Moth Fest Report

Saturday, 22nd of May, 10.30h, high Altitude above the clouds on my way home from the Moth Fest. Yes, flying in the Air and not flying on the foils as most of the other participants will just do in the final races at the Moth Fest in Mar Menor. What an incredible week it was. I had arrived last Sunday just in time for the briefing given by Simon Payne and Alan Hillman. I had missed the Paela but than I did not had to assemble my boat as I had chartered one of Alan´s well prepared Bladeriders. I will not be able to report day by day as the days flew by quicker than I can remember. There was sailing everyday and there were lectures and training and a mixture of fun races. The last one will stick in my memory for long. The "around the Island and than head for beach bar" event on my last day. It was blowing 15kn and it was a long distance group flight. Not sailing for first or last but staying together as a group of 12 sailors and foiling along with 15-20kn of speed on a tight reach and than after rounding the island letting it loose on the downwind to the bar. There were some very fast Brits reaching 23+ kn on their GPS´s.

After some great laughs, a good conversation and food and drinks we hit to the water again and foiled home from the Beach Bar. The waves and wind had builded up a bit and some participants reported about nose dives later on. I had a great ride but due to the speed and splash of the water into my face I lost my ML sunshade. A pity but it was the only loss on the trip. My luagage is more heavy than on the way in as adding the Sponsors give aways and prizes, I take more things home than I got on my way out to Narejo, Mar Menor.

Tuesday, 25th, after recovering from the trip: It is the one thing which strikes my mind and gave me inspiration to this blog entry (all day by day action you can read elsewhere, go to: Moth Blogger News...) I think the heart and soul of this great event had been David Hillman. Besides giving a helping hand and tools to anyone requesting he took care of so many things in the background which made us all feel like home. The ones who had not been to Alan´s PRO-VELA sailing school before could of course not have noticed the changes in and around the place to make it most comfortable for us. From the sun umbrella to the big empty space for the rigging area and the preparation for hanging up the sails over night without de-rigging, everything was well sorted. As I was not there on the Sunday for the last prize giving and usually I am the one to bring out cheers for the organizers and helpers let me do this here: To Alan, to David and to all the Gentlemen helping out on the rescue boats: You did a phantastic job. You promissed a great event and you delivered. Three cheers and a big "HIPP HIPP HURRAY" "HIPP HIPP HURRAY" "HIPP HIPP HURRAY".

Latest News from Aussieland

Training in "winter mode" down under. Scott Babagge, John Harris, Dave Lister and friends are practicing for the upcoming worlds in Belmont, AUS. Have a look at: Aussie Moth practice session Great innerview and video about their sailing in front of the Sydney Opera.

Report about the great Moth Fest in Mar Menor, ESP tomorrow.

It is disgusting...

Yes, I have read about it. Yes, I care but sometimes not enough. This morning I saw a big plastic sheet swirling in the wind towards the shore from the works at the new building taking place right in my neighborhood. A 5 story monster, 4 in a row only 40 metres away from the shore. The EU regulation, FFH states clearly that within towns the distance should be 50m and outside towns it should be 100m. But this is not my theme today. Before going to work I walked to the beach which is a nice "green" and picked up the huge plastic sheet before the offshore wind would blow it into the Fjord. Nothing to rant about. But the eyes from the workforce, people looking and shaking their heads was a bit disturbing.

Being at work and going through my regular SA frontpage reading I came across a link and an article which reads: Plastics-in-our-Ocean I know you know this but it had been the bullet points which cannot be brought to attention often enough.

- Use durable fabric shopping bags;
- Whenever possible, choose bio-plastics, glass or paper;
- Return broken plastic goods to the manufacturer;
- Please do not litter.;
- Pick up a piece of plastic on your way home from sailing and place it in a recycling bin;
- Support environmentally responsible companies who are recycle plastic.
- Compost and recycle everything you can;
- Sweep your sidewalk rather than hosing it;
- Buy in bulk, avoiding smaller containers that will need to be disposed of;
- When appropriate, send letters to companies about over packaging or plastic packaging;
- Buy less and when you do make a purchase, avoid excessive packaging;
- Repair whatever goods you can before considering replacing them;
- If you live near a body of water, volunteer to help clean up the trash;
- Reuse flimsy plastic bags used for bulk purchases or choose paper instead.
- Cut the rings of plastic six-pack holders, which lowers the chances of entanglement with marine animals should that holder make it out to sea.

Please think about like me, going out to your local sailing club and have a little speech about this to the junior sailors. Make it clear that they do not want to capsize due to a plastic bag in the water. They shall care about the fish in the sea, about the environment. Sometimes I think about myself having developed a bad habit of picking up glass-and plastic bottles from the beach but I think the times they are changing. People will recognize it and in future more people will adopt the same habit. Hopefully. So please, keep the shores clean.