Over the next few months my humble home (or more precisely the garage/ workshop) will become Ninjaville. After a few conversations with Mike Cooke at the Hayling Island Tide Ride, I have decided to realise the dream and build my own moth from the ground up. Mike is hiring me the moulds from the Ninja MK1 whereby I’ll begin the build. Of course I’ll be cataloging everything on the website with it’s own homebuild section.

I will be assisted along the way by two spanish students by the names of Jordi and Javiao who are both studying Naval Architecture at Southampton and as part of their degree course will be building their own moth at a later stage and wanted to gain some extra first hand experience in the construction process.

Two years ago I first heard about moths and when I saw one, I dreamed that one day I would build my own. Well two years later and with a pending 40th birthday looming, I felt that now was the time to go for it having spent the last year learning about the boat setup and epoxies/ composites.

None of this would be possible without the encouragement from Mike or the skills I learnt from Graham Eeles so thanks to both of you!

I want to build the boat now, over the winter as I plan on doing the UK circuit next year culminating in the nationals and the Europeans so I want the bugs ironed out before I start the season to concentrate on boat handling.

Of course this does mean that my love affair with my Supermistress is coming to an end. She will be up for sale towards the end of the build (which if it goes accordingly, sometime in december/ jan) for sub £5k. She has served me well and I feel a definate sadness in seeing her go but I am sure she will be a great boat for a beginner/ intermediate as she is set up as best she can be with the latest foils, sail and everything else to make her easy to sail and most importantly foil gybe.

First stage is to prepare the garage and fit it out with some decent lighting courtesy of Jonnie who happens have sparky skills amongst other things. I am also going to get some additional bits and pieces to get the laminating environment right.

The build is planned to start sometime next month/ early december.