Despite the outward appearance that I am a laid back kind of guy, I suffer from the inability to sit still and so it came to pass that I wanted to figure out a way of taking the already successful Mach 2 adjustable wand and making it better.

The result is pictured above, six months of r&d with Chris Rashley, a self taught course in composite tooling, a few discussions with Kevin Ellway and hey presto… the brand new 2012 mach2 adjustable wand.

The tooling path takes everything to whole new level and there is nothing (well nearly nothing) more satisfying than cracking the part out of the mould and seeing a near perfect finish straight off. Yes it now takes longer to manufacture and the cost has gone up a bit but I believe it’s well worth the effort put it.

The new construction process has meant that the wand block is now bombproof (not including dropping the boat on the nose or trying to rip the wand off when walking past!) and should hold up to the rigours of open sea sailing which we discovered at Stokes Bay nationals last year is a totally different ball game to pond sailing because of all of the point loading that occurs in a typical force 4 upwards sea state. I’ve also been able to reduce the slop in the system with the wand block and wand which means better feedback and less ‘wand chatter’.

The block is fully upgradable as are all parts so last years can be slipped off and replaced with this years.

The Ninja version (below) was in production at the start of January and so far has proven to be very solid indeed.

I’m starting work on the tooling for the 2012 Bladerider version which should be available towards the end of February.

We’ve put a lot of thought in to the paddle (yes often overlooked) and the way in which it interacts with the foils and believe we have improved “paddle wash” which turned out to be an issue with the Ninja and the latest set of foils.

I’ve also re engineered the wand and paddle based on all of the feedback from last year (Thanks Connie for your detailed comments!)

With the Worlds being at Garda, I imagine that the adjustable wand will come in to it’s own as apparently the chop there can be “interesting”!

Unbelievably we got yet another session in yesterday (27th) with a wind/temperature window which allowed the Stokes moths to fly once more and probably for the last time in 2011. Current forecasts have the winds hovering between 23 – 40 knots for the next week solid so it’s unlikely that we’ll get another chance this year.

The order of play today had Chris down as task master who coached us through several races. It was all very tight as the standard has improved so much between us all. The only way to win was to minimise errors. We had another good turnout with the notable return of Jonnie Hutchcroft. He had a few set up issues and a broken boom but hopefully it won’t be long before he’s turning up regularly for the training.

I still think it’s crazy that we were sailing today considering last year this time it was so cold that december was pretty much a write off for all but the hardiest/ craziest.

This session brought 2011 to close for me and looking back it (from a moth perspective) it was full of lots of highs and lows.

The high points were:  at the Nationals was being inside the top ten at the windward mark on experimental foils getting a glimpse of their potential, getting a podium finish at the Thorpe Bay open, seeing Chris become European champion having seen all of the effort he put in, sending my wands worldwide and finally getting my boat set up well.

My wish to see the beginner end of the fleet grow and improve has become a reality thanks to the hard work and efforts of the UK committee who are continuing to push and improve the training sessions which are now a permanent addition to the main racing circuit. Event attendance was much improved in 2011 and if the trend continues, will only get better in 2012.

Thanks to the vast amount of information and technology available, sailing and setting up the boats has never been more accessible.

My predictions for 2012 are that the class will be bigger and better with more new comers entering the class. The standard will inevitably improve and I think there will be a good few more individuals entering the 30 knot club.

Following Pete Barton’s rise to fame as the fastest man in the northern hemisphere and 2nd fastest in the world, I put forward the idea of running speed events to the UK committee where pretty much anyone can turn up with minimal effort and cost. Simply pay for the host club day sailing fee and perhaps a little extra to contribute to class costs and all you need are the skills to sail the boat in a straight line and a GPS. The scoring system would be easy too.. top three results from the day are the prize winners. The best thing is that the events wouldn’t be wind dependant. If the winds have record breaking potential then that would be an added bonus.

It would be great for beginners as the skill levels required are far less than those required for course racing. Also results would be based more on ‘balls’ (or the female equivalent… what would that be?) than equipment. It makes sense considering we sail the fastest dinghy on the planet so speed is a big selling point and it would also be a brilliant showcase for the moth class worldwide so whatever country you are in… start getting it organised for next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR and see you in 2012.

Today was the shortest day of the year and a jolly nice one for sailing. Unseasonally mild weather and a brief respite from the battering winds that have been hitting the UK meant the window of opportunity today was just too good to miss.

