gbr4067

Goosebumps

2009-01-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

Its really getting quite cold here at the moment... just in time for the Bloody Mary which by the looks of the long range forecast is going to be light and cold. If its anything like Sunday with the water was freezing to anything it touched, turning the boat into an ice skating rink, its going to be amusing for everyone else but us. The Musto guys have already declared defeat and are heading to Hayling, for a less congested sail.

As for the race organisers I know they've put a lot of time and thought into the 2009 event, mostly about how to deal with the foiler issue. The next club pursuit after the Bloody Mary was a bit embarrassing, perfect foiling conditions all the way round ... I won the race by a long long way. Every pursuit since that a moth has taken part in has been a moth victory. They are now fully prepared for the top guys to be laps ahead of the non foiling boats.

What this means for the finishing is that the main committee boat will follow the 1st boat eligible for the Bloody Mary and finish them dead on the finish time. Extra rescue boats will be dedicated to finish foilers that have already overtaken all eligible boats, which could be quite a distance ahead at this stage.

As for me I hope things go a bit better than last year, although I was the leading moth round the first mark I really struggled for height upwind in the light breeze. And was soon hunted down by Graham and Jason, but had a good battle most of the way round with Boona.

See you there!!

Know your heritage

2008-07-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Two updates in as many days... yes day 4 has been canned. With the exception of the velocitek speed challenge which will kick off shortly in the 25-30knt breeze.

I am part of an distinguished club, an owners club if you will, Owners of Adam May built & designed moths. For several months there has been talk of getting us together for a family photo. Which is what we've just done, really good to see all the small incremental developments on each boat. I am sure mine is the best of the bunch!! There are much better pro shots on the daily sail but I got a few snaps on my phone. Including for Toby a rare treat of a May piggyback.

Bored Bored Bored

2008-07-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

Things have got so bad here in Weymouth that I've turned to updating the blog.

3-days have been canned now, gusts of 40knts on the harbour wall today. There is a wind window tomorrow and the prospect of 4 races is actually very apealling. Then wednesday is back to usual, drinking tea in the academy, avoiding the bad weather.

I feel sorry for the aussies who have travelled from the other side of the planet for this. Welcome to England.

Whicher has just cooked dinner like only he can, Mike's playing a song called "your mum's your dad" and Emma is tired from dancing to the song "soup on your head"

Things are looking up...

From one concrete bowl to another...

2008-02-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

So another successful weekend on the water, this time at Axbridge with Mike & Alan. It was good to see a hive of moth activity, despite the wintry temperatures. I took the headcam out again and got some good footage which I've edited down and posted on youtube ...

New Year Training

2008-01-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

Tom Whicher, James Roche, Arthur Phillips and I all made an appearance at Queen Mary yesterday. Arthur was only dropping by to pick up some bits to be repaired, but the rest of us managed to get out for a sail in a blustery 10 - 20knts.

Armed with my new ATC2K headcam I joined the boys to get some on the water footage. I only got 15 mins footage before the batteries ran out, which did mean most of the crashes and James first foiling gybe didn't make it onto the clip below.

Sunday's training in contrast was a bit of a wash out, with Tom still being asleep in southampton after a night at Jesters, James had some irrepairable twist grip issues. Only I made it out for a quick spin in the 20+ knot conditions and had a great few runs. Headcam didn't seem to work today ... which I think was down to user error.

Anyway here is an edited selection of yesterday's footage...

Its good to be foiling again!

2007-11-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

So after a long period out of the class ... I'm back!

Managed to get out for a spin today, see the pics below...

Double Stacking Moths..

2007-04-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

Alas the old boat has gone :(

But I should be getting a new one soon...

Here's a brilliant photo taken at the UK Nationals on the packup day. ..

Team GBR off to Denmark

2006-07-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

Well its finally time to go, the trailer has left and by now it should be on the ferry.

The boat is loaded up to the foredeck with all my gear including tent, stove, toolbox, sailing gear etc. She weighs a bloody ton! I'll be flying out on tuesday giving me 4 days of training before the event kicks off, oh yeah I probably should get the boat measured as well!

I'll try and keep the site up to date on a day by day basis.

Team GBR off to Denmark
Originally uploaded by gbr4067.

Dinghy Show

2006-03-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was one of small core of people manning the Moth stand at the RYA's Dinghy show at Alexandra Palace, a mere two hours away on the underground.

The boat that was on the stand was Sam Pascoe's brand new 8k mk3 Mistress. It has been described as a 'gucci' moth, I won't go as far as that but its definately a high quality racing machine. Linton told me one of his big aims with this boat is to focus on making it strong. A refreshing attitude, with the loads on these boats at high levels already. People get better and more confident all the time especially in the breezier stuff, the boats need to step it up as well.

