Fun in the Sun...

Yes, a great week here at Pro-Vela, Alan´s Moth camp at the Mar Menor. Great weather, the boats arrived in time, lot´s of help and tools from the pro-vela team to put the boats together, and of we went on to the water. You can see here three happy campers: AJ who is the red baron and man, did he buy speed. Of course he is very talented and a good boat can only help getting the best out the sailor using it. Than you can see KR, she has only started foiling this week and man, is she progressing. Her will-power to get up on the foils and flying was only dampened by Alan´s thorough training methods, when he strictly forbid foiling for the first sessions. Boat handling and understanding how it reacts comes first in his training methods. The training boat is in pristine conditions, newly rigged with a tramp, made by a sailmaker called Snail Sails. I do not get it. Do you? But the tramps are better than the one I had seen lately from one of our German Moth friends. Yes, and the proud owner of the new black beauty is me.

But my sailing is worse than average, I mean, my average. Maybe I will become the "famous Moth sailor" unable to foil jibe. Or I have to start a new (regatta) class for myself, forbidding to jibe and doing tacks instead. It is only the ever motivating Alan, who keeps me on track. But it is the choppy Mar Menor which is dampening my will-power and yesterday I gave up after only being out for 15 minutes. I unclipped the ball joint and sailed downwind back to the shore. But other than my own performance it is great being here when at home it barely gets above 10°C and the water not even in the double figure region. Hope you do enjoy your season start as well as we are doing. Over and out and back to school.

Moth EC - it´s real, the snow has arrived

Waking up this morning, there was some blue sky shining through the shades. Got up early and it was cold but the sun came up over the mountains. And there had been snow. Not just a little bit but as you see from the shot a bit more down to abt. 2200m. And we are at abt. 1800 m altitude. Lots of waterfalls and small rivers and all spend their ice cold water into the Lake Silvaplana. No wonder the Dutch Moths ventilated. Mine did not fly but that could have been another reason. Sweet-water kelp. Anyway during the day it started raining again, which made wet sanding easy for some participants with mud and garbage on the rigging area now taking over.

There had been a practice race today. And we had to collect our transponders to carry on the boat. Who in the world wlll know about the tracks of the sailors behind place 10? I was actually thinking about putting mine under the table in the tent (with tape) It would have looked like I am stationary at work here in Silvaplana and not drifting around on a cold, rainy day on some mountain lake. I am not sure who won that 4 lapper practice race. I was told that Nathan was circling around Simon but have no eye witness as I was in the way of Scot some times. Had a good lowriding race with Harald who beat me to the mark. We both had sailed 2 laps after having been lapped. But it seemed that nobody sailed up to the finish line and cared about a result. The official site (see Linklist) will have more information.

Tomorrow the weather will improve. I just heart from Markus that we will have 20kn of wind. Alright for me as I am still flying low. Have to work out better settings on the new boat.

Not Monster, but Moth Garage...

Packing up for the Moth EC at syzmotheuro2010.ch Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland caused some small headache. What goes where, what does fit and how much dismantling is necessary to load the boat on the camper. Decision time. The cat is not yet out of the bag but will be soon.

Looking forward to the road trip with family. "Sind wir bald da???" and other spectacles. I am looking forward to meet with friends and other sailors Entry List from around the World and my personnel goal is to have as few alphabets as possible and to get some scoring on the sheet. Of course fighting hard but not to bumb into anyone. Sailing fair. There is some internal competition between me and my fellow Moth friends Harald and Gerold. Two others from the German fleet have practiced for two full month and we will see how they are doing. Exciting days, I can tell you. Feels a bit like going for your first date.

Somer i Danmark. Moth racing in Horsens.

