Lord Flashhert had never been better. The quick creative fixes were better than the stuff I have been using for the last 4 years. I had 3 days of fantastic racing and it really was a great event. A big thanks to the German Moth fleet and Walchensee sailing club.
In the end I finished in the middle of the fleet, which is where I always end up. Lord Flashheart showed her age a bit and was the tortoise amongst the hares.
After the last race on the last day we all raced to the shore to escape the Mountain storm. I was 200 meters from the beach when several tons of air avalanched down a mountain onto the lake and sent me speeding faster than I have even been in a Moth. I was feeling a bit confident so I rode it as would Lord Flashheart. Then the next gust came on top of that and I was too scared to jump off so I rode it too. This did not last long and the wing I was sitting on broke in 4 places under the load. I rose to the surface of the lake after the crash and my first thought was "Thank Fuck I have stopped because i was not sure how else I could.". However now Lord Flashheart is in need of new carbon wing and I am not sure if I can get the tubes on time for the Worlds.
Back to the (moldy) Batcave for some super hero boat fixing.
3 comments:
Any photos of your wing breaking? :)
It is interesting that the wing is what failed; righting moment is constant so either the boat was bouncing around more than usual or somehow the rig put more fore and aft load into the racks that was countered actively by the foils, or it was true true unrelated. Or you were going so close to the speed of light that you became much heavier through relativity. Great writeup. Thanks.
Karl I do not know exactly what happened as it was all a little too fast. But i did not want to capsize to leeward as that throws me onto the rig and as i went to windward I think I sheeted in instinctively. This loaded up the shroud as the sail filled and accelerated more. I guess the fist break was at the shoud where the compression strut and wing bar meet. This lead to a lack of support so the bar broke under my bum as it bent up. The rear wing bar broke then as the tramp was pulled forward. The sit on bar also broke at the joint to the rear due the the angle. Basically a Moth is never a stable state system so the gust lead to acceleration. Once one bit goes then the rest become a mess... I am sure I was not going the speed if light but was was going the speed of brown wetsuit.
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