With a strict entry limit and fast take up only 5 Moths made it onto the entry list in time. Light shifty winds made for some interesting racing in race one,with Mike Cooke, Mike Lennon and Ricky Tagg all taking turns to lead for while. But when it counted Mike Cooke was leading with Ricky second and Mike Lennon third.

The first race had offered predominantly foiling conditions whereas Race 2 was mostly “low riding”. After a prolonged stint of foiling up off the start line Lennon took a comfortable lead with Mike Cooke constantly challenging. The lead swapped between these two once or twice before Lennon took comfortable lead in the fading wind and light.

This gave Mike Cooke the weekend with Lennon in Second overall and Tagg third.

Overall after 4 events Lennon has edged out Belben overall with Tagg now in third. However the last in the series of 5 events is Rutland’s Tiger trophy this weekend. As this is a 2 day event it is scoring an extra 50% making no one safe with only 3 event to count.

To find out more about Moth sailing go to www.moth-sailing.org and to see UK  news and events go to  www.internationalmoth.co.uk. There has never been a better time to get into Moth sailing with the 2014 World Championship at Hayling Island SC here in the UK.

UPDATE – STOKES BAY DATE CHANGED FEB 2012

Month                  Date                      Venue                                  Type
Mar                        10th-11th            Queen Mary                       GPS
April                      21st/22nd           Parkstone                           GPS
May                       5th-7th                Ullswater                             Inland Championships GPS
May                       12th 19th             Mar Menor                         Foil Fest/Iberian Championships
May                       26th-27th            Stokes Bay                          GPS
June                      21st-24th             Stone Sailing Club            National Championships
July                        21st-22nd           Weston                                GPS  (TBC)
August                  18th-26th            Campione – Lake Garda World Championships
September           22nd-23rd           Castle Cove                        GPS
October               13th-14th              Hayling Island                   GPS
November                                          Tata  (Port Talbot)            GPS (TBC)

Event 3 of the International Moth winter series proved to be another Moth fest at the multi class Bloody Mary pursuit race. This long established event is the pinnacle of the winter jamborees and this year attracted over 300 entires. The mild weather continues to bless and with a moderate to fresh forecast proved irresistible for 18 moths making the class one of the biggest groups.

Starting 80 minutes after the Toppers the Mothies had a bit on to un lap themselves before getting down to reeling them all in just over an hour.

Jason Belben made the early running followed by Mike Lennon and Ricky Tagg. This was the case until lap 2 when Belben missed a mark. He rounded the mark after his detour but by then Lennon had opened up a 50 yard lead. Belben and Tagg were now scrapping for second and trying to reel Lennon in. Tagg’s’ outhaul broke which over time made his sail deeper and deeper taking the edge off his boat speed. This released Belben to concentrate on getting back on terms with Lennon.

In the mean time the Moth leading group was slicing through the water pushers passing the leading Merlins and 14s with around 10 minutes to go. By this time Belben had cut into Lennon’s lead and heading into the last minutes the Moths passed the leading Fireball and were now battling for overall Honours. Lennon had the edge on Belben rounding the last mark but sailed to far off the rhumb line as the time was up letting Belben sneak over the moving finish ahead. Lennon had to sharply bear off so as not to miss the finish line.

Tagg held onto to get 3rd overall and Pete Barton followed to take forth – the same top four lock out as the previous Hayling event but in a different order.

The Moths took the first 4 places overall in this prestigious event and won many admiring glances – surly gaining more converts to this already fast growing class.

With the World championship at Hayling in 2014 there has never been a better time to be Moth sailor !!

Next up Northampton on the 28th Jan.

Hayling was first up on Christmas eve and after several leaders it was Ricky who came out on top with Mike Lennon stealing second after a tidal slip up from Belben who had led for some time. 8 boats from 3 clubs competed on a mild and moderate westerly wind. The race was part of the Christmas Cracker pursuit – the Moths took the top 5 places overall from a 50 boat mixed handicap fleet.

Next up was Stokes Bay on New years day, a dodgy forecast and multiple hang overs no doubt kept the turnout low. However another mild day and predominately moderate wind gave some great racing. 2 short races were sailed with Chris Rashly taking the first race on the water, however he led Lennon around the course in the wrong direction. This gave Belben and Tagg one and two respectively.

In 2 Race Rashly lead from start to finish with Belben second and Lennon third, Tagg pulled out with gear failure. Belben took first overall in the event with Rashly second overall.

This leaves Belben a point ahead of Tagg going into the Bloody Mary this Saturday.

With 3 events left and Rutland attracting a 50 % points supplement its still all to play for.