Stokes fleet is growing exponentially with the addition of Jeremy Harley (Mach 2) and Mike (Aardvark Axiom) who were also out sailing today which took the number up to 7 in total. Jonnie hutchroft will be immanently returning to the boat after a 1 year hiatus which will take the fleet up to 8 active sailors of all different levels.

Today was all about relaxing and remembering how to sail again as it seems like ages since the last time I was out. I sort of joined in a bit of the training with Chris Rashley and Jason Belben but they haven’t seemed to slow down during the off season period. Kevin and I had some good tussles around the upwind downwind course and then I spent a good hour just practicing my port to starboard gybe which is the weaker side for me.

The new tramps are lovely and are made of a heavier cloth than the previous ones so I’m happy there however, trying to resplice the marlow excel racing continuous control lines is a non starter. I’ll need to get some new rope and get that sorted.

Hopefully will try to get out next week if the mild weather continues and then may even make the Bloody Mary race in January assuming it’s not baltic.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all the mothies all over the world and may Santa bring you lots of shiny new carbon bits! See most of you at Garda no doubt as I’m sure it’s going to be a great one!

Recently on facebook I have been posting some odd statuses alluding to the fact that I speak with my moth…

Last thursday: My main foil told me… “when I grow up, I want to be built by a professional who knows what he is doing and won’t take short cuts and cause me to break…” Still it does mean that we spend a lot of time together in the workshop.

Today: Today my main foil said to me…”Thank you for doing a good job of fixing me up. The new hinge and improved joint meant I had a blast.” I did too.. Mr. Starboard Tramp on the other hand had enough of my weighty frame and ripped to shreds…All in all a sizzling session.

I’m not sure if I am going mad but I am convinced that the boat speaks to you and if you are prepared to listen you will enhance your sailing experience no end. What I have found recently is that there are many occasions where I just “feel” that something is going to happen or if I am going to have a good session or not. Today was a good one with a nice gentle breeze to blow away the cobwebs and make sure the recent mods have worked out.

I am pleased to announce that the new Hyde 2c is quick especially in the marginal stuff (for a 79 kilo sailor that’s important)

The rig is  much quicker all round thanks to the C-Tech spars which are performing well. (Kevin Ellway scores top marks for his homework assignment of designing a new mast)

I guess it’s common knowledge that I’m riding around on skinny foils all in the name of development. They are working well but we are still sorting out a lot of issues surrounding hinges (hence the facebook statuses) and general engineering but early indications are they are quick and hopefully I will able to show that next year on the circuit.

The transitions are going well with a much higher hit rate although today’s first three gybes had me questioning if could still sail (amazing how three weeks of flu and time off the water can make you forget).

It’s probably NOT common knowledge but I have stepped down from the UK moth committee due to work commitments and a possible change of career looming. After raising the game for the UK moth class with a brand new website and then conceiving the UK training sessions back in 2009 and then organising the boat show in 2010, I realised that it was time to step back let others contribute to the future of mothing in the UK. I need to get a lot of things in order including my level of sailing and also Atomik UK and something had to give.

I enjoyed coaching the newbies on the sunday at Hayling and may well pursue something along that line in the future here in the UK as I still think that there is a massive knowledge gap which requires attention.

Next up is Yoga starting in two weeks to sort out the long term back problems and general un suppleness that has come about from my unhealthy occupation of sitting at a desk all day programming.

Wand production is going really well with orders coming in from across the globe (Tasmania, Canada and Finland to name but a few!)

So, talking to my moth and realising that all of the above is a disjointed rambling it is possible I am losing my mind

The pic above is for the benefit of John Edwards post Hayling training and our conversation about living room floors!

Whilst I love my iphone 4 and have come to see it as a personal friend and I also love my moth which I have spent a lot of time with lately, I can’t help but think that the two don’t really sit side by side and they both have their place at the top of their respective fields.

That’s why I decided to build a new moth market website at http://www.mothmart.com. I got annoyed with seeing beautiful boats being spammed by fake iphone 4s and rolexes. I also had my account get deleted (probably by accident) and figured it was time to set up a site that would enhance the boats and showcase them better.

Also I can administer it to avoid spamming.

I’ve got plans to expand the site by adding more information about buying and sailing moths which will be geared towards people looking to get in to the class. Interestingly enough, since launching the website, the two most popular pages have been “buying a moth” and “learning to sail a moth”.

So if anyone out there is still selling a moth on the old site, head on over to the new site, register and upload your boat there.

I also plan on doing a lot of SEO (search engine stuff) on the site to help it become more easily found on the web. This tied in with the other plans should see a healthy increase in the number of new people in the class.

