I-shares cup Amsterdam

Last weekend I sailed the bladerider for the Ishares cup organisation during the Extreme 40 event in Amsterdam. The race area of the extreme 40 cats is in an enclosed area within the city of Amsterdam. It is amazing how this 40 foot cats race there with a fleet of 10 boats. All very close to the shore and the public.
Unfortunatly there wasn't too much wind and only on sunday there was occasionaly ample wind to get the Bladerider RX foiling. But the moments I was foiling I got great response of the crowds. Whereby Wouter Samama, the moth friendly dutch Ishares cup speaker was helping to stir up the audience!
Everyone reacted very enthousiastic and from the shore people asked and shouted all kinds of questions, mostly related to the boat and sailing....

In the wrap-up video of day 3 of the ishares cup there is approximatly 5 seconds of foiling action, around the 1:30 minute mark of the video.


Crossing in front of these big cats while the wind is twirling around the buildings nearby gives an extra dimension to moth sailing....
Next to sailing the moth I enjoyed watching the extreme 40's racing and enjoyed meeting some old sailing friends who where attracted to this event in Amsterdam and/or where actively involved with the circuit.

For me the next event will be to join in october the f18 catamaran races in muiderzand and to see if the moths (Constantijn, myself and any other mothie who likes to join) can beat the best dutch catamaran racers with the bladerider.
Due to family commitments the first sunday that I will be able to join these october races will be on the 18th.

Open dutch skiff trophy, Benelux alive and kicking

Nine moths where at the start line last saturday for the Open dutch skiff trophy! It was a great turn-out whereby 100% of the members of the belgium dutch moth association were racing. I guess there are not to many sailing classes who can say that :-)

It was a great event with a great bunch of sailors. Koos wrote a very nice piece about his experience.

When I think about it I guess the benelux fleet must be one of the most international ones as almost 50% has an international background. Chris who is actually a brit flown in to strengthen the sailing skills in the 'deep' south of the Netherlands. We have Juryk who is a german living more to the east and has amazing logistic skills. As he manages to come to the events without owning a car or a trailer for his boat. And probably one of the few people known to be hitchhiking with a moth and we have Giovanni who is an Italian American living in Belgium......

It was also great that Sven Kloppenburg from Germany joined the fleet for this race.

It was perfect sailing weather as in the morning it started with light winds and during the day the wind increased, with the occasional very gusty period, even up to appr 24 knots. In the lighter stuff Sven and Gio showed good skill and speed and overall Sven was sailing solid and very consistent. Constantijn started every time very well and with the right conditions was fast in the first beat. Juryk was handicapped as his foils where already broken for the races. Koos enjoyed himself, although found out that moving house does not train all the muscles necessary for sailing a moth. Young gun Rob has an old foiler with incredible bow-up attitude and had some material failures. Hans Wust impressed with the enormous progress he made within the short while that he sails a foiler, as he started foiling this summer.

As for my own performance I was happy with the progress I made with the boathandling. Gybes where solid, also when I had to do two quick gybes to dodge 6 capsized skiffs in front of me in one of the more gusty periods. The tacks are also getting better. After the Europeans I have been able to sail only a few days however in those days I focused on tacking and gybing and this focussed approach helped. Although especially on the tacking there is still room for improvement before they are near foiling everytime (with this i mean, the back of the hull touching the water and then quickly going up again). It was also great fun to sail the rounds while overtaking 49ers and 29ers. As the moth is so silent and so much faster it is great fun to overtake them while being close and to see the amazed expressions. Hopefully it inspires some of them to try a moth.

It further amazed me that overtaking on the leeward side is not a big issue. As when foiling the moth is sailing mostly on apparent wind, it is not too much bothered by the disturbed air.

During the AGM of the benelux association I was stitching my trampoline back together as this was the only way I could ensure that I could sail on sunday and join the AGM. This was the only less brilliant thing of the weekend, all the rest was well organised and it was great to be with nine moths on the water showing the other skiff sailors what moth sailing is about.

Results can be found here

After the weekend I read the blog of Rohan and I think it is too bad that he leaves the class as he is the one who inspired a lot of people to go foiling including myself. I wish him all the best and hope that after taking some distance he will be back in due time.

Holiday

I have had two very good sailing trips this year. Sailing with the Team Puma in Galway and the Europeans.

