him for doing it. The level of competition in the class is just going to keep going up and up and everyone from boat designers to boat builders to sailmakers will have to work hard to stay in the game.

If anything, this development will be good for team Bladerider. Resting on your laurels is not the way to stay at the top, and the new competition should motivate them to do that. Personally, I'm really happy with my Moth right now. We'll see what TOP-manufacturing cooks up, but for now it is an X8 for me. Oh, yeah – I'm coming to AUS in November for basically two months and I am bringing more Americans, so it should be a barrel of laughs at all the major Aussie regattas ;)

Another word on Moths and sponsorship: I really don’t want to do anything that makes me a Category 3 sailor. The mess in Charleston reinforced the fact that there's no point in doing something that jeopardizes my Cat 1 status for a little cash.

Clean Water

* Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Raw sewage floating in the harbour and
on
the beaches of the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC), which annually
hosts
sailing regattas for its 3,000-strong members, has put a stop to any
swimming or sailing. Beaches in the Jumeirah area have also been
affected.
According to the management at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC)
sewage
and faeces has been a problem at the club for the last three months. --
Read
on: http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10247543.html

my favorite blog

since chris is not posting here is a good one for you all. Unfortunately you have to read dinghy anarchy on Sailing Anarchy to really value it.

Doug Lord's Blog

4 weeks living the dream?

Dalton was kind enough to give me a little motivation to write on the blog. It has been a little hectic since worlds so I have not have been too motivated to write an update.

I guess I should start with Moth worlds. First congrats to John Harris. They finally let us sail in the last two days and it was good. The first day I struggled with my boat speed as I went out with the big sail and the powerful mast. Not really the right combination in breeze and my results showed it, barely hanging on in the top ten. The second day I went with the MSL10 and the flexy mast and what a difference. Was in the lead at first weather mark of the two races I got to sail. In one race Amac blew by me on the reach leg like I was standing still and in the second race I hit the leeward mark in a rules situation and felt compelled to do a 360. After that I was not able to sail the last race since I had a flight to make and unfortunately had to carry a letter score. I was happy with my worlds experience, my result did not show my speed but there is always next year on home turf. Where I am sure there will be none of the BS.

I hurriedly packed up my boat I had one quick beer with the W.A.G.S and was off. Drove to the top of the hill where my helicopter was waiting for me to take me to the airport. Took off and watched the last of the Moth Worlds from the air.
When I got to the airport I found out that the plane was three hours late so I could have sailed the last race, bugger! That was only the start of my woes at the airport. Went to check in, and the check in lady took my passport played with it a little and got her nail under the laminate. Before I could recognize what was going on she peeled the thing apart! Then proceeded to tell me how this one was no good and how I could not fly today. I would have to go to the embassy tomorrow and sort it out. I don't think I have words to describe how crushed I was. I pleaded with her superior to at least check me in and let me take my chances with immigration, I must have been close to groveling at one point but finally she checked me in and all I had to do was repair my passport. In a little bit of a panic now I went to all the stores I could find in the airport buying stationary supplies to attempt to glue my passport back together. I found a bunch of places with paste, but was really looking for superglue. In the last possible store I found it, and now was in business. I found a little space and set up my book bag and computer as a blind and proceeded to glue my passport back together. It was good enough to make it through 3 different sets of customs. After clearing customs in Toronto at 1 am in the morning Blake Griffin(thank you!) was waiting outside to take me to Port Huron to make the start of the BYC Port Huron to Mackinaw race.



I arrived at the boat to see the boys had fixed all of the leaks we had in the previous race. Phil O'niel IV had done some great work with the EBay electronics shopping and we now had a new computer with a remote tablet display working again!
The BYC race was fast, after starting in a torrential downpour. There was 2A running for a while followed by Code 0 reaching at 13 knots, then finishing up with a 80 mile close hauled leg... Little of everything, we sailed the boat really hard and managed to get a second. This race was scored in IRC and at this point I did not quite realize how badly our IMS N/M 46 Natalie J rated under this rule. The Wooton(aka Wu-tang or won ton) a custom Rodgers 46 won our division and there was nothing we could do to hold onto them. In the end a 26 hour trip to Mackinaw, not bad for not having any really good weather. After the race was over I got to sleep for the first time in three days and was happy to be back in Michigan.

