Alex & John: July 2007

So, the Moth campaign is done and dusted. Seeing as 98.7% of Moth sailors have blogs I thought I should at least make a post on the whole affair.
In summation, an awesome event in an awesome boat. A superb location and a great bunch of sailors and WAGS!!.
I liked Adam May's top ten write up so I am shamelessly plagerising his format.

Top Ten

1. Rohan Veal - in another class to the rest. Faster, Fitter and better boathandling led to an obvious conclusion - lots of gunsmoke. Had his Bladerider completed sorted, foiling high but stable. An A-grade performance.

2. Scott Babbage - a swag of silver for Scott - 2nd in the Pre-Worlds, 2nd in the Worlds & the 2nd most widely read Moth Blog (although arguably the best..)Best of the rest on a short preparation. Had the benefit of awesome uphill pace but could not keep the mast in the sky for enough of the time downhill to challenge Rohan. With more time next year will be challenging.

3. Simon Payne - had the worst possible start to his title defence when the rumoured to be bulletproof Prowler suffered a Gantry failure resulting in two DNF's. Chipped away from there to gain a great result although he could not match the pace of the top Bladeriders - who knows had it been a touch lighter and a touch flatter...

4 Sam Pascoe - could not be accused of backing off, he was generally going quick, just that he was also often flying through the air in a cartwheel. His balance on his unicycle sometimes outshone his balance through the Torbole chop. A few gantry adujstment issues and control cable failures probably stopped an even tidier scorecard.

5. Graham Vials - Sailed really well but did not get a lot of love from his boat. Another with less than perfect preparation - with more time put in and a sorted boat will be tough to beat next year.

6. Amac - had a full time job keeping team Bladerider going but also managed to squeeze in some sailing. Always looked out of control on the water but more often than not was doing one of the best jobs out there. A couple of gear failures were costly. Must take satisfaction in a job well done on the Bladerider control systems, which when they worked to their capacity were top of the line. Whatever happened to the youtube video showing off his tacking style though? It was there... then it wasn't. Bladerider Censorship Department?? Maybe that finally answers the question of what Simon Nelson actually does...

7. Jason Belben - did not seem to revel in the big conditions downhill, perhaps the setup was not quite perfect, but sailed well and consistently through the ten races.

8. Adam May - took limited preparation to a new level, launching a new boat on regatta eve. The "weapon" was full of good ideas - reducing windage and some neat touches, and the built in wing frames have to be the best way to go, though just a touch awkward to transport! Adam could be off at Weymouth in some flatter water - especially if he gets time to do some training.

9. John Harris - Before the regatta I set the goal of finishing Top Ten - this looked very unlikely when upon arriving at Garda I could not sail more than a few meters downwind without finding myself hurtling through the air... A new vertical foil helped control issues massively and tehnique improved also. Sailed a terrible race in Race 9 but otherwise was happy.

10. Les Thorpe - squeezed the best out of his Hungry Tiger. Had it going OK in a straight line but tacks and gybes were sloooow - foils not quite up to the current generation. Made up for this with minimal swimming and minimal gear failure.

When I ordered my Moth I did so with the intention of sailing the Worlds, selling the boat and then thinking about any future Mothing. Well, having been bitten by the foiling bug it would be hard to walk away...Super challenging sailing and super rewarding - I had more capsizes in 6 weeks of Moth sailing than I have had in 14 years of 18' skiff sailing. I am not sure what next year will bring but I am certainly keen to have a crack at Weymouth.
In a perfect world I will get a boat around December and after the JJ Giltinan start doing some training - hopefully I can get to a level where I can be of use as a training partner to Scott!
Anyway a couple of months now of work, thumb twiddling, socialising and cycling and then into the 18....

We are home. And what a mission it was! Almost 48hrs of after leaving Torbole we arrived in Sydney and went straight to work. I only just survived this week at work... and poor John has ended up sick.

I should note that we had a 10 hr stop-over in Zurich so went into town and looked around. Beautiful city, although being a Sunday everything was closed!

Here are some more pics from the trip. For photos from the first part of the trip check out the post Italy by pictures.

Our day in Zurich.