There are a lot of neat ideas on the hull some of which will be fully explained in lintons design review. But the central wand with its own channel cut in the hull, so it sits flush when in the max up position. Its what we've all been wanting but it has taken a long time for someone to get on with the engineering and do it. Theres a few nice ideas as well but I'm not sure I should be the one spilling them out into wider press just yet.

If only I hadn't just spent a large wedge on a nice new Golf I may have put in an order with linton...

Have I made the right decision..

Launch Photos.

2006-01-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

My sister was around when I launched the boat. She took a few low res pics I've added a link to my flickr account here just cos its a good little record. Plus It reminds me of those hot summer days that seem so far away....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gbr4067/

Bloody Mary...

2006-01-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Possibly the biggest winter event of the year, the bloody mary was a complete waste of time for moths. No wind at all, max gust of about 2knts. It was one of those rare days that I wished I had a stable boat.

For the uninitiated moth sailing in no wind is like riding a bike very slowly, everything turns into a frustrating balancing act. This is much to the amusement of all nearby sailors who can sit back and enjoy show.

So I managed about an hour before I turned back to shore, during that period I'd only sailed several hundred yards. Luckily enough the press boat motored past and snapped a quick photo while I wasn't looking. I attached it below so you can get an idea of the balancing act required. All credits to fotoboat.com please excuse the ahem "borrowed" image...

Draycote Open

2005-11-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Yet another cracking event, this time at draycote water sc. 14 moths turned up to a chilly light/ moderate breeze. An outstanding statistic here is that 11 moths were foilers and only three lowriding, showing that after an initial concern the UK fleet are embracing the hydrofoil technology. Many of the main culprits were absent but there was still a healthy spread of competition throughout the fleet.

Keeping up an embarrasing tradition I missed the first race because I damaged my boat, more specifically the trolley removed the wand plate from the bow. Nothing a bit of superglue cant fix. While the glue hardened I took the oppertunity to watch the start, Sam Pascoe port tacked the fleet and took a commanding lead up the first beat. Off the line he looked like someone had lit a rocket on the back of his moth, amazing.

As a predominantly light wind regatta the lowriders prevailed, so I started looking at the races as a battle between the foiling boats, full results here.

I made it out for the second start, it was marginal foiling conditions so best left to the experts. I reverted back to lowriding mode upwind. Taking huge chunks out of the struggling foilers. I was able to foil a bit going downwind, not much though. My tactic paid off and at points I was the leading foiler, Adam May & Jason Belben (ex olympic sailors) were the only foilers to get past me by the finish. Good stuff.

However the wind built through the next couple of races and my novice foiling skills severly let me down. But there was a good battle with others in the middle of the fleet.

That evening we were treated to a fine roast dinner, one of the best I've ever had at a sailing club. Washed down with a few beers, and much sailing talk into the early hours...

We woke with a rather thick head the next morning, almost glad there was not a breath of wind on the water. All hoping the racing would be called off so we could let our hangovers clear. The race officer postponed till midday, at which point there was just enough wind for some people to want to go for it. So on went the damp drysuit and off we went.

Our efforts were rewarded, the sun came out and the breeze kicked in within about 15mins of being on the water. I can't really remember much about the racing as it all blurred into one, but I do remember loving every minute of it, and being physically exhausted when I got back to the shore.

Thats it for moth events this year, but roll on Weston early next year. If I'm feeling brave I might even do the 300 boat Bloody Mary pursuit race on Jan 7th, arguably the biggest winter event held at my club.

Foiling at last.....

2005-09-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Linton Jenkins at full force boats is an enthusiatic guy who is one of only two International Moth hydrofoil builders in the world, I'd entrusted him to fit one of his kits to my pride and joy. Now it was time to become a test pilot...

After all the problems people had been having, breaking things, not flying properly. I was a bit cynical about what I was just about to spend my cash on... Other times I was as excited as a school kid on christmas eve, bursting with anticipation.

Launching these boats is deeply a unpleasant experience, even in early september wading up to my neck in portland harbour was cold and hard work. The foils only go in from the bottom, so you have to capsize the boat and secure them in shallow water, then swim the boat out deep enough to right it.

BUT when you get away from the shore and the boat lifts out for the first time, it all becomes more than worth it. The acceleration is a big deal here, it just keeps accelerating even though you think it can't go any faster! At these speeds any slight steering has a massive effect on the boat, so at the start I was wildly oversteering. The forces involved almost threw me out of the boat (later on whilst gybing I actually lost my footing and the resulting "speed wobble" ungracefully ejected me from my ship at about a 1m altitude).