Topped off with the Hillman moth camp in Mar Menor, we should see a steady increase over the next year (fingers crossed) in Europe.

Summer here in the UK officially ended on the 3rd October this year! I was witness to moment the beautiful weather left our shores. I took the opportunity to get a final summer sail in on monday. The weather was picture perfect with blue skies and gentle winds. This was the perfect opportunity to try out a few changes in technique and set up to try and get the foiling tack with some consistency.

Persistance and patience has paid off as I have now found that the incremental changes made have resulted in a vast increase in performance. Once again the on board camera means you can break things down and work out where to improve etc. I’ve decided against making any kind of mount at this stage as I think it means you can possibly miss the finer details like how much the tiller is working/ not working etc.

The great thing about the new set up means that you don’t really need a twist tiller to pull off tacks and let’s face it, if a cretin like me can do them then it’s got to be right?

In the video I believe Ninjario kisses the water but it’s good enough for me and there is no speed loss. I’ve since taken it to the next stage and broken down the move further to get more control throughout.

This should hopefully mean that things are good for next year assuming the rest of the world doesn’t go foil tack mad and end up leaving me behind again!

Unfortunately I cannot give any of the secrets away at this stage but I would be more than happy to do so once I become national champion

Massive thanks to Chris Rashley and Jason Belben for letting me train with them (so much rubs off that you can’t but help improve your game) and Kevin Ellway for all of the tiny changes that are making such a big difference. Now it’s all about longer hours training I guess!

It seems the mothosphere has really taken a dip in terms of blogging. I think this is down to more and more people taking it all more and more seriously. This is true for me as I have reached the point where I can actually start to see gains in speed and performance. In reality when you are running a business, enjoying your family and then trying to improve your mothing, something has to give and I guess blogging is the easiest to let go of.

It’s funny really as I normally had so much to write about but lately it’s been just enjoying time in the boat, developing and testing stuff at Stokes HQ with the Stokes crew.

It’s great to see that Chris is fully settling in to his new level of performance and even on a bad day (by his standards) is still ripping it up and going quick.

We are learning more and more each day about where the performance gains are to be had and hopefully come Garda there will be a speedy Oligario on the race track.

In the meantime, it’s back to basics and refining boat handling starting with gybing. Thanks to the bullet cam, I am able to break down each gybe and analyse where they working and where they are not which has had a massive impact on training as you can rapidly work out where you need to adjust technique. For me, it’s port to starboard which is the waker gybe but already getting better.

Starboard to port is much better than it was even a few weeks ago and again thanks to the video analysis, I can even time the transition from start to finish and have noticed the time taken to complete has halved from recent sessions. Some of this is down to the change in setup and some of the equipment which has made it easier and some is down to just going out and training with everyone else.

To summarise, my moth mojo is fully restored, I love my boat and I love mothing all over again xxx

The Zhik UK Nationals was actually a good one for me this year. Looking back over some of my posts I’ve always set realistic targets and tried to stick to them concentrating on improving the weak areas.

I now have a much better understanding of the boat setup and why certain things make the boat go just that bit faster thanks to Kevin Ellway’s help this year. It’s amazing how tiny differences can make huge gains.

Day one and I was struck down with a stomach bug which seems to have hit a few people during the event. I played it safe and just made sure I got round the course ok in the strong breeze. I managed an 18, 19 and 22 using some experimental bits on the boat. Thankfully the energy drinks kept me in one piece.

Day two was blown off and that was good as it meant I could recover.

Day 3 and I saw the most carnage I’ve ever seen at an event. I was inside the top 10 at the windward mark but like most, couldn’t get the bear off to stick so it was down the mine. I didn’t bother trying to get it right so I just sailed a bit further past the mark and tacked round. Steaming downwind on port was the way to go. After the bottom gybe the experimental bits encountered a terminal failure so it was game over for the day. Luckily I only lost two races.

Day 4 and I switched back to the old setup with a few improvements. With the winds being light it would have been the perfect conditions to test the now broken bits but hey ho that’s what development is all about.

I missed the first race with getting the boat set up again but managed to finish the remaining three races with the last one back up in 19th.

I’m happy that I’m now consistently inside the top 20 and know where I’m aiming for next year. I was able to try out some pretty cutting edge stuff on the boat which was excellent and can’t wait to continue training once the teething troubles have been ironed out.

My gybing is no longer my achilles heel (although strong wind gybes still need some work) and lightwinds are no longer a disadvantage for me at my weight of 79-80 kilos.

The weak areas are now glaringly obvious which means I can spend the rest of the year concentrating on them.