What a fantastic Moth racing weekend lays behind us. Two days of blazing around on foils against great competitors in an environment which could not be any better. First of all, the weather. Summer is back and as you can see from the headline, this is what makes people happy in Denmark. This is also the slogan for a great holiday country with quality food, camp sites and houses for rent. The Horsens Seijlclub had again called for the Moths to hold their annual summer regatta. The Horsens Fjord had been the location for a Moth Euro and a Worlds before. So it must be good there. The people must know what they are doing and it was an easy decision to enter for this regatta.

The hard core of the North German Bladerider fleet showed up together with three Danes and Leo from Berlin. This mixed up for a small competitive fleet of 7 Foiling Moths. This should be a good reality check for me as announced in the thread before. The wind had picked up to 4 Bft on the Saturday late morning (look at the picture) and the starting flag had been raised at 11.00h. Three laps up-and-down the Horsens Fjord, start near the marina was on the menue. Sven and Christian showed the way around the course with Leo close behind. My height had not been enough to hold them and I also need to find some more speed. But not all was bad for me. I sailed away with ease from Søren who had always been close to me during Kieler Woche. I was even able to lap him and the three guys in front did not lap me! Capsizing was not on my agenda for the first two races but than I got a bit tired and checked the water temperature more than once. I did not feel fit for a third round and waited a bit in the right hand downwind corner for Sven to lap me and sailed into the finish afterwards. Sven, Christian, Leo and me in front of the Danes. Not bad. Søren had organized a splendid evening dinner at the Yachtclub which should have at least 1 star for the cooking. Atmosphere was great. The little ones playing: "catch the crabs" or "playing the dog" and the grown ups sharing stories and red wine.

Sunday was the same pecking order, bar race one, when Christian beat Sven on the last downwind run. He did a better layline localization and Sven had to jibe two more times. Everything is possible with the right determination. The wind was just a fraction lighter as on Saturday and I felt very comfortable on the downwind runs. I enjoyed the sailing immensely and could not get the grin out of my face. Even in the second lap of the third race when I decided that enough was enough, I took "time out during a weed check" on the layline and waited for Sven again to lap me. It took long. Than jumping back on to the boat and foiling through the finish. My energy level down to zero. What a day. What a weekend. The sailing hours which I had put in are starting to show results.


The set-up of my boat is so much better than it had been in Kiel, though I doubt I could have placed any better. Just look for the results of Adam, Steen, Martin, Sven and others who sailed Kiel week before the Worlds. These guys are a good benchmark, though I heart last weekend that the top guys, like John Harris and Amac are "double as fast" as the ones mentioned here. I have to see this to believe it. Anyway, the speed potential of a foiling Moth is not only in the boat. It is mostly the sailor, once his set up is alright. I am hooked, I will go for more.

Click on picture and they will get bigger
Pic 1: Ramp in Horsens
Pic 2: Me through the Finish
Pic 3: Christian in front of Sven at Finish

Racing brought lots of fun

Not much time for a big report as I have to travel a bit. But for the ones who are eagerly waiting here are some more short cuts and photos:

OK, Sven won the regatta at the end after 2 very interesting races on the Sunday (6 races in total) with lot´s of foiling possible due to some nice gusts. Carlo had it in his hand to win but there was a moment when he tried to pass Sven, he got caught in the wash (turbulence) of Svens sail and capsized to windward. Sven won the regatta in typical style. He does the best Veal heel, he has control nearly all the times but with Carlo we have another real good sailor coming. I came 7th out of nine regulars, 10 participants all together which was totally OK for me. Tons of fun and learning from the top guys who are giving tips and encouragement to keep improving. Going to races is important as in every game but some small tricks I have to practise at home.

Something I reflected on the long journey home: Being really into trimming sails and set up of boats I totally forgot about the most important things when getting into foiling mode: To change the sail shape from full to flatter. Being exited about doubling (and more) the speed and passing other boats I forgot the basics of sailing. To shift gear! Like a beginner. Something I have to work on immediately. Full result sheet and a German report will be on the German Moth homepage. German Moth site

Agenda for the photos: My sailnumber on the Moth is not the usual "99" but GER-3170
Top picture is showing the Moth mess at the start line in very light wind.