Name Pos HISC Pos Stokes Bay Pos Bloody M Pos Northampton Pos Rutland Total Events Position
sailed

Jason Belben 3 43 1 33 0 0 0 76 2 1
Ricky Tagg 1 55 3 20 0 0 0 75 2 2
Michael Lennon 2 49 4 13 0 0 0 62 2 3
Peter Barton 4 37 0 0 0 0 37 1 4
Simon Hiscocks 5 31 0 0 0 0 31 1 6
Chris Rashley 0 2 26 0 0 0 26 1 5
Ollie Holden 6 25 0 0 0 0 25 1 7
Simon Payne 8 12 0 0 0 0 12 1 8
Graham Simmonds 8 12 0 0 0 0 12 1 8

Well, it’s time to decide if you are going last minute shopping or your are going to have a pre Christmas workout with like-minded people and score your first points in the Winter Championships.

Come to the Christmas Cracker and find out if this little Santa’s Helper is there to help restore your circulation after a great race – got to be better than Christmas Shopping!

Venue: Hayling Island Sailing Club
Race Type:          Pursuit
1st Start:               11:00 a.m.

Registration is open from 09:00 and likely start time for Moths will be 12:30

Christmas Cracker            December 24th  Hayling Island SC

New Years day event     January 1st                Stokes Bay SC.

Bloody Mary                                                      Queen Mary SC.

Tiger Trophy                                                       Rutland SC

Steve Nicholson                                               Northampton SC.

Results will be extracted from the overall where multi class handicap races are applied.

The Grand Prix scoring system currently used for the Summer series will be used for the Winter Series. This is a high points scoring system based upon the number of boats attending each event. The principle is easy; more boats gives more points for example the winner will get  55 points in an 8 boat fleet but 85 in a 31 boat fleet.

As the Tiger Trophy is a 2 day event it will attract a 50% points addition, so a result in this is very attractive and a win would give 82.5 points in a fleet of 8 boats so don’t miss out!

The Winter Grand Prix Series comprises 5 events with the best 3 results to count.

Prize giving will be at the 2012 National Championship.

The new focus was the big 30 and the UK fleet have been chasing this record all year, with a large number of sailors recording over 27kn since summer 2010. In the twilight of this season the elusive barrier was finally broken, almost by accident, in Lymington on the 27th November with a sizzling 30.61kn by Peter Barton. Here is Peter’s account….

At 8.20am I was resigned to no sailing as the Lymington weather station was recording gusts up to 44kn. However, by 9.10am it was clear that the front and passed and the race was back on to make the 10.30am race start.

Breaking the 30kn barrier was not on my mind as the conditions appeared less than ideal. The sea had a small confused chop near the entrance to the Lymington River. The water was a cool 12’C and salty, both of which the techies say isn’t good for top speeds. With a cross-offshore breeze the gusts were particularly pronounced, perhaps this was a case of blast power being more key than refinement. I was racing, there was no dress rehearsal or repeated runs. There was one shot only and the focus was reaching the leeward mark, not a top speed.

I had been watching the speedo at around 27kn during the run up and then a pointy gust hit, I committed to it. Shoulders back, sheet in, cant the boat to windward, clench and bear away. A white knuckle grip on the tiller avoids it from being tugged from the hand if the foil tip snags seaweed. I felt a pronounced acceleration, whist I have done quite a few 27s in the past but I knew this was faster.

My first experience of 30kn is that I felt very reliant on the control systems looking after me over the small chop. I am not sure I could have reacted fast enough to save it myself, whereas at say 22kn I might. The difficulty here is that slightly different foil control settings may be required at 30kn than at 24kn, due to he speed of water over the foils. However, you don’t really want to be re-tuning  after that gust hits as it could distract, unbalance and already be too late! Moments earlier on this leg I had ‘bottled it’ as I reached 26kn and shortened my magic wand another 5cm, thereby reducing flying height and increasing gearing. Both of these might assist survival at the expense of speed, but then it is not much fun breaking through the 30kn barrier if when doing so your lifting foils also become airborne!  The plot thickens, maybe I will become more used to it one day….

I am both honoured to be the founder member of the UK International Moth 30kn Club. I shall begin drawing up a suitably unique constitution and the bar is fully stocked. All I need now is some more members!

Equipment: Mach2 Moth, KA 13.2 Sail, small rudder foil & customised main foil both race finished by Maguire. 77kg lard.
Location: Western Solent, very near the RLymYC platform. During racing.
Wind: Max Gust 27kn, Average 19kn. WNW. (over the 10 minute period) Conveniently, the record was set 50m from the Lymi weather station
Sea state: Small confused chop, 12’C water temp, salty.
Current: Slack high water.

Velocitek Speed Puck GPS recorded a speed over 30kn for 4s (the 30.61kn and 30.31kn below are adjacent). The accuracy is to 0.2kn.
The computer download identified the following;
2 second run n°1 = 56.7km/h [30.61Knots] (31.5 m. in 2.0 s.)
2 second run n°2 = 56.13km/h [30.31Knots] (31.2 m. in 2.0 s.)
10 second run n°1 = 52.01km/h [28.08Knots] (144.5 m. in 10.0 s.)
10 second run n°2 = 50.73km/h [27.39Knots] (140.9 m. in 10.0 s.)

