RE: Navel Grazing.

Karl wrote a very interesting Blog Post here: http://mothchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/04/naval-gazing.html

I want to comment on some of the issues and but wanted to do this outside of a comment context and so here it is in a blog post.

I work with and am project admin for some open source projects I also work with SAP Java technologies. I can not really blog too much about my thoughts here as it may compromise me professionally. However I understand a bit about OpenSourse and closed source corporate software development. So how do these ideas translate into Moth production?

Development of software and Moths is very different. Software is easy and fast to produce and modify. It is used by many consumers and there are many people that have the skill to improve it. Where as a prototype Moth takes longer to build and the community of users is much smaller. Once a prototype is produced the expensive tooling for a production run can be started. So if we are to compare the two production processes we have to take in to account the different time frames.

It has always been the case that a Moth builder develops a boat normally for themselves and makes a small production run of their original prototype. John Claridge, Andy Patterson, Roger Angel, Mark Thorpe... the list is long. The Bladerider is attracting a lot of new blood in to the fleet because it offers a good quality packaged product which is familiar to consumers idea of buying a thing. This new blood can have their packaged product or use it as a base to play with new development ideas. Some of these product consumers are then becoming the prototype deveopers by fitting new ropes, or fittings or making other changes etc...

Paternts are evil and bullshit. The Bladerider patents could not be enforced because the "innovation" in them had been done before in the Moth class by others. These pattent have expired and are not valid in any legal sense. Any patents of this sort will not only have to pass the legal requirements in the Nations where the patent are applied for they also have to pass the community test of "Hey I saw something like that on a boat at the Nationals in ....". Since no ideas are made in a vacuum patents are unlikely to pass this test. The only problem is that in some countries (with very bad patent law made by lawyers for in oder to protect the interests of lawyers) Patents are not contested until they are challenged. That means you could say that an 11ft long Moth is your idea and it is up to users of the idea to pay for the layers to prove that this has been done before. This is my understanding of these issues but I am not a Patent layer. So in my humble opinion Patents are evil and restrict innovation but due to the strong open development community in the Moth class they are not an immediate threat to our open development community.

The Bladerider have applied traditional corporate tactics to market their product and have been very successful but the development behind it came from established Moth sailors, like other successful Moth design. I do not know of any super designers that have had any success in the Moth class without sailing one. So the idea of a Moth design coming out of a computer alone from some design lab are way off, unless the design lab includes a lot of traveling to Moth events sailing and testing Moths.

There are also initiatives in the class where open development is encouraged such as the various forums and community websites and for those lucky enough to have a local fleet there is the dinghy park or pub where the best ideas are born.

The Flashheart design is licensed under the GPL. This is an open source initiative to give home builders data and a design for reference and to improve upon, if they wish.

The Gilmour Girls and Hungry Beavers are also a great example of guys getting together and pulling recourses to make a small production run of Moths.

Therefore I think Karl's rose colored view of the Open collaborative Moth class is there if you want to see it. You will also see a lot of off the self products where the development is in the color its painted. You can get what you want out of the Moth and it does not need to be a battle of evil corporation against hard working innovative inverter in the shed. The cooperation needs the Moth development community and they sell their products to the next generation of developers. If someone that buys an off the shelf product does not want to go on and develop their boat then that is fine too, as there will hopefully be more companies selling them a new one every few years.

We have a winner.

Martin has won the build race.



Well done. Flex is in a very close second and I think he will post a picture this weekend. I am last but hope to be not more than 2 weeks behind the leader.

So well done Martin. As a Brit I did the usual of making the rules up and then getting beaten at my own game. however it help motivate me to finish my boat so everyone is a winner.

As a slight change to the rules I will buy the 6 beers at the worlds and I look forward to drinking one of them with the other competitors.

Awesome sail on Sunday.

I took a break from the build race and I had one of the best sails of my life on Sunday. I borrowed an old Laser and went out in a very light northerly wind that was shifting 90 degrees before it shut off completely and then blew very lightly from the south. It was day 2 of Pirate School for number one son Max.

I have been reading Swallows and Amazons to him for a while and employing various other brain washing techniques to make him think sailing is cool. Maybe it is a sign of the times that the DVD from the Moths Worlds 2004 is way cooler than Swallows and Amazons. However I read the book more for me more than him of course. It is a book that is better to read to kids than have read to you as a kid.

Day one was theory and quiz games and day two was the real deal. A Laser is not really an Optimist but at the end of the day he could steer it and had a feel for what was going on. He still can not remember the magic "There is Red Port Left in the bottle." sentence but again I will brain wash him.

So all you hi-performance Moth sailors out there when you get board of sailing it can be really fun to rediscover it again through you kids, however I suspect the success of our high seas adventure could be about to get expensive.

Now it is back on with the build race. I plan to get the boat to the sail-makers for some tramps in a week and I still have a few jobs to get done before then. Niki and I plan to do some sailing this weekend which will probably mean the last sail of my old boat for a while. I will then rob her of her bit to rig up the new one. So Flashheart will be launched in a couple of weeks I hope. This is too late to win the build race. but it turned out to have been a very close finish. I think both Felix and Martin have flown their boats but neither have posted a picture to claim the prize.

Who is comming to the Worlds then?

I have started at Competitor preview at: http://www.moth-sailing.org/worlds/2008_uk.xml

Register or log in to the IMCA site to enter your personal details and email me your boat details with a picture 500 px wide.

My address is doug at culnane dot net

Shit I ran out of paint.

After spray and after party fog.

Martin sent me pics of his painted boat which he plans to sail in Italy next Sunday. She looks great so well done to him. Felix is busy trying to get his bits together for his sailing holiday in the south of France. So it will be a close finish between the two of them for the build race title. Who will be the first to fly? (We need pics guys.)



I got 2 hours in on Friday after work then I went to a fancy dress party so I did not get changed. The theme was what do you want to be when you grow up so I went as a boat builder. This is what I wanted to be once until I did it for a year or two and decided that it is a hobby rather than a career for me. The party was great fun which meant that I had a slow start of Saturday but I got 7 hours in at the workshop which enabled me to spray paint my white bits.



This pic was taken through the after spray Fog. This is why you need a decent mask or this environment can be deadly.

Saturday night was the Irish Charity Ball with free Guinness and Jamesons bar. I slept most of Sunday.

So I have to spray the red bits of the boat and paint the deck. There are a few other jobs to do but I want to get the boat off to the sailmaker for the tramps to be made. Then it is fit out and finish all the little bits like ruder stock etc... I hope to launch her in about a month.

I could have spent a couple more weekends on the finishing. Filling fairing painting wet flating.... however build quality is not as important as time on the water so i have to put up with wobbles in the chine lines and a base coat paint finish. I can always spend next winter repainting if it bothers me, but I made a conscious decision to not build a boat like my first Moth. I spent loads of time on it and she was beautifully finished. However this is the Flashheart where brash unsophisticated boat building will lead to flying heroics.

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