Three Mothies on a Melges 24

No, no, we do not want to compete with Bora, who actually wants to become the World Champion 2011 in the Melges 24 class in the windy Corpus Christi of USA this year. At least what I interpreted from reading some sailing sites.

We sailed the beer-can-race on Wednesday night in a boat, borrowed to me by my friend Jürgen, who took the pain to put his boat "Henry Lloyd" into water, but than he had to travel home for abt 120km for a business date, fixed some time ago. It was the start of the season. So it was me to search for crew in the last minute and I checked in with Markus and Nina, who were still around in the area for some Moth sailing and testing some lakes for our upcoming Moth training camp. One of Jürgen´s crew joined us and off we sailed, racing against the clock (Yardstick) and boats like the X-99, X-34, X-79´s, H-Boats, etc. Not a big deal, we rounded the weather mark in third behind bigger boats and with Markus experience on the G-sail from his 49er campaign, we VMG´ed fast to the leeward mark. It was all fun and a good evening sail. The air was warm and we were in good company. As the three Mothies of us are usually singlehanders, everyone had a turn on the tiller. Nina found it a bit awkward that the boat heeled to leeward after she had trained hard for windward heel under the auspices of Markus. Yes, and the mainsail did not look as nice as a cambered KA moth sail does. And with a bit of lead on the bottom, it won´t fly.

As nobody took photos from the Wednesday night regatta, I´ll post here the winner of our Moth event, Markus. He is just rounding the leeward mark. You can see the Schleswig Dom in the background and the old town, the Fisherman´s village is to the right. Photo courtesy by Anja Rupp.

If you have time to waste...

From the last weekend regatta, the "Carbon- Motte". Anja just published hers and other photographers photos on Picasa. There are some great shots and the winner in posing is again Hannes. What is it, that makes him always looking smart on the photos. If you see him foiling and being so relaxed on his Bladerider, don´t you think, you also want one? Anyone looking out for a used boat to start with, here is a linky: Used Moths for sale

And if you have time to waste, have a look here:

87 photos from Anja on: Anja´s Photos
92 photos from Randolf: Randolf´s Photos
49 photos from Andri: Andri´s Photos

Thank you Anja for all your great work for the Moth Class. Thank you again to all participants and especially for all those who helped us with all sorts of things, hands on, to make this a great event. A truly regatta from sailors for sailors. Hope to see you all again in October and I can promise you already now: a "Sauna on the beach".

Demolition Derby and than you need service...

What a great Moth regatta we had sailed over this past May weekend. Blue sky and the wind was nuking in the 20kn range and gusting up to 25kn with a fair bit of 10° direction changing. 13 Moth sailors from all over Germany participated but the early season and the strong breeze took it´s toll on the boats and on the bodies of the sailors. Only 2 sailors, Markus, GER-3732 and Hannes, GER-3444 survived the 6 races held on Saturday and Sunday. Nothing beats experience and these two great sailors have both a 49er Olympic Campaign behind them with Hannes, together with his brother, taking Bronze in the windy 2008 Quingdao races. You guys done the fleet proud.

Anyway a more complete report and a link to great fotos will follow later. This is about how to fix and how to get spares for our beloved boats. We are in Germany and this is not really Mothland when seen through the eyes of the current bread of highTech boats. So for broken booms, broken tillerarms, for the necessary RHA (ride-height-adjuster) and various other bits and peaces my first choice now, are the people at SailingBits., Australia. Have a look at their website: sailingbits.
They do understand that we do not want to waist our time waiting for answers, waiting for spares, they just do it. They offer at competitive prices, take in the order and the moonies and despatch immediately by courier or fast AUSSIE post. That is what I call great service. For the Newbies in the Moth class, John Harris won 2008 the World Champion (on a Bladerider) so he knows what he is talking about. His winning championship boat is now owned by Felix S. which brings me to say "THANK YOU" to Felix in the name of all the competitors from the "Carbon-Motte" event. Felix donated vouchers, specially for this event through his company: alendra.de, who are supplying clothes and other sailing related gear. I would say: For sailors body and soul requirements, first have a look at the alendrashop Felix text message to me, that I should hand out one voucher for every competitor, came a bit late and therefore we only issued 3 vouchers, polite as we are. Maybe I can take his word and use ALENDRA again next time at the autumn event or at Lake Goldberg, when the next regatta, sponsored by CTM will take place. Please feel free to leave your "mark" on the Facebook site if you like it.

Full results list from the Carbon-Motte here: German Moth Class and an article SHZ, vom 9.5.2011 about the CTM "Carbon-Motte" was printed in the local newspaper today and can be seen on the German Moth site where a hundred fotos and videos, courtesy by Anja @ Mottenfieber.de will appear soon. Fotos on this blog entry courtesy by Andreas Borrink.

Thanks for the inspiration Andrea!

Coming weekend we will sail for the "Carbon-Motte" trophy here in Schleswig, North Germany. We have 15 sailors from Germany and Denmark signed in at the moment and maybe some others will come out of the bushes in the last minute. You never know. The weather only turned into nice and sailable just recently. Before the water had been in the single figure temperature range. You know, this range where the foils loose grip in the water...

