Moth World´s in Hawaii 2013

No excuse for not blogging since long time. Life had some cross roads for me and I am still not sure if I took the right exit. But all is coming together and as I thought since long about the opportunity to sail the Moth´s WC in Hawaii this year, I had searched for a web page yesterday and with the help of Mike L. and Scott B., I did find the link behind the Nathan O. photo on the IMCA website. To make live more easy for myself and for you Moth guys out there, I have put a direct link on the right side as usual. I should definitely increase my small amount of Moth sailing and do more exercise, but it ain´t easy, mate. I will attend the Euro Cup regatta at Lake Walchensee, which I am looking forward to. So, all in all a good day today. Have put my entries down for two upcoming big Moth events, have booked the flights and hopefully the accomodations will be accepted. Now it is about preparation of myself and the boat. Business as usual but more difficult with age.

As I have two great MACH2 boats (with all options) at present due to lifes circumstances, I am willing to sell one directly after the Worlds in Hawaii. Anyone out there reading this, should request for details and pricing. It will be a good opportunity to purchase a boat which had not been sailed much and which is upgraded with RHA and Adjustable Wand.

For my friends out there, following the AC, and I am excited about the racing to begin (hopefully) here is agood shot showing the asymetrical rudder rom ETNZ. Every Moth sailor will understand what Dean Barker said about "a man falling overboard and maybe being sliced by the rudder foil if sticking out of max boat width". And I am sure these asy rudders need special reinforcements and I cannot understand the dispute which we have as per today in the AC. I am happy that my Moth and Sails are being measured and class legal. 

Smooth sailing everyone out there!

Photo Credit goes to Chris Cameron of ETNZ

Off to the DN European Championship

Less drag by bending the mast in the "right" direction

Long time , no hear. Suffering from a very bad mutant (?) flu it took me a lot of days to get back in shape and also to prepare my DN equipment which I had neglected last year after coming back from Sweden. Had been out racing 5 weeks ago and realized, something has to be done. Runner sharpening and alignment. Time consuming and difficult to really get into it when there are so many distractions. We are living in a very difficult business climate and nobody really knows when and if things will pick up again. In the marine trade business we thought that it cannot get any worse but every month shows that we seem not to have reached the bottom yet. Ask your friends, they might come up with the same answers all around the world. 

Picture shows a price which I had donated to our president, who is searching by plane for the best ice conditions all over Europe

But lets not be too negative here. I am looking forward to meet with friends from all over the iceboating world. Though it is a European Championship we have participants as usual from the USA and we have Karol Jablonski, P-736, back in the fleet, sailing the DN. I really wonder why he has not been invited to share ideas and to sail one of the foiling monsters, the AC72´s. He has done a Tornado Olympic campaign. Several times DN World Champion, knows all about apparent wind sailing and sniffs the gusts, due to many, many hours on the ice where you cannot "see" the wind. Same with Ron Sherry, US-44, also a multi former World Champion. 

From a Moth point of view it is a pity that Amac cannot make it. He was very interested to sail a DN regatta and I am sure the sport would suit him. He had to cancel due to business committments. I had prepared my reserve boat for him and really aligned some nice runners for this boat. I think that Amac is looking into possibilites about how to make the Moth rig faster. As I had said in some sailing forums long time ago, it is all about drag. And if you look at the DN picture above, the drag can be reduced with the help of the bending. But in the case of the DN, tests had brought the best results with the "odd" triangel shape of the sail. A fat head sail with a short foot leech did not work at the time of testing. This might change with more testing but in the meantime we are all happy with the rig of our iceboats and we love to bend it to leeward which is enabling the "turbo" to accelerate the boat like there is no tommorow. Look at this video. No drag from the bottom, the runners, just the drag, the driver and the boat and the rig are producing. Reducing the drag in the water is also what the current developement in the AC72´s is looking for. Yeep, they are foiling.