The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The Good

Had a great Fenster Wochenende ("Window Weekend" four day weekend with one day off work and bank holiday Thursday. Kati and I went hiking and biking in the mountains that mark the start of the Alps. Austria is really a beautiful country and so green with rich forests and lots of wildlife. Then we went to Niki and Julia's wedding which was set in an old castle and the weather was so good we had dinner and the party outside. It was a really nice event and party with a really nice bunch of people.

The Bad

Part of the rich wildlife are these little bastards. I got 5 of the nasty disease carrying sods eating their way into me. I like lots of wildlife but the world would be better without some of it.

The Ugly

Austria tends to have the Sound of Music stereotype of beautiful mountains and Nazis. This stereotype is unfortunately accurate. Now I believe in freedom of speech. Which means I believe I have the right to say what I like and that other people have the right to say stuff I dislike. Therefore as Austria gears up for the Euro elections I must not get upset about placards claiming that the Austria needs to ethnically cleans all the foreigners out or it is endanger of evolving into a modern society. (Not an Austrian one made up of Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Swiss, Italians,...). However what is not OK is blatantly Nazi propaganda being main stream politics.

Maybe I am turning into a grumpy old man but the increasing reality of stupidocracy really pisses me off.

14 - 16 year olds shoot at concentration camp survivors. here

Memorial to Nazi euthanasia victims vandalised. here

School kids shout racist Nazi insults while visiting Auschwitz here.

etc... etc....

If you put up lots of posters blaming minority groups and EU Mafia for problems you get 30% of the vote! If you come up with long term funded integration strategies none cares. The bloody obvious result is ghettos and sound bite politics.

So recently one of these ghettos breaks out into violence over some stupid religious bullshit and some Austrian politicians use it to have a field day taking the hard line with foreigners. If plain clothes policemen beat the shit out of someone because they are black in an underground station in the middle of the day they keep quiet.

Religion is the root of a lot of evil. You should make time to watch this as it funny and makes you think. If people think then maybe the world will be a better place:


Maybe I should start a new political party. I will ethnically cleans out religion and ticks. Not sure how the details are going to work out but that is not important. What is important is the simple slogans.

Austria NOT Tickria

No more EU forced immigration of Ticks.

Austrian Mountains NOT Mountains of Ticks.

Ticks must learn German.

Meteorology NOT Wind Godology.

Maybe not. Maybe I will just have an angry Internet rant and the world will be exactly the same.

Euros Entry list.

Sign up now for the Euros. Entry has been extended till the 1st of June but you risk having to pay an extra 100 Euro if you are late!

The official list and entry is here: http://www.horsens-sejlklub.dk/default.asp?s=369

My list is here:
http://www.moth-sailing.org/europeans/2009_dk.xml

Send me your picture and I will add it to the list. doug at culnane dot net.

A Result.

Niki and I managed to start and finish our first Moth race in Austria. Conditions were perfect apart from the massive hangovers from the night before. I was in a better state than Niki due to my party trick of hiding and falling a sleep early... At least this time when I regained continuousness no one had tattooed "I love cock" on me.

We started the race well and got to the windward mark just behind the only F18 cat. I got inside him at the wing mark and was of to the leward mark at top speed with no one in front. I pulled out a massive lead by the lewward mark but soon realised that I had gone round the wrong wing mark. So it was back up to the right wing and to rejoin the race behind the hobbie 16s.

I spent the rest of the race trying to get back up with Niki but could not catch him, before the line. So I finished 3 on the water and 3rd monohull on handicap! Niki won on handicap and was 2nd boat on the water. So it was a good result for us both and a nice last race for Niki to do in his Bladerider.

There was a second race which I competed although most of it was low riding which proved too much for Niki's hang over. I finished first on the water but had to battle hard against some fast yachts. I way really happy with my boat speed but I have a lot to improve on with tacktics of racing in a fleet of stationary boats. The worst thing I did was at the leeward mark where I could not work out how to slow down enough to get in line to go round it with the boats I was lapping. I just reached backwards and forwards waiting for a gap which was not too fast.

All bloody good fun and I really enjoyed it.

On Saturday Niki's Bladerider went to its now home and we finished rigging Tomahawk. She flew but there is some work to do on her control systems. This will keep him busy while he waits for his new Assassin.

Walter also flew his new Bladerider for the first time this weekend. So there are now 4 flying Moths distributed around the north of the lake.

Car is loaded with beer and Moth bits.

Ok that is it I am off to get my new tramps and take Tomahawk to the lake. I have 2 moths to rig and Niki's Stag do this evening! Then tomorrow it will be the first Moth race in Austria (I hope). So far Niki and I have not managed to start a race but tomorrow we hope to both complete one.

I am always much faster with a hang over than without so my pre-race preparation is planned nicely. Not sure what state Niki will be in but hopefully he will not be tied Naked to a tree in Hungry but you never know...

So we could see 4 moths sailing on the lake this weekend! Niki's BR, Walters new BR, Tomahawk, and Flashheart! Niki has sold his boat and ordered a new one. He will borrow Tomahawk till the new one comes. This is good because it gives me a kick to get her rigged and in a decent sailing state as I hope to get round to selling her at some point.



Here is a nice pic from Alan of me cowering at the back of my tramp 2 weeks ago. It was windy there is an air born surfer in the background.

Found more info on project Whisper.

Following a link on Rohan's Blog there is more info about the Whisper project.

"...ongoing R&D for Bladerider....hull uses basic materials...over-rotating carbon fibre wing mast..."

http://www.compositecomponents.com.au/sea.shtml

Sounds like Bladerider are investing in R&D. Interestingly at the high performance end of the market at the same time as at the low cost hull materials end...

Alan's Austrian food report.

http://solitaryleprechaun.blogspot.com/2009/05/after-my-two-flights-on-thursday.html

Weekend is here already.

It was a big weekend last weekend. Alan Godard visited from Finland, and Guy and Susie from the UK. We had a big beach party at the Pad...



...and went Mothing twice...



Friday is was very windy so I when out until I trashed my tramps and could come in again with a good excuse. Unfortunately Matthias (AUT A-Cat sailor) and Alan did not get a go.



Both Alan and Guy got a fly in the gust of Sunday.

This weekend I have no tramps so it maybe time to visit the workshop and get Tomahawk flight ready, but am not sure. I need a plan and fast because the weekend is here already!

Moth Forum Feedback

I have been hacking away at the IMCA site, and integrated JForum into it. The user admin is done with the existing site accounts which has made it a bit complex but will mean that people do not need to register etc... The forum has all the cool forum features like the Australian one.

This forum is not aiming to replace Sailing Anarchy or the Australian/Italian/German forums but of course there will be some overlap.

So I am setting up a forum and I want some feedback.

What Forums?
Events: IMCA Events.
Boats: Boat building, science and theory discussion.
General: Other topics and discussion.
Non English language forums. ???

Anonymous Read only. No anonymous posts?
Moderators?

I hope to get a prototype online soon so we can test it, but until then does anyone have any thoughts, which I will try to consider in the implementation?