International Moth Training

The First International Moth Training 3 day weekend was a success despite a string of disasters. The 2 Assassins were not delivered on time as well and Felix's rudder. No one traveled from outside of Austria in the end. So we only had 4 boats. This meant we had one trial boat for those wanting to try to sail a Moth, and 3 boats to do some short course racing/training. However there was no wind all of the 3 days. Niki and Walter got a 15 minute flight on Saturday evening but that was it.

On the positive side all the test sailors got a taste of Moth sailing and low-riding. This is a good grounding for some stronger winds but lots of work without the reward of a flight.

We have devised rules so that if a boat gets a 50m lead they have to do at-least 3 tacks and gibes a leg. If a boat is 50 m behind they have to not round the mark and take a short cut to the middle of the other two. Not sure if this will work but the aim was to keep racing tight and fun. We could not be bothered to try the concept in no wind, so we will have to experiment with this later.

At least the weather was good so it was a nice weekend hanging around talking about Moths and doing the splicing jobs which I have never got round to. However the teasing wind would fill in and look like it may build then die, which kept us on our toes. The atmosphere was good and I think most people had a nice weekend.

Most people did get foiling on the Aqua skipper which provided good entertainment for all.

So I think it will be a while before we do one of these events again but I am sure there will be something similar next year. Now it is a case of waiting for Niki's Assassin to finally arrive and then we will start some hardcore training until the cold overcomes our enthusiasm, (or the the lake ice's over).

Big thanks to Yacht Club Weiden for hosting this event and for this members for helping run the non existent racing.

One man race.

Harald is in a one man build race. He has the deck on after 9 days!.



It looks light.



and well built. He has gone for a flat panel build



He plans to be finished this year and I look forward to sailing against the boat next spring.

Martin has his flat panel home build up for sail so he too is maybe building again....

Tomorrow starts our 3 day Moth Training weekend. Unfortunately I have to work but I will get there late afternoon if possible. The wind looks like it may cooperate with a perfect force 2, so push your thumbs.

I cant wait to get flying around in Austria with a fleet of Moths. So far we have only had a fleet of 2 but this time 6 boats is a real fleet. I hope this will be the start of things to come more regularly. Still no sign of the Assassins unfortunately, but we will make the most of what we have.

Redefine Average

I only know what I see on the Internet so I may have misunderstood Rohans announcement the wrong way.. However it is sad that he no longer wishes to be involved with the Moth class. Rohan has done a lot for the development of sailing Moths and for the IMCA. It is hard at the best of times to mix business with pleasure and it looks like it proved too hard for Rohan. Good luck Rohan and I hope to see you back in a Moth having fun again some day soon.

His departure puts Bladerider, and the Moth Class in a vulnerable position and kills off any attempt to make a business model of "Moth for the masses". If Moth sailors only buy the same boat that the World Champion won in then there will only be one builder at a time and the boats will be very very expensive.

Buying the boat that won is not the same thing as buying the boat that is going to win next time. I suspect that if the average sailor spent less money on gear and more on sailing time they would do much better. However this idea obviously does not sell boats and that leads to a lot of pressure that can not be fun.

So are we going to see a new one design Bladerider or peoples foiler? Will the IMCA have to compete with this new class? Will the Moth have a reduced number of builders and be more and more expensive and elitist? Or will there be even more builders, events, choice and number of average sailors?

Who knows what the future will bring but Moth sailor spending will shape it.

My cooperate strategy is clear:

1. Sail, sail, sail and have fun sailing.
2. Try to build a local team so fleet racing happens more than once a year.
3. Do not play the who spends wins one desgin game.
4. Build a new boat if it is fun to do so.

First Austrian Moth Event

It really great to have Niki pushing me. He is waiting for his Assasin to arrive and sorting out training for when it does. So the first Austrian Moth Event will happen on the 2nd to 4th of October.

It will be a fun weekend at the lake and we will do a mix of Try a Moth, fun flying, short course racing training, small regatta and Partys. So there should be something for everyone. So far as far as I know we have 6 Moths and about twice as many sailors. There will always be at least one demo boat available, so everyone should get a go.

We will also set up some short windward leeward courses for playing chase the leader. The rules will be something like the leader has to tack and gybe at least 3 times per leg and the last boat can take a short cut so that racing is always close.



We have support from Yacht Club Weiden so we will have on the water rescue and Start boats. Some good sailors from Weiden have kindly volunteered to help run the racing too.

It is a three day event so the wind should cooperate at some point at least. In October it is very unlikely that there is no wind but there could be lots of wind. I will probably have some windsurfing gear that can be used there if it blows all weekend.

There will also be plenty beer if you still are not convinced.

If you want to come then let me or Niki know and we will try to sort you out with accommodation etc... More info here.

So hope to see you there,

Doug

Certainly NOT as cool as 40 year old Operating System Design.

Unix is 40 years old and it is still the coolest thing in the computer industry (If you are still using Windows then it is time to learn about 40 year old Operating System design that has become the basis for all proper modern systems). I think that at the moment Apache is the best software manufacturer but Google are becoming a close 2nd. I have been playing with Google Maps and it looks like it is working OK. It was a lot of fun to do, so please have a play.

Events
Worlds
Euros
British
Austrian
...

The search criteria is all events that started less than a year ago and all Worlds and Euros. I do not have a complete set of data but I have a good starting point.

You can reuse this on National sites or your blog or TwitFaceSpaceBo.com...

So what about a map of the moth fleet. If a number of people are prepared to log in and enter where they sail I can make a map of active members. You will have to be a member to get on the map because that is the easiest way to stop SPAM, and clean out old data. I am not sure if that is a good idea, so what do you think and what do you want mapped?

Nearly Cool

I played with Google maps to get a dynamic map of Moth events, and it worked great from Austria for a while, but after I deployed it to the UK based (I think) server it becomes a virus.... I even did the old change your nationality trick so I could try to re-register as British with the help of a ssh tunnel:

ssh imcaadmin@www.moth-sailing.org -L 8087:maps.google.com:80

but it is 1am and I am too drunk and stupid to work out the parameters for the isVirus(); method.

So instead of Bloging about a cool new feature that will make the Mothsphere virtually better I am Bloging about my geo queries getting HTTP 404:



Which means it does not work.

Train spotting

I have updated data from scott and other sources for the Euros:
http://www.moth-sailing.org/europeans/2009_dk.xml
and Worlds:
http://www.moth-sailing.org/worlds/2009_us.xml

Anyone have any corrections additions or CopyRight free pictures of of each boat?