Left the Island quickly and went into hiding for a couple days to prepare for the 100 anniversary Chicago to Mackinaw Island race that started the following weekend. For as easy tactically the BYC Mac race was the Chicago was totally different. Got the start I wanted so as to set us up for getting east quickly, but unfortunately all that happened was that we parked. It must have been about two hours before we got the boat moving. So I traded about 7 miles of northing for about a half mile of east leverage, great!!! Felt fairly certain I was going to be fired at that point but, Phil still had a little faith and we got the boat rocking. We did not know exactly where our competition was, but I was fairly certain they were to weather close hauled pointing at a mark that was 300+ miles away. Our response put up the Code 0 give up 20 degrees of height but gain leverage and VMC setting ourselves up for the lift that should occur if we could make it to the Michigan shore by morning. Riding the lifted sea breeze reaching all day versus the boats in the lake who would be light air running. When dawn broke we were able to pull up the tracking and discovered we third farthest north boat, we were also the slowest boat in our class so this put us in great shape. All day long we were the fastest boat in the position reports gaining distance on the fastest boat in our class the Talisman(aka taliban). Towards the end of the day we got as close as 2 miles. They owed us about 2.5 hours at this point so all was good.

Late afternoon and it was time to get off the shore before the sea breeze went to bed. The next big choice was whether to go inside or outside the Manitou Islands. We had never gone outside to the west before and my routing kept saying it was the right thing to do with the forecast for breeze filling from the Northwest. I was itching to go outside since we have lost at least two of these races going into the Manitous. Tall Islands to the left big dunes to the right. The thought of going into that passage with a dying breeze just makes me cringe. When Doc(Phil O'niel III) was asleep his son(Phil IV) and I sent it out in the lake so the only real option was to go around the outside. Later that night a couple storms rolled through and with everyone else on deck i though it was a good time to sneak a small nap since once again I had not shut my eyes since the beginning of the race.

I was woke up around 30 min later to Doc yelling at me something along the lines of "You're F'ing insane!" I remember thinking, yes and what is your point? As I was trying to beat back the cobwebs and become alert. To his credit he was questioning how we were going to make around the North Manitou Island and south of South Fox Island. I had never looked at the detailed chart but rather the C-map Chart which does not show water depths. I had been on board when another boat had burned us by doing this very same move and knew it had to be possible. I just did not realize how big some of the shoals we had to navigate were. Phil IV on the tablet myself on the helm, we made our way through just fine and once again were reaching when all of our competition had to be sailing close hauled. Too bad Doc was sleeping at 4-5 am when we were ducking through the big hills in spotty fog.

The two MVP's at this point were Glen Watson with his portable expresso maker and Curt Roselle(little bastard). Without Glen's constant supply of high test caffeine and navigation, i would have definitely lost the path. Curt was huge when he drove for about an hour when Phil IV and myself were struggling. I forgot to mention that the whole race had been I.F.R. and with only three drivers it was easy to get off course quickly when you were chasing a hard to see apparent wind angle.

The rest of the race was fairly uneventful with a small parking lot under the Mackinaw Bridge we were able to finish right behind the leaders in our class and correct out over them by hours..





IRC Nationals Harbor Springs Michigan

Delivered the 46 down to Harbor with Chris Balliet, when I pulled up I was reunited with my Moth and my truck! Chris Williams drove the truck from Newport where it had been since the Bermuda Race and brought his moth along. Along with George Peet we were all sailing on the 46 for IRC nationals. It is amazing how IRC penalizes the things on a IMS boat that make it hard to sail. We ended up second and hopefully we get to upgrade the ride now!!! Praying for a 52.


Sailed the moth with Chris and George during the week after big boat sailing and we had a pretty good audience. I took some people out for rides and let some other people demo my boat. It was just good to be back in fresh clean water again!!

My truck needed $1000 repair for the universal joints on the front end... oh well have to pay to play.


t minus one week before the gorge trip, trying to fix all the wear and tear on my boat and build some new bits to try.

