Immediately prior to the Hayling Moth Open Simon Payne kindly set up a days Moth coaching. Whilst open to all Mothies, the focus was on the Mach 2 moth which is Simon’s specialist subject. Simon had detailed notes on set up and use provided by Mach 2 designer Andrew ‘AMac’ McDougall which he worked through and explained with the benefit of his own first-hand knowledge and experience as a double World Champion.

The aim was to enable both new and experienced owners to achieve more from their boats by producing an understanding and some golden rules for manoeuvres and set up.

Development never sleeps in the Moth class and, with exciting recent innovations in sail and foil design, the basic concepts in how the boats are set up and sailed are constantly challenged. Tuning and technique requires an ever open mind. Specifically, the little understood benefits of slack rigs (and quantifying ‘slack’!) was broached. The ‘fast point’ of wand to flap gearing was a new concept to many and one that takes some grasping, which was only possible with this type of focused session.

The schedule was to have a focused classroom session in the morning and to go afloat in the afternoon. However, with the wind piping above 20 knots and a low tide, it was agreed that continuing the theory ashore in the afternoon was most constructive. Following a Haying lunch we reconvened around a boat setup on its side to take a closer look at the morning’s theory. This provided everyone with plenty to think about and put into practice over the weekend’s open whilst also keeping their muscles fresh!

Many thanks to Simon for delivering a very informative and thought provoking session, to AMac for providing his detailed notes and to HISC for hosting.

The UK Moth class is committed to assisting both new and existing owners to get the most out of these immensely exciting craft. More training events are planned with several new fleets emerging around the country.