I can't really describe the actual feeling of flying, sure the boat was going fast, but the whole experience was so much more intense as the whole boat reacted in a different way. The extra third "flight" dimension was physically quite demanding as it forced you to move back and forth(fore and aft) to control the altitude, ie move back for lift and forward to bring her back down. Once you were roughly in the sweet spot there was a lot of upper body kinetics to keep pitch level. Leaving me with aching muscles for days after. I became completely immersed in the experience.

I will tell more of my experiences as I learn and progress, but here are a few photos that I have taken so far...

The foils at home.

The boat on the weymouth slipway.

The main foil close up

The rudder and the gantry

Reading Festival

2005-09-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I posted, but thats because I've been out and about alot...

Reading Festival

Pure rock and roll from beginning to end. 23 bands in 3 days, thats only half the story. The things that really make an event special are the little things, the ones that stick in your mind for years. Here's one in particular...

On the first night at around 2am just as we were all relaxing round the fire, a huge jeering chanting crowd of 400 people gathered on the nearest metal walkway. One of our group immediately knew what was going on and jumped up exclaiming "Trolley Wars!" To which we all wandered over to take a closer look. It soon became apparent what Trolley Wars was all about, a simple yet brutal bloodsport. There were two shopping trolleys that were being used as chariots approximately 60ft apart, the baying crowd opened up a thin corridor down the centre no more than a metre wide. The trolley pushers at each end frantically trying to recruit "Drivers" by screaming at people "Get In The Trolley!!" often they would grab reluctant bystanders and just lift them in. As soon as a trolley had a driver off it would go charging as fast as it could be pushed towards the other trolley, no matter if there was a reciprocal driver or not. This when the crowd started a long ooooooooOOOOOOOOO until there was an almighty thud of the two chariots meeting head on, then the cheers and whooping sang out. This was all accompanied by a simple but effective chant, trolley .. trolley ...... trolley . trolley . trolley. I hung around for a while but after seeing too many idiots hurt themselves (the worst ones were when they thought it would be good idea to stand up in the trolley)

Perfect Weather...

2005-08-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

Despite my last post, I 've just realised what a fantastic weekend it was.

On friday a work colleague took the day off, but there was torrential rain all day and a thunderstorm thrown in for good measure. Saturday and sunday were blazing hot blue sky days, perfect. Then back to work today and the rain is hammering down again.

I've attached some pics that I took on sunday while I was manning a rescue boat at Papercourt Sailing Club. Needless to say the most rescuing I did involved towing sailors out to the startline so they didn't miss the race...

I even managed to find someone to cover the safety boat for the middle race, so I borrowed my dads boat and competed, I lead the race up till the last leg before I was overtaken by very well sailed enterprise, might just have won it on handicap.

Only two weeks until my foils are ready!

Holiday Traffic..

2005-08-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

I now completely understand why my mum will leave the house at 5am if she has a long drive to do.

I dropped my boat off in weymouth today, the sailing venue for the 2012 UK Olympics. I hitched up and left Queen Mary Sailing club at 10:20am, 5 HOURS later I arrived at my destination, I didn't get above 50mph once. I left the return journey a bit later, I left at 7pm only 2 hours to get home. arrgh.

Anyway I had a great sail and met up with alex who was painting his foiling axeman. All I've got to do now is wait for linton to put hydrofoils on my boat.

I've posted a picture of Leaky taken from my new camera phone, Sony Ericsson 750i. Check out the quality, 2mp camera on a phone!

Queen Mary running low

2005-08-01T03:51:00.000-07:00

I had a brief sail yesterday in a frustrating force 0-1-2. This was all good practice for keeping the boat upright dead downwind, which is by far the hardest part to mothing. It can be thought of as riding a bike slowly, the unstability is amplified as you have no pressure in the sail to balance against.

The most alarming part of the sail was when I had to pull my boat about 30ft up the 45 degree concrete bank. When I first launched my boat this was about 10ft. Now I'm hearing that if this continues then soon the reservoir may have to be closed because the rescue boats cannot be launced.

The worrying thing i just how quickly the water level has plummeted, it dropped a metre in a week which may not sound like much, but for londons largest lake (well over a mile in diameter in places) this is phenominal.

Photo's from the Inlands

2005-07-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

gbr4067

Friends Leaving for Garda

2005-07-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

8 boats left this morning for the long drive to lake garda, huge respect to Sam Pascoe for driving everyone's boat down there. Hope they all arrive safely.

I'm more excited about their return as Linton from http://www.fullforceboats.com will have my hydrofoils ready!!!!

Adrian
gbr4067