Ground Hog Day

Woke up at 5 am to howling wind and pouring rain, struggling to remember what day it was. Unfortunately it was not any of the last two days but now a third day where we might not be able to go sailing. The wind sock at the coast guard helicopter base here was getting blown at an up angle. That was entertaining enough for Bear and I to stop and take some pictures. 41 knots in the harbor right now. Will have to take Seb Josse's offer of using some windsurfing equipment. Seb is a really nice person and was a pleasure to meet him after all the stories bear has told.

funny moment of the morning, an announcement over the PA appologizing about the AP over A being up from the day before and that it is so windy they cant get it down. Hah

Think I will wander off to the car to take a nap, ok nap did not happen drank too much coffee.

The whole regatta is now watching "Top Gun" i was nearly crying from laughter to hear people sing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling"

Millimeters

Today was the day we had to get our boats through measurement. It is a fairly depressing thing to have to chop down your brand new sail not once but twice! On top of that there has been a big mess with sail numbers. Most of the people who have new sails ended up getting sail numbers from KA Sails, the country letters are a couple millimeters too small and too close together. I put all of the numbers on Bear's and my sails while he was out trying out his new gear ratio. To say I was a little stressed and worried by the time they got measured is an understatement. Somehow Simon Owen Smith claimed I looked like I was on vacation at a resort, strange....

Went for a sail myself this morning being the first boat on the water, got to line up against a couple of people and felt good about the boat.

Simon Payne i think got a kick out of how high i fly. Such a joy to get to fly, the thought of hiking hard and being stuck to the water might as well be a nightmare at this point.

I have stayed out of the big practice races that have been forming. There has been a couple of collisions and I have seen this type of chaos before at 49er events. There are lots of people who don't honor the starting line and it just causes frustration to people who do. I have had no interest in taking part in that sort of fiasco.

They have split the fleet into two for qualifying which is good news. The thought of 100 moths on a starting line seemed a little crazy but 40 something sounds like good fun.

Oh well probably should go to bed and get ready to just sit and wait tomorrow. Big winds are predicted for the practice race so I don't think they will even let us out of the harbor.

windy weymouth

Can not complain about the breeze here, seems to blow like clock work every single day. Used my new cst mast for the first time yesterday, felt real good, def a fan.

Coach Rohan showed up and was running practice races, lots of fun starting lines are starting to become a little crazy. Having to be real careful as seems like a lot of boats are on the border of control. I watched a three boat tangle that involved bear, sten, and lochie. No damage on any boats but still scary.

Feel good about my pace and got a couple more emails of encouragement. Team USA has fully arrived with peter and Nige.

Lots of action here should get back to it.

Oh yeah it's Sam England's birthday and her drink of choice is Tequila could be bad news but will have to throw down a couple with her tonight, since she is the first comfirmed international coming to Nationals in the gorge, looks like two more are really close to pulling the trigger also so it should be a good time.

out

Finally Sailing

Boats arrived yesterday along with the gear container. Bear's friend Scott Beavis from ABN 2 helped us unload the boats and rig. 9 am I am ready to rock bear needs a little work. Looks like the Swiss are hitting the water so finally time to see how i stack up against the rest of the world.

Weymouth

Well the last two days have been uneventful as I have been just bumming around the boat park waiting for my boat. Bear has just arrived, it is good to have him around. Supposedly the boats will arrive today and we will get to go for a sail. For all the light wind calls of Weymouth. I call BS

gotta go boats just arrived!!!

edit: Joe your "try foil" has arrived in one piece. Bear and my boats are still MIA....

well this is just stellar looks like someone screwed up and sent joe's boat instead of bear and mine. our boats might not have even left the states yet.....

day four of sitting on my butt watching other people sail

Thank you!!

I am sorry I have been off the radar as of recent, sorry Chris. With all the hype leading up to worlds I did not want to add to it.

In about 4 hours I have to be up and start my duties as navigator/tactician for Phil O'niel's N/M 46 Natalie J for the Newport Bermuda Race. To say I am excited is an understatement.


What I really wanted to say though is thank you! I can not believe how many of my sailing heros have gone out of their way to say hello, and give me some advise and encouragement for the worlds. It has been a surreal experience sailing in Newport for the last two weeks. I can't count how many times I have gone sailing only to hear cheers and well wishes as I sail by the big boats that are practicing. One of the more special moments were Jonathan Mckee trying to help me find my comfort zone and to call him a sailing hero of mine is an understatement. By far though the most awesome experience was today when i had to make one last run to my packed up boat to get my watch and head lamp that i needed for the bermuda race. Jonathan Farrar was teaching a class at sail newport. When he saw me literally walked out of his class to come shake my hand and will as much positive energy he could in my direction. It is amazing that so many people care and I cant thank you ALL enough! I am ready and can't wait to go sailing in Weymouth. I am going to represent my country, my friends, my club, and myself.