The second picture is taken after last races start: Not the usual scene, me in front and the winners battling it out in the back. Sven in typical Veal heel style (white boat) and Carlo (1058) tried to block him out unsuccessfully. They had already caught me at the windward mark. Next time guys....

Third picture and rare scene: Me getting a gust and up to foiling and passing a competitor.

An evening out on the Moth

Yesterday, after getting ready with work and everything else like playing a round of football with the little one (got drubbed 4:5 and 2:5) I managed an hour af Mothing. Had to play against the wind (strong) and therefore got the idea of going sailing afterwards. A little more tweaking on the boat and a new, tighter tramp rig and it was already 19.00h. The wind from the east had calmed down to small white caps and about 4 Bft. I managed some good upwind legs though my upper legs hurted badly. Had good speed and a better boathandling than the other days on the reach/run but never a good jibe. Maybe I tried too hard. Ended up with the boom sticking into the air which than costs a lot of energy to get the boat into position for a re-start. Maybe I should try a more conservative approach to jibing first. Getting the boat low and safe around onto a tight reach to get it on foils and than bear away. But as a former slalom windsurfer I know what it costs dearly when you blow the jibe and have to go nearly upwind first when actually you want to head downwind.

Anyway it was a good session and I had seen some progress. Less time in the water and good solid flights. And as I used to say to my buddies: "It is the hours which you have spend on the rail that counts at the end. Talent is only 10-20 percent involved". Looking for more hours on the Moth as the temperature is raising now.

Edited: I ripped the above Foto from the Bladerider site to give my motivation a kick. I am a Regatta man and I should be able to do this...

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.

Taking Off...

Just wanted to check the weather via the homepage of my local sailing club, Schlei-Segel-Club, who have a good link to the local weather station. Uhhps, I came across some nice shots of myself on the Bladerider. Someone must have taken these during my last Bladerider practice session. They named it: " Abgehoben" which could be translated into "taking off". Hompepage Schlei Segel Club And YEAH! that´s what I want to do today after doing some homework around the house. Sun is shinning, Bft. 4 at present, gusting from the north, but later shifting into the west. See you out there!

Moth Adventures

Blogging had been quiet at the Moth front with our Bladerider, though it seems that at present I am the only one to put energy into getting some hours on the boat, GER-3170, lately. Let me sum up the last adventures. The picture shows me on my first day out. Style has improved a lot since than... ;-))

Last week on Wednesday evening there appeared a good chance for sailing though it was already around 18.00h but the breeze was cooperating. Nice 8-10kn of wind on my homewater (if there is such). I blasted around on foils, "impressing" my sailing friends who were doing the "beer can race". Lot´s of fun. Big grin. Of course I tried to sail the race as well but did not want to get into their way as capsizing the Moth is still happening in the worst moments with me. There had been a Europe dinghy and a Formula Board in the fleet of normally X-99s, X-79s, H-boats, Folkboats and others. Going to windward, not as high as the bigger boats and falling into their wind shadows did hurt. Capsizing of course. I avoided the crowded mark rounding and tried to set myself up for a nice downwind run. Got flying but could not make good VMG to leeward. Lowrider jibing still critical and afterwards nearly going into the wind to get flying did not help either. The Formula Board was long gone as well as the fleet under spinnaker. Some lulls cost me more distance and I was neck to neck with the Europe. The wind had dropped and I could not even sail as low and fast as young Adrian did. My lowriding ability not being good enough to match him. I stayed off the race course got back were there was more wind due to the impacting effect on the narrow and blasted around on foils. 16-18kn on the Velocitek not being a problem. Practising my downwind skills.

I went out again on the Thursday full of energy from the day before but it was windy and shifty, wind from the North over the narrow and the fun factor was nearly down to zero. I am not yet able to handle the gusts. I limped home, my ego was broken for the evening due to the many capsizes.