Chris Rashley has been a great influence with his strict training programmes and professional attitude and hopefully I can continue down that route (although I think he is going to need to find a faster training partner if he wants to get to the next level!)

Moving forwards, I have new goals and a list of sailing superstars ahead of me to reel in which will be a pretty steep challenge considering their calibre. Still, I’m a great believer in if you put your mind to it, anything is possible and I certainly plan on putting my mind to this….

Thorpe Bay Grand Prix event proved to be one of the most memorable for me in more ways than one! Saturday was what could only be described as insane.

We launched in 25knots and by the time the race started it was gusting 30. So much so that with the combined sea state, no one apart from Chris Rashley was able to get downwind. A few tried and I did get round the windward mark in 3rd and thought I’d go for it managing a run of about 200 metres but it was way out of control and ended in a stack. After that I realised the others weren’t even trying so I opted to allow the wind to blow be back down the course with the boat on it’s side. In the end it was a good option as I made the same progress as the guys who were upright and drifting. Richie Lovering was the first to make it stick down wind by totally oversheeting and just pointing dead downwind.

The winds then eased enough for me to make a bid to get ashore.

I had a religious moment when I managed to get back to shore and literally the moment the boat was on the beach all hell broke loose with three people holding ninjario down as a 47mph squall ripped through with hailstones and lightning! Special thanks to Tom Lambert’s Dad and a local windsurfer who hung on the the boat despite the might of the squall.

Mike Lennon wasn’t quite so lucky and was literally 30 seconds behind me which was just a fraction too late. The sky went black, the waves where whipped in to a fury and where he was just metres away from the beach, it wasn’t close enough… He and his boat got blown further down the shore and the rescue crew had to decimate his rigging to separate the sail from the boat. Luckily he got ashore relatively unscathed and was able to re splice his rope work back together again.

Man of the day was Chris Rashley who decided the safest place to be was out in the bay! Bare in mind visibility was down to about 20 metres, winds were 47mph and there was lighting strikes going off, Chris jumped ship and swam a few feet away from his boat to avoid being cooked! Then when it all passed through, he emerged and got ashore safely.

Ben Paton also got caught out and was blown further down the shore but also came away unscathed…

When it did clear, I looked upward and had my religious moment… “what if I was 30 seconds later… would I have coped as well as Mike and the others?..”

Sunday looked like it was going to be a repeat with dark clouds coming through and gusts of up to 30 mph. Chris was the only guy to head out whilst we sat around deliberating. I decided enough was enough and figured I had come to Thorpe bay to race so it was time to rig up and head out.

Getting round the windward mark and then the outer reach mark in race one, I realised there were some big gusts coming through and taking Richie’s advice I remembered to sheet in hard and just get downwind as quickly as possible. The chop was nowhere near as bad as it had been on the saturday so it was far more manageable. I managed a glance down at the speed puck and saw 24.1 and thought to myself “yes I’ve got a new PB”. When  I got ashore after the second race and checked the best speed I was shocked to see 25.4 on the readout!

I think 30 is definitely possible but only on flat water so I guess it’s something new to aim for! Mind you I also think you need around 30 knots of wind to achieve that as well.. would I head out in that again? Mmmmmmm…….

To round it all off, bugger me if I didn’t grab a podium finish in the end! Full report on the UK site.

The Moth money shot

This video was taken last saturday at Stokes Bay during a training session with Jason Belben. Strong winds and big seas were the order of the day and is a nice preview of what conditions can be like at Stokes in the run up to the nationals. (Excuse the poor editing)

Top speed of the day was 23.1 with Jason peaking at 23.7. It’s great sailing alongside (or behind) Jason as he is a man of few words and all action.. ie. one minute you are up with him and the next… great for pushing your limits.

A good example is, when rigging up I’m standing on the shore thinking “this looks pretty rough”  but Jason says nothing,  and launches without a moment’s hesitation.

I’m pleased the gybing is coming along now and it’s hard to imagine that at Silvaplana last year I completed about three during the whole regatta and they were flukes!

I think the camera is the second most important training aid in learning to sail a moth as you get to see every mistake and work out where you are going wrong/ where to improve.

From this video alone, I’ve straightaway worked out a lot of things to work on. An interesting observation is just how physical these boats are… you don’t sit still for second and if you do, you are likely to crash. I’ve also realised how vital it is to keep fluids on board as I lost my water bottle during the session and as you can see from the video, ran out of fuel!

Plenty of room for improvement but getting there…

Sorry it’s taken three attempts to get the video embeded! Technology!