First Days of Sailing the Moth this year

Second Day of Mothing
OK, back to blogging. The weather changed overnight and with it the wind became an onshore breeze. The sun disappeared behind big grey clouds and the shore break did not look inviting. Nevertheless I rigged the Bladerider and worked (walked) my way through the shore break. Got on the boat fine. Flying not really a problem. Upwind not pointing very high. Tacks were slow and bad, some with sailing backwards. Downwind the sailing was fine but however I tried to jibe I put the thing into the water. 13° C definitely better than the 5 ° C at home. But I lost my power quite soon cause of the capsizes and I knew I needed some fitness to get the boat through the breaking waves on to the beach in one piece. Oh, I am still fitting the blades outside in the chest high water and do the de-rigging there as well. The new centreboard foil sank to the ground and did not come up as the older one used to do.

Third Day of Sailing
Still a nice onshore breeze and meanwhile Felix had the new boat “Orange” rigged and ready to sail. We changed into the bay nearby where we did not have to fight the breaking waves and starting the Foiler Moths was easy. “Orange” should have been sailed by Kerstin but due to special circumstances she let Felix do the first sail and decided to do some photos. It was OK out there but again only for a short period after which I got exhausted. A bit early and again I thought I should start a fitness program. The “Orange” did not last very long, back to the workshop was the motto. But it was got to see some progress on the flap mechanism which worked well.

Fourth Day of Mothing
The day after packing up Felix gear, we decided that he and Claus should have a go on the Bladerider to get some airtime. Felix did the first session but I think he only managed about 5cms. He acted way too much as a lowrider with the boat heeled to leeward. Of course he blamed the wind which was also right. It just was not enough breeze for his weight to get him up on the foils. It was time for Claus. A first timer and he did very well. He got up on the foils easy, did some tacks and tried some jibes (of course not on foils). His fitness is great and he is not one to give up. He foilded and capsized until I think Felix called him in via some family magic. Felix in the meantime had talked to Kerstin and got some tips which worked well for him. He got up on the foils and you could hear him scream. Full of joy and exitement. After Felix had put in a good session it was my turn. I had some fun, tried again to jibe on foils but are still sofar away from being able to handle this manoeuvre. A few capsizes later I packed it in.

The weather changed again the next day. Sunny but brisk and some offshore wind. No way I would try it again. Our friends had already hit the road and we decided to change place and to visit friends near Cannes. We did an adventure trip across one of the Cols (small mountains) due to me believing the GPS navigator and not my good sense and we ended up on a very twisty and narrow road. With the Van and the boat on the trailer is was no fun and at one time we were blocked by oncoming traffic for more than half an hour. No way for us to move back and the Frenchies insisted on their rights in their homecountry. Bloody Germans what are they doing here… OK, not that bad but they showed us that this was not a road to be taken by van and boat.