My boat is awesome and I love it more every day i go sailing.


p.s. Dalton if i don't remember to email you about a sail I am sorry but yes i have sails and would be willing to part with one after worlds so just tough it out for another couple weeks.


Out!

DEETROIT BAASKET BALL!!!

We stole a game in Boston! Boston has not won on the road once the entire playoffs, huge game for the Detroit pistons!!!
Chauncey, Rip, Rasheed, Tashaun, Antonio, and Rodney all played awesome.

The Ball Don't Lie click that numerous times to get the full effect

Favorite commercial at the moment definitely a lot of truth in it.. "there can only be one"

Went sailing again tried two new items in the control system of the boat. One worked the other was worthless, wind was light went in after confirming my expectations.

I have also finally started to force my self sailing with a msl13. I like my msl10 so much and have put in so much time with the ten it was like giving up a security blanket. The msl13 though has much more of a bottom end. Was able to pop out in pressure that would have been hard with the msl10.


Went sailing monday in really cold and strong gusty winds. Tried a different wand length and flex, boat was crap got fully dunked a bunch of times. 2mm wetsuit was not the right call and was borderline hypothermic by the time I made it in.


Thank you, to Toby Heppell and The Daily Sail for a nice article

Global warming my butt

It is supposed to be getting closer to summer and I call BS! It has been cold but this morning takes the cake. 42 degrees f (5c) air temp and the water is still 38 degrees f (4c). I would love to watch chris try to adapt to here. I almost have the setup to the point where I can fully hike hard downwind without fear of going in the water. Small Bonus I guess, but I digress, I am certain the average temperature has been dropping by the week. I really am starting to wonder when the canal is going to freeze, this sucks!!

I was thinking a good gauge of how much sailing someone does is how many mainsheets you go through. I am on my sixth mainsheet since december. Chris what are you up to?


Little bit of Melges action this past weekend. I got to sail with Patrick Drummond, his cousin Brian Poppert, and our rockstar bow guy Bobby Cox.
Patrick and I have now won the Muskegon Melges event 6 out of 7 years and the one year we did not win we were not there. It was typical muskegon blowing the dogs of the chain, flat water and big shifts... AWESOME!!!
here are a couple pictures





Note the "technical denim and the old ass spray top" as todd jones called me out on. The race is on with him to see how much nikwax can be put on jeans to make them water proof.


In case you were wondering yes i went sailing. Oh yeah last thought, i got to chat with Toby Heppell of The Daily Sail for a while yesterday and should get a nice article to read out of it.

One year later

Someone reminded me that it was exactly one year ago today that i sailed my moth for the first time. Hard to believe that it was only a year ago, feels like a lot longer.

So I am at Muskegon Yacht Club for their annual melges regatta. Patrick Drummond and I have won this event 5 out of the last 6 year. The year we did not win it we did not even come. 30 boats shifty breeze and big wind, the typical event here. Looks like mother nature is going to dish up the same again this year.


I will put up the videos again.

Woosa

Checking things off the preperation list. Got one of Phil O'niel's boats in the water and rig up almost ready to go sailing. Put a new bottom on her and Hullspeed on the foils, red bottom with black foils looks very nice to me, hopefully it will go as good as it looks. I guess that is the color scheme of my moth maybe that is why it feels so good.

Packing up to go do some lead assisted sailing in muskegon for the weekend, and go visit Phil's second boat which will get me half way to england.

The blog wars are bugging me and I just need to hard'n the f' up I have gotten enough friends asking about the videos that will put them back up at some point. The british form guide is about to land I can only imagine how that is going to go.....
I guess they are trying to motivate rohan to just sail, he is the world champ after all but i know how i would react to all the tounge and cheek stuff going his way.

woosa


Weekends are relaxing for most people, not I

wish it was monday

woosa


oh yeah sailed in the Yacht Club's beer can race yesterday have to figure out a better phrf number i guess. My first guess had me win corrected by 45 min. Though i did start 15 behind the spinaker boats and beat them by about 5 or 6 min.

