So the Moth Worlds are over, I finally have had a chance to take a well deserved rest from Mothing and have started reflecting on what can be done better in my own personal sailing as well as what North Sails can do better for the 2010 worlds.
For me it is simple, more time in the boat is the only way I will be able to compete with the level the class is heading. Clearly speed is not all that is needed to win these days, good starting, good tactics, good boat handling and reliability are all essential. These are the items I will focus on in the next six months in that order. Nothing new to sailing, but defiantly more important in moth sailing than ever before. Maybe I should listen to Dave Lister and stop blogging?
Now onto the sails. Always room for improvement in sails as well. I think overall we have to be very pleased with the way the North Sails performed. Our goal was to have 5 boats in the top ten which was realized. Obviously Nathan won the US Championships and we also had 5 boats in the top ten for the US Champs too.
Below is a list of the gear table I made after the event of the top 30 sailors (Obviously some sailors used multiple gear, but I think this is the best representation of what everyone used):
For me it is simple, more time in the boat is the only way I will be able to compete with the level the class is heading. Clearly speed is not all that is needed to win these days, good starting, good tactics, good boat handling and reliability are all essential. These are the items I will focus on in the next six months in that order. Nothing new to sailing, but defiantly more important in moth sailing than ever before. Maybe I should listen to Dave Lister and stop blogging?
Now onto the sails. Always room for improvement in sails as well. I think overall we have to be very pleased with the way the North Sails performed. Our goal was to have 5 boats in the top ten which was realized. Obviously Nathan won the US Championships and we also had 5 boats in the top ten for the US Champs too.
Below is a list of the gear table I made after the event of the top 30 sailors (Obviously some sailors used multiple gear, but I think this is the best representation of what everyone used):
As with all sailing, the best sailors placed well and I am sure Bora would have been able to win in any boat, mast or sail combo. Unfortunately we did not have our sails on many Mach2's (Only Nige who used our sail from time to time with good effect). Interesting is that the first 9 of 10 Bladeriders used North Sails.
Top 11 Bladeriders
Back to the subject here, what did we learn about making the sails better? It was clear that the stiffer carbon battens are critical, esp as the wind increases. Some sailors used the carbon battens in the top three battens and others used them in the lower battens. I personally used the carbon battens in all of the battens and felt that my sail looked pretty good and matched the Southern Rig well. We will test some new sail shapes, which are a slight modification on the current theme, but taking lessons from the V6 which really seemed to be the best all around performer. North will also spend time looking at how to make the sails more robust without adding weight, esp in the luff sleeve which like all moth sails tends to get hammered rigging up and carrying out to the launch site.Kevin Hall had a test V10 design which was closer to the V6's molded shape with a reduced luff curve to fit on a super stiff Southern mast, this shape maybe adapted for the stiffer masts anticipated for the worlds in Dubai.
My feeling is that mast development will be where we see the most development going into the next world championships with Southern and CST working on the fine line between light weight, stiff and robust spars. Stiffer masts will be key and of course nobody is going to want to carry heavier rigs or risk failure which will make getting the right amount of off axis carbon dialed perfectly.
Rohan, Bora and Nathan in the US Champs
Kevin Hall leading race 1 of the US Champs
Typical race start at the worlds, short line only the top ten boats had a clear lane, after the start if you did not nail it you had to wait for the top ten boats to clear out before you could put the bow down and send it.
Yours truely yet again overstanding the top mark.
Rohan, Rob, Chris W, Adam and Chris G
Rohan and Nathan leading in the US Champs
Nige proving he still has it, nothing goes better to weather than Nige in 20+ knots!
Of course the most important lesson of all was how cool all the moth sailors are and what a great group of sailors who I can now consider my friends, nice to meet everyone!
Photos from Sean Trew at http://www.pacificfog.net/mothworlds2009/ ubercool guy and I am sure everyone in the moth class appreciates Sean taking time out of his life to document our crazy addiction to share with the world.
Also, thanks to our sponsors, esp CST, Zhik and West Coast sailing. Last but not least to the Columbia Gorge Racing Assosiation and all their volunteers who made for the best ten days of sailing I have had in many years- Thanks!
Photos from Sean Trew at http://www.pacificfog.net/mothworlds2009/ ubercool guy and I am sure everyone in the moth class appreciates Sean taking time out of his life to document our crazy addiction to share with the world.
Also, thanks to our sponsors, esp CST, Zhik and West Coast sailing. Last but not least to the Columbia Gorge Racing Assosiation and all their volunteers who made for the best ten days of sailing I have had in many years- Thanks!
Stay tuned to see what is going to be the next developments from North Sails and Southern Spars to improve your boats performance.
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