These speeds are;
*A criminal offence when driving through a built up area
*50% faster than Usain Bolt
*Similar to the AC45’s speeds during their windy speed trial in Plymouth

On the season gone we had some pretty good events which kicked off with the spring training at Castle Cove Weymouth. We have established a formula for the coached events which caters mainly for the less experienced, coached by the very experienced. These experienced sailors have all given their time for free and over the past 3 training events have included, Helen Rollinson who has organised 2 of the 3 weekends and Ricky Tagg who has coached in all the weekends so far. Other coaches have been Jason Russell who also organised the last event and Olivier Vidal, Mike Cooke, Phil Oligario, Alex Adams and Chris Graham. Apologies to anyone I have missed.

The next coaching weekend is in the early spring and we will announce details as we get them. If you haven’t been on one of these before but are keen to get more out of Moth sailing please do come along. Its a very friendly and relaxed environment aimed at the less experienced Moth sailor. If you feel your club has the facilities and wherewithal to host a training weekend let us know. The committees focus is on building the class in as many places as possible throughout the UK.

The Zhik 2011 Nationals were a great success – as well as great sailing we had free beer and post race seminars along with a hog roast. The AGM also provides an open floor to discuss how to get the best from our class. The aim of the 2011 Nationals was to encourage those who may not usually attend big Moth events to dip a toe in the water. We also encouraged day entries for those who didn’t want to commit to all 4 days. Just short of 60 entires made it the biggest entry for many many years. I don’t see reason why we can’t reach 70 in 2012 or 2013.

The aims will be similar in 2012 and as well as building on those activities above we will also be having a formal prize giving on the penultimate night to award the GP circuit prices both winter and summer along with the high speed trophy. As you may have read elsewhere, the Nationals slated for Restronguet have had to be reorganised. The costs to run this event were much higher than anticipated so we regrettably have had to start looking for another venue. We are hopefully going to get something announced before Christmas.

And on the subject of Christmas we are about to start the second running of the Moth class winter series. The idea behind this is to give focus to a number of popular multi class races through the winter. The advantage is three fold, we all know where other Moths will be racing, we get to show off to water pushers and wow the crowds. We decided to mix it up a bit this year, to get higher attendance we have chosen to use the Hayling Christmas cracker pursuit as the series opener. unfortunately this falls on Christmas eve, however its a great excuse to avoid last minute shopping. The second event is New years day at Stokes bay – a great chance to relive the Nationals and imagine its 20 degrees warmer. After that we switch back to the more familiar winter jamborees – Bloodymary, Steve Nicholson at Northampton and the 2 day event at Rutland for the Tiger trophy. We decided to include HISC and Stokes as these are well attended by Moths anyway so we are sure of a good turnout. If your club hosts a big winter event and you are not on this years list please put your club forward for inclusion next year. Prize giving will be at the 2011 Nationals.

The Summer series is 99% complete and will posted on the website very soon. For me the highlight will be the Inlands at Ullswater SC. I learned to sail in the lake district and will be great to go and show off our class there. We also have our first northern fledgling fleet building there.

We will have all the usual venues and a welcome return to Weymouth in the shape of Castle Cove, it is looking like our best circuit yet – big thanks to Ricky Tagg for pulling this together.

To enable the a prize giving for the GP events at the Nationals we have switched the summer GP to run between national championships, so the events between March and June will count to the 2012 series. A new series will start post Nationals and run through to the 2013 Nationals but will remain separate from the winter series.

You may well have heard already that the 2014 worlds are coming to the UK. Hayling will host the event so tell your friends currently sailing floaters its time to learn to fly. They have two years to practice….

Stay in touch with whats going on via the UK website.

Happy Christmas and good winter sailing,

Mike Lennon.

However, there have been an influx of offers and bids from various clubs around the country that are very keen to stage the only real formula one on water nationals.
As the committee, are striving to ensure a Nationals with 60 plus boats like last years UK National each bid is currently being studied to ensure it provides members with a great venue at a good price and includes social events.

An update on the newly selected venue and dates will be posted soon, so you still have time to buy your boat and get ready for this great event.

The bid was led by the current UK Class Association Chairman, Mike Lennon, who had spent considerable time preparing for the bid. Now that the International Moth is being sailed across the world it is fantastic to see that our premier clubs in the UK, like Hayling Island can still compete.

There were 60 boats at the UK Nationals in 2011 and 100 boats at the Worlds in Australia, so its easy to see why Hayling was selected to host the event with its easy launching and the ability to race in the bay, if we have a typical British summer.

So, if you are thinking of taking up foiling Moths, there is no better time to start. The class is extremely friendly and has an active training programme. Training is provided by the top sailors in the class and they are more than willing to reveal all their top tips and share their wealth of knowledge to ensure you get the most out of your boat and enjoy every sail. With this support, it does not take long for anybody of any age and weight to get up to speed.

These days there are many secondhand foilers out there which are great to learn on and are more than capable of getting you in the top 10 at the Nationals.