Brownie if you are keeping track of my progress towards a Yachtie and not a moth sailor. The sailing days for the last 7 weeks
41 out of 49. I agree with you i should be sailing more.

woosa

Heavy Metal

Well moved and lifted about 2000lbs of iron and steel yesterday. Could not have done it without the help of my dad and Patrick Drummond(strongest guy i know). We rolled the crates by putting pipes under the rails and lifted the mill 2 inches at a time with two little hydraulic bottle jacks.




I have to thank brownie, pommiebob, and dave lister. I don't know why i would have even put up videos of foiling tacks on the net. Go figure out how to tack by yourself without my video.

What is a Fack?

I don't know all of these slang terms that are either British(i think) or Australian.  I looked in Rohan's Aussie slang dictionary and it did not show, someone please explain.  They don't teach that stuff in my neighborhood, though you do learn when not to make eye contact with the 20 locals hanging on the corner while short cutting your way to the yacht club.  

Yesterday was an epic day on the Detroit river. Bear was in town and we must have gone around my short course for 3+ hours...  It is so much fun to entertain the dining room and bar by doing W/L that takes about 1:30 right in front of them. By my guesstimates that means we did around 80 tacks and 80 gybes each.  We even are starting to get an audience of Coast Guard, and other boaters hanging out in the middle of our race track watching.  

Well I guess I should go pick up my new CNC mill!!!!  through some screw ups at the manufacturer they gave me the biggest one at the price of middle one.    Anyone wanna come over and help me get 1,300 lbs of iron into the basement?? Amac will be so jealous if he gets to come for a visit some time.  I will be able to make anything my heart desires and it could be even out of titanium.  Scott if you wanna upgrade from alloy for your "love rings" we should talk.

What is a boro?

For those of you that read Chris's blog. I think he is making a habit of talking jibberish.  Here is my interpretation of a chris graham post.  "BORO!! downwind boatspeed camels, peaceout to the N**gas, i was drunk. " Add a couple spelling errors and voila!

I am not sure what boro is can someone enlighten me.   

sailing was sweet on sunday blowning 30 snapped a pushrod first time out.  Fixed it and went back out again.  Did 24 knots trying to go slow, probably should have sent it for a couple sec to see if i could have gotten the speed record but was fully just hanging on.  I was able to do a couple laps with no capsizes so I feel like gorge in the summer should be a piece of cake.

Cold water tacks

Been practicing my tacks and cold water technique a lot.  I think in the last 5 weeks there has been 6 days that i have not got moth sailing and most of those are due to melges sailing...

I had the pleasure of spending most of the last month with Meredith and Alan Block from BlockSail.  Over the last couple days I have had the pleasure of having the stay at my house.  Besides the two large oil spills on my drive way, and the total lack of sleep it was good to have some company.  Lucky we had two good days of light for sailing so Mer got pictures and Alan took video.  All of m tacks could have been better.  Going on a couple hours of sleep and sanding bondo all day does not seem to help with the boat handling...  

14 days

Since the ice has gone away.  Sailed on 12 of those days.  Have tried countless combinations of wand swivels and wands.  The boat kicks ass, high and stable.  It has been very windy..

Cold Water

Finally was able to get my boat out of the dining room and down to yacht club.  I am fairly certain I was the first person out sailing on the lake this year.  

For a while I have been thinking something has been changing in my setup, and my boat has been flying lower than it use to when I first picked it up.  My solution was to keep adding more lift via AOA and flap.  I finally am almost certain it was my wand causing me to loose lift.  Amac disagrees but I changed to a stock wand versus my custom tapered one and the boat nearly leaped out of the water.  It was such a relief for a precious few seconds to be flying high again!  That is when I had my second great epiphany of the day as my front vertical started to stall and loose all lateral resistance dunking me in the 38 degree water.  First is it was definitely a stall(not ventilation) second it started from the dagger board going through the wake of the wand.  Bear showed up after my third pit stop on the dock to mess with settings in hope of alleviating some of the bite issues.  He rigged up and used an unsanded foil and reported no problems of stall.  Though he did have numerous rudder ventilation's, I watched most of his session.  So this leaves me with a ton of questions and I am happy that we have so many foils in between the two of us to test out different combinations till we can lick the cold water issue.