Wednesday evening this week I gave it another try. Fully motivated it was a nice evening out there with some tacks and jibes but all maneuvers need much, much more improvement. I am very grateful for the tips from Koos ( http://internationalmoth.wordpress.com/) as usual. He writes it up in such a nice way. I wasn´t ready to cope with the downwind speed of the beer can racers again as I did not get the BR flying in the dying evening breeze. With maybe 20kg less weight it could have been possible but than, being 190cm tall, I already have to watch to keep a certain weight instead of loosing more. Nevertheless in the narrow I met with my regular Bull crew, Jan, who was sailing his 14 (footer dinghy) and there were times when I could cope with his upwind speed, just about. But it got late already, the breeze died and I had to sail home. Downwind it was another slow go. I undid the wand to increase speed a bit. Being alone at the club and wanting to take the daggerboard out of the boat it was impossible. Really impossible. Some sand must have got in between the very narrow and fitting box. I had to strip the rig from the boat in the water and had to carry the boat with centerboard/foil ashore, where I laid it upside down on the cover into the club. It was getting dark and I had promised to do some household work before going out sailing. Bloody me. Lot´s of water and wash lotion helped me to get the board out next day and I can only recommend to wash or splash water into the slot before attaching the boards. As with any dinghy...I know! Stupid me.

Yesterday I went out again for an hour of nice foiling. I met the youngsters in their 29ers and could match their speed up-and downwind, as long as I was able to foil. Nice! My shoulder gave me problems after some tough hiking (why the shoulder?) and Veel-heel but it was another "happy" evening. The youngsters wanted to give the BR a try but due to the maintenance work which has to be done afterwards, especially when newbies are sailing the boat and maybe hitting some underwater object in the area, I am not fond of this idea at present. It might change with time. Thinking back, nobody had ever let me have a go e.g. on his DN iceboat or his FD and I had to work hard to buy myself into it in my mid twenties. Times have changed and these 17 years old, sailing a club 29er, are just used to ask for (and get?) everything and I hope that they are also used to accept a NO.

Breathless in Australia, but "King of the Schlei"...

Last week we had set up a little Moth training on the Schlei, the "Fjord" which is connected to the Baltic Sea where I live. A friend, Peter, came along with his pregnant wife Mellie and three sons (10,12,14 years old), and they brought with them: a Laser, a 29er, a RIB and a Bladerider Moth. You guess it, the Bladerider belongs to the father and the two of us wanted to practice a little bit together. For the followers of the Bladerider story and namely the one who regularly read Rohan Veals Blog you might remember Peter as the German guy who forgot to breath when he was out for the first time on the "flying machine" at Black Rock, Australia. Peter is distributor for RONSTAN and other Marine Hardware. He had been out on the boat for only 2 sessions before and I had 5 whilst the last one (I haven´t reported about it....) had been less exiting. To say the least. It was blowing 12-15 kn, I thought I could handle it but the boat showed me the "middle finger". OK, there was no other one out there that evening, no one to rescue me, just in case and I realized pretty soon that the boat would drift away from me after a capsize, drifting away quicker than I was able to swim. Therefore I might have been a little bit too "ängstlich". Also I had the feeling that the boat was sticky. Did not really want to fly.