I was inspired to produce this challenge trophy after reading Andrea´s blog entry about a Moth-Carbon-Key-Ring. Have a look yourself at: carbon-fiber-key-ring. The photo is a bit rough, taken on the iPhone and it does not show the fine woven carbon fabric and the 8mm solid carbon plate (infusion technique) from which we milled the Moth. The trophy has to be challenged every year either here on the Schlei, as long as I am able to put my Moth into the water or maybe somewhere else. I am not donating a trophy again in a class with one outstanding sailor (Sven K. in this instance, whom I think would walk away with the trophy after 3 wins in a row) without putting it onto an "endless challenge" Nobody will win it forever. Like one of these great trophies, like the Admiral´s Cup, the Commodore´s Cup, the Roosevelt Cup and many others. It just lacks a bit of height and silver, this Carbon-Moth. But than, is black carbon of today not the silver of yesterday?

On a different note I promised to write about some misshapes on my boat due to my own repairs and some spares which I had used and which did not do the job properly. I have lost a wand in the process, had water in the bow, was fighting with the cambers and slacking hiking straps but now the boat #3627 seems to be in good shape. Thanks to sailingbits and thanks to Amac . Hope everything will work out fine on the weekend and I will not miss the races due to boat problems. Will keep you updated.

Anyone interested in the German press release about the regatta, follow this link: SA-Cup Germany

Moth Ramblings...

Reading the latest in the Moth-blog-world by Cookie, I am under the same impression like him, that professionalism must have taken over way too much and has taken time away from fellow mothies which usually they had spent for the blogosshere. Yes, I am missing the ramblings from a few great sailors and especially the comments which are following them usually. I do hope that Simon P. will keep us entertained as well as educated. (What would I have done without his tips about the draining hole positions in the M2. Maybe I would have hacked a draining hole which would: "look like you cut(hacked)that first hole with a wet fish!!!", according to a quote by Marty J in the following blog entry: m-m-m-m-mach2-mod/

And that reminded me about writing about some misshapes or mistakes or misfortunes I had lately after coming back from some great and some not-so-great-sailing in Spain. Don´t get me wrong here, I am not blaming anyone, I am purely blaming the messenger. Where should I start? Maybe a good idea to start with the "finding of the names" session for Kerstin´s GER-3627 (new MSL10 and soft mast) and my new GER-3835 (old MSL13 and stiff mast) Just for the reference, both are M2´s and my Bladerider went to a happy new owner in Holland. Yes, I do not name my DN´s though I have various hulls, I am purely known as G-99 as we are keeping our registration numbers for a life time. Not that I started the DN sailing some 50 years ago, which the number would assume. No, I bought my first boat (a wreck) from a gentleman who decided to retire from the sport and he donated this great number to me. Anyway, I am sometimes a traditionalist and real boats shall have names. I was reminded by one great blog entry (AGAIN!) by Simon P. and I never felt comfortable having a new or used (3627) Moth and not naming it. This we now wanted to change for the two Moth´s and martyred our brains. She came up with the great name ORANGE, as her first Moth (complete different story) which had never been finished by the builder, was supposed to be painted in part orange and some visible clear carbon. Yes, and I came up with the simple solution to name the new one, MOTTE.

Man, we got hammered or verbally beaten by Alan at Pro-Velaonce we mentioned the names in a light evening conversation. He must be an authority in English Yachting rules. Wait for what he has in mind for the upcoming Moth Fest. What a laugh we had that evening, how negative the words sounded when he spoke them out and yes, it began to sink into me that "Agent ORANGE" can be a very bad association. And this in the middle of all the Orange plantations down there in Murcia, Spain. Just think about how these beautiful trees would look like without leafs. And also think about the "all-orange" sail, where the sailmaking people must have understood something wrong from K´s wishes to have some orange applications (reinforcements or such). It must be the language barrier which had played a big part to make a whole sail in orange. It reminds me to the meaning of the "Morning Glory". A great boatname, for a string of successful German Yachts, but a nasty meaning in Aussie slang. Or would you really let the world know you have a: "....". It is the language barrier, I told you. OK, ORANGE will now be named GOLDFISCH, which shall reassemble the color scheme of the sail well.

A different story for my own findings in the word: MOTTE, for the new GER-3835. Avid readers will associate this rightly with Moth. Just the English word put into understandable German. What is wrong with it? No phantasy, a lack of wit I was told whilst we had a big laugh about the theme. To make a long story short, Alan came up with the new name of LUNA. He told me, it stands for Moth in some other language, but carries a lot more phantasy... Yes, hopefully.

So time is limited today and though I wanted to add some useful information about the repairs I had to do on 3627 which did not all come out successful and which kept me busy more than one evening, but I spare that for next time. Hopefully before the upcoming weekend where I am organizing a Moth regatta Regatta: "Carbon-Motte"on my home waters. As per today we have an international field signed up and the best German sailors have also signed in. You should not miss it. If it does not blow stinks from the East, like the last 8 days, (up to 30kn/h) we will have a great weekend.