Side notes, sorry if I let any Brits down not posting about how wonderful and warm sunny San Diego was for the PCC's.  The west coast has a real good start and a great bunch of guys and families involved.  I am looking forward to another trip out west to go sailing before worlds.  Charlie and Hans are quick!  Need to get them in some good waves and show them all the real fun.  I am sure most of the people that would read this have probably already seen this but oh well.

Picts from the PCC's

"Were Getting the Band Back Together"

Been working hard on my boat to get it ready for the first US International Moth PCC's.  Should start the 2,500 mile journey to Coronado Yacht Club by mid-week.  Initially Bear was going to be joining me but has to make a trip to europe.  So one more cross country voyage solo.  Hopefully nebraska and the mountains will provide some good spectating.

Looks like we will have at least 13 boats, among them are: Zack, Dalton, Doogie, and Charlie. With rumors of other ex 49er sailors coming into the class soon.  Socal local Hans Henken won the last west coast event and looks to be quick.  Hopefully the conditions will be stronger than 8 knots so at least I will have the chance to hang onto the kid.

Feels like 49er days all over driving cross country to go race zack and dalton....

It will be good to see the boys

Going Home

Killing time listening to Jack Johnson at Schiphol in Amsterdam.  Hate this place, they get me for $20 just to use the Internet every time I come through.

Hands are totally fudged, I did less damage to them in a whole month of sailing with no gloves in Australia versus 4 days in Dubai.  Need them to recover quickly as the PCC's are in only two weeks.  Using mouse instead of pulling on a sheet will help that cause.  Going back to the real world after a week of fun in the sun is always such a shocker.  

The Autocad skills have been improving dramatically so hopefully I can bang out the rest of the design of the hyb station I building for work before I leave for SoCal.  I am excited to get back to my little machine shop and crank out some more bits.  My Hull Speed Paint should have arrived by now so will have to sand the foils to get them ready for paint.  Rohan took a little chunk out of my leading edge trying to separate my horizontal from my vertical. 

Now that I am thinking about it not much of a week off have tons of stuff to do to get ready for the west coast swing....

Final thoughts about Dubai, Chris and Glen are top notch guys. I can't wait to go back and look forward to sailing with them again.  The rate at which that place is growing I am sure I will not recognize it next time I go.  We did not do anything touristy but I am never really good at that kind of stuff, perfectly happy to go sail and hang at the YC.  Big thanks to Gareth who housed me for the week only 400 yards away from my boat.

On a side note please chime in a help us figure out a blog name for Sam (sailor chick) England

here is where you can post your ideas link

Handicaps in One Design?

So we did the first of the two experimental courses yesterday, I have to say it was quite a bit of fun.  First we all started at the same time and reached for around 15-20 seconds before coming to the first gybe mark.  Going 4 wide into a turn was good fun,  I was able to win the straight up racing taking advantage of being able to nail gybes exactly when i needed to versus when i was comfortable.  After 5 races Rohan, set up a handicap system.  In the first try I started 50 seconds behind the slowest guy, thought that was a little extreme.  But it turned out not to be, i was completing the course in around 3 min.  As we did more racing they fine tuned the handicap, at the end all four of the Bladeriders were arrive within 10 sec of each other at the finish line.  I was still spotting all of them 10-30 sec.  Good fun !

We are about to go try the other course he had drawn up i don't even know how to describe it.  Something between a N and a Z course.......

Side note last night was the first night I have been able to get any sleep here.  Something about going to the other side of the world messed up my body clock.   Have to thank Sam for thinking cheap tequila was a good idea :) She had the wisdom to bail after that, me not so much.  Slept for 10 hours and I needed it. Keen to go on another round the world try but it looks like the wind direction could not be worse.  Obviously the trick is to minimize time spent beating ...

The Roaring 40s

Did my first "Jo Verne" attempt yesterday.  We ran a staggered start with Sam (sailor chick of the week) England starting first.  Chris Graham starting 5 min behind her, and then myself going 5 min behind Chris.  There was some miscommunication and Chris was going for an anti-clockwise attempt and Sam was going for a clockwise run.  I was confused, coach Ro told me to chase after Sam.    After about 30 minutes of beating I was close enough to see her.  15 minutes later I rounded the "Cape of Good Hope" and it was on.  Thierry said 2 meter waves but there were a couple that were big breakers causing me to bear away and run from them versus taking them on the beam.