OK, came last week with two Bladeriders out in a nice breeze, Peter has shown lots of talent. His airtime was only to be stopped by the shoreline and necessary maneuvers whilst my airtime was limited and my day out shortcut by a broken swivel. No spare part available gave me such frustration in the early afternoon that I was not able to do something about it and I only watched Peter flying past, than Kerstin on Peters boat and the absolute shocker: The 12 and the 14 years old just did it. No fuzzing around. Getting on the boat, taking off and doing some nice runs. Amazing and a prove that the product is a good one. Absolute beginners just doing it! In hindsight I think that the swivel on my boat broke, because some of us, mabye me, might have catched the wand under water whilst swimming around the bow. The wand is fixed in a Teflon swivel and after a while this part broke and the wand could not "get me up". Later that afternoon I took the part into my workshop, found a nice little solid carbon block, flexed it into shape, drilled the necessary holes and back to the boat and fixed it. There was still the Thursday left for two boat sailing. Bladerider also confirmed immediate despatch of a spare part. Thursday there was only very light wind but we were so keen to sail that we got both boats out and did a bit of light air practice. It was fun. It seemed that we both had read Koos Blog: Flying a Moth for starters who gave the tip to free the daggerboard foil and take the wand out of the water. Lowriding the Moth in these conditions needs concentration and is some kind á fun. Some pumping action, some OK and some bad tacks and than we got stuck on the downwind home. We called for the RIB and each of us put a wing up on one side of the powerboat, set on it and drove home to the club. De-rigging, packing up and a promise to do it again. It is fun with one Moth but it doubles the fun with two! By the way: the picture above shows Peter at his third day out! Click on the picture and look at the GPS speed.

More Airtime...

Sharing the Bladerider with three people and only having time in the evening is not helping personnel progress as "time in the boat" is limited. On the other side: What can you do or are you able to improve, when you are totally exhausted both from the exiting experience and the powerful work-out which the boat gives to you. Remember the story on Rohan´s website about our German friend Peter, who forgot to breathe during his first outing on the Foiler-Moth. They had to bring him to the shore.

We have not forgotten to breathe but two or three 30 - 45 minute sessions where enough to get us a large grin in the face and to be exhausted and happy from the new experience on and in the water. In the meantime we had recovered in the standby motorboat, took drinks and photos and enjoyed the sight of the fellow colleague, (flying) who always tried to put in a show. Very often we were shouting and cheering full of appreciation and enjoyment.

Somewhere I read that you will need 4 days to overcome the first hard part to enter the boat and to get going well. To have some real fun. It was our goal to overcome the first 4 days and than start to go up-and downwind and that is what we did yesterday. By the way, Kerstin only needed one day, Bjoern abt. 2 days and I needed the full three days. Due to the weight and only 6-8kn of wind, Bjoern and myself did not have as much airtime as Kerstin but we started to enjoy the up-wind sailing in the low rider mode. It is pretty fast and so much fun to be in control. Why haven´t I started Mothing more early. The 60kg lightweight singlehander-skiff "Seggerling", which I owe, is a dog against the Bladerider. OK, I am not spending time _in the water_ with it, but it feels heavy. Will everything feel heavy now?

Day four: Back to yesterday. You can see from the three shots (from top to bottom) that we much enjoyed our airtime. Bjoern does some good reaching on the foils. Kerstin does some fast apparent down-wind-sailing and I tried the Veal-heel and capzised to windward. I always capsize to windward, trying, what seems to be common in the class. Healing over to windward. A good day for all of us. Oh, and again I forgot to mount the Velocitek. Nothing broke, the water nice and warm, sun shining, just a little lack of wind for the boys.

Instead of going cruising the upcoming weekend, we will put in more hours in the Bladerider and we do hope the weather cooperates. The next racing (hasn´t this been the intention of this blog??) will be in the X-79 class at the end of August. We will sail the German Championship close to home. An opportunity we could not miss.

Flying the Moth...or not...

Intro: Regular readers might have noticed that besides my dinghy and keelboat activities, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Bladerider Moth. This very interesting boat had been ordered by me and my CTM team during hanseboot show at exact 10.01h. One minute after the official opening of the show did we place an order with Rohan. I must say, the waiting was long but worth it. It arrived last week and the Bladrider looks the business! All these shining carbon parts are fitting beautifully into our workshop. But that is not the intention of the boat. We want to go sailing.