It was so rough that the rib could no longer keep up with the moths.  Anyone that wants to sail their moth in flat water versus big waves and wind has no idea how much fun they are missing.  Sam had slowed down enough where I caught up to her and saw chris coming around the other way.  The whole time all I could do to keep the boat right side up was to "sail for the high water" and steer the crap out of it.  Eventually I made it to "Cape Horn" and was able to bear away and run fully with the swells huge relief to actually be able to slow down a little.

Made my final gybe around the corner and headed for where I thought we started from.  The haze was so bad, no rib in sight.  I sailed for the wrong break wall and had to sail close hauled to the finish line costing me more precious time.  In the end i was 10 minutes off his record but the conditions were not right for a real threat.  I still beat the VX40's time in a 11 ft sailboat.

In the afternoon we did some short course racing and a photo shoot going for foiling tacks with Ro.  Burned him good in a simul tack. :)

Six hours of sailing in one day and I am wrecked.  Hands are pussing from blisters so badly that my fingers are sticking together when they touch....

Airport Security

Got a good laugh today when I was checking in at the airport. The TSA lady was around when the Detroit DN iceboat team headed off to europe to go win the worlds!  The DN guys must have had their charm on and inadvertently smoothed the way for me.  

I had one bag of mostly sailing gear and a little bit of clothes.  One long cardboard tube with a sail and my vertical foils, computer, and my tiller and horizontal foils taped together as a carry on.  Somehow the TSA people think a tiller with a rudder box looks too much like a club or weapon.  After about 20 min of pleading they made me check the rudder box and tiller but at least let me take my foils as a carry on.  

On my second try through security I got the full treatment after the metal detector for: 

a) my passport has been washed many many times and it looks like a poor fake id

b) they ran out of the little plastic bins that you have to put your computer and shoes in.  The TSA guy gave me some attitude about not moving forward in the line and I politely explained how it is really his fault that I cant move forward.  I knew that he would react poorly to me pointing out the error, but it was too good of an opportunity.  Oh well a pat down and a bag check later and I was off to the gate.  Par for the course for me.....

I can't believe how nice the NWA airbus A330-300 was versus, the crappy United 747-400 with the cathode ray tube screens that was our chariot to australia.  Each seat had a personal video display and I got to watch three oscar winning films on the flight across the pond. 

Next flight is a KLM 777 to Dubai.  I have never been on a 777 so this also should be an exciting flight for me...

Not going to defend???

So this has been out for a couple of days now but, rohan is not going to defend his title....
wonder if Scott B. would like to have a BR back now since he does not have to race against Rohan in one. My dear friend Alan Block has decided to put a target on my back from many months out, guess that will be a little more motivation to make sure I do not embarass my self.

Slick Paint

Just got some new paint shipped to me, check out the website Hullspeed.us looks pretty good and has to be harder than the stock polyurethane paint.  Have to paint and see....

Got my lathe all set up cant wait to go home and start making some custom parts..

Hiding out

If I had any regular readers I am sure the two month lack of posting helped cure that problem.  I cant believe that it has been two months since I was in Melbourne.  Feels like I am just starting to stop moving.  Where to begin....

Austrailian Moth Nationals 

Nothing besides awesome can describe this event in my mind.  We raced in a little dust bowl of a town.  The wind was not the greatest but the experience of actually racing a moth has spoiled me for life.  I don't think I can ever go back now.  Finished 3rd out of 30 blew a lot of leads but I think I was well past the point of burn out by the time we started racing.  I learned in my olympic sailing days that 3 weeks away from home is about all that I can stand.  After that my mental health starts to decrease quickly...

Key West Race Week

After flying 21 hours back from Aus I had a couple days back in the midwest before I had to get on the road again for another two weeks.  Landed in miami picked up the Melges and worked all night on it before picking up the rest of the crew and pulling the boat down to KW.  KW was a total sh*t fight.  If I was burned out after Australia KW was grinding me into the dirt.  We finished 9th was not bad but definitely not a performance that I was really proud of.

Now I am back in the frozen land,  hope this place thaws out soon.