First Day: Friday 3rd. Late afternoon.
We have assembled it with ease and taken to the water on Friday evening last week. We were three and had a powerboat standby for rescuing if necessary. Being the boss it was my turn at first and I think, it threw me off at least ten times until I managed to sit and sheet in. We were in a wind shadow but my movements had not been coordinated. Lowriding was not easy for me and a couple capsizes later Bjoern jumped into the water. Being an avid A-Cat sailor he managed it better than me, to get on board. Weighting abt. 100kg he did a couple capsizes with easy righting and than he "flew". Wow! A spectacular capzise and some exhausting swimming he handed the "Brute Machine" over to me again. With wind in the sail I managed decent waterstarts, pull your body on to the boat whilst sheeting in and keep the balance whilst the boat starts sailing. Grab the tiller, bear away and get on the wing. I was slipping off the wing with my Musto Wetsuit. No way of sitting there. Had to organize my legs, tiller and sheet. Got sailing the thing. Got it into the air. Flying for about a minute...no not true, for 10 seconds. The wand came out of the water and than the bow first into the pond. Autsch. I remember I managed a slow, slow tack and a decent lowrider mode jibe. That was OK for me for the day. I handed over to Bjoern and after some: "I start flying" and capzising, the boom broke. De-rigging on the water was not easy with all the screws on the shackles. No screwdriver on hand. We got the boat home and the boom into our composite workshop.

Second Day:
The boom being repaired overnight and some hooks installed instead of screwed on shackles, we also limited the amount of rudderway with elastic. The rudder should hold itself in the middle which makes starting more easy. And it was. Wearing shorts over the wetsuit helped me getting organized on the trampoline. Getting on to the boat being no problem on the second day. Sailing in lowrider mode not a problem. We did not measure the wind, we did not mount the Velocitec but Bjoern and myself had some good success with 30-60sec airtime. Dropping off mostly to windward with the bow too high. Time to think about the adjustments maybe. Body movements forward etc.
After our go and being exhausted from swimming and righting we handed the boat to the girl. Kerstin climbed the Moth and moved like a cat. Lowriding looked easy, she did not capsize and got it on a "flight" with ease. So excited she was that she steered into the wind and capsized after a flight half across our homewater. Unbelievable. Than the righting became a little problem for her, she got exhausted and handed the boat over to us. Impressive how we improved by the hour. More time on the boat, less time swimming. We also had our computer guru with us. Arne, a cat sailor also had a go. First he just climbed the boat without problems, sailed well in lowrider mode and later when he had some airtime he dropped off the boat and the Bladerider kept on sailing. We had to catch it with our little powerboat. We would not recommend the elastic on the rudder for people sailing alone without assistance. We will demount it later when we have more experience but at present it is a hit. Nothing broken on the day, some very happy faces, smiles all over and we put the boat back in the shed. Lot´s of bruises and blue patches on legs and arms but fun it was.

Third Day:
Sunday there was no wind and besides ourselves really wanting to have another go we kept our cool and did not even try it. It would have been frustrating in drifter conditions. Monday evening after work we had another go. The Bladerider hard core Team: Kerstin, Bjoern and myself. Everybody showed good improvement, airtime and quick righting maneuvers. Not that we sailed like the team riders in the many promotion videos, no no. But everyone had decent airtime. I could handle it quite well on starboard tack but always dropped of to windward on the port tack. Worth mentioning is our ability to sail upwind and downwind and Kerstin showed a really good stunt flying the machine high and dry and capsizing it in front of the boatshed. That was the best and longest controlled foiling of all the sessions so far. Today we are healing our wounds, the sore muscles need to relax and some minor boatwork has to be done. We will try again mid of the week. I have to re-read the manual and start thinking about the adjustments. The decision to buy a company Bladerider is a good one. Some like to fly, some like to assemble and to repair the beautiful carbon parts. I know it is too early to go racing for me but we will catch up on our foiling skills pretty soon.