After the europeans I have sailed a day at the 'Kaagweek'. Which is a dutch lake race with a lot of traditional and modern dinghies competing. It was great to show the speed of the Moth against the backdrop of the 'holland-friesland' regatta. This is a regional team race event sailed in an historic dutch class, the 'regenboog'. The plan was also to show the bladerider during the 'sneekweek', which is the biggest lake sailing event in Europe, with over 1.000 boats participating. However during the transport to the north of the Netherlands the socket head came off. I was ready to launch when I noticed that this small, however crucial part was missing. I didn't had as spare so no sailing, however together with friends and family I could enjoy the famous 'sneekweek' parties. This helped to overcome the pain off not being able to sail while there was a very good breeze.

Now it is off for a family holiday for a week. I could not fit the worlds in my schedule for this year and as said I was happy being able to do the Europeans. While on the family holiday next week I will try to follow the worlds.

It is great to read the many updates on the moth blogosphere and I'm exited to follow how the events will unfold.

It will be interesting to see how the form guides of Scott and Simon will play-out. To see if these are lists of doom or that the pressure of being on the top of these guides will make Arnaud & Nathan only stronger.....

Secondly it would be great if the hard work of Giovanni on his self engineered wand system will pay off and that he finally can show his warp speed!

Good luck to all at the Gorge!

Europeans, happy with a podium place, 3rd overall

Just came home after a drive from Denmark. Whereby a few times the highway seemed more a giant parking spot as we encountered a few lengthy traffic jams. Happy to be home after enjoying a great week in Horsens as the weather was very good. Sunny and during the races enough wind! After the last race also the wind was directly gone, which must have been a sore sight for the more light wind oriented sailors.

I'm happy with my overall 3rd place, which I could manage thanks to the breeze and the help of a number of other sailors. As the swiss team helped me out with some necessary spare parts and the fellow members of the dutch-belgium team helped with technical expertise on preparing my boat. Respect and congratulations to Arnaud and Simon. They performed a perfect show of how close you can battle in a moth while doing speeds in excess of 24 knots. I was lucky enough to see their battle up close and some moments being in it. Compared with them my upwind speed was good, but I have lot to improve in boathandling and downwind speed. So enough todo when I have time to sail again.

The last day I had some great battles with Jean-pierre of Switserland, whereby in one race it was very close upto the finishing line. Racing in such a way, while literally flying over the water, is everything what i hoped for moth sailing could be.

Overall my standard bladerider VRX performed very well. Some people asked me what the difference between the VRX and my former X8 is. My experience is that the bigest difference I notice is that my standard VRX feels more solid and controllable in the windy conditions we had.

After the races there was a nice party, whereby the inevitable "tiller of death" beer drinking competition started. In Weymouth i managed as anonymous new comer to the class to avoid this "tiller". However this time I could not. My performance in the field of beer drinking contest was lousy, of which also my now beer stained last clean shirt is a silent testament.....

Day 2 Europeans, One windy race...

This morning when we came out of our cabin on the beautiful family camping site of the Husodde Strand camping we already noticed it was a bit more windy then the previous day. Arriving at the yacht club we could see already the white on top of the waves.

The forecast was that the wind would drop in the afternoon. So scheduled start of 10 in the morning was postponed. So we had to wait. For me it is still interesting to see how people can get in to intense debate regarding the technicalities of wand, mast and other systems. As I have a big passion for the thrill of foiling but I lack a bit of the deep engineering interest. Although it is nice to listen to all the ideas and think about it.

At 13:00 the committee decided that discussing and thinking time is over and that the race was going to start at 14:00. It was still very windy, however doable for people with experience with sailing a moth in wind.

Finally appr. 30 boats arrived at the start and appr. 14:30 the gun went off for the start.

After the first mark it was Arnaud, leading, then Simon, then myself closely followed by Jean-pierre and Mike Lennon.

Second upwind mark the order was the same, although I managed to gain a bit upwind. Second downwind Simon capsized and we rounded the bottom mark together. Which was interesting as we where close and doing appr. 24 knots (thanks to my velocitek). Last upwind went not so well and I rounded in 3rd, Arnaud still leading Simon. Towards the finish I overstood the downwind mark and while a reached towards the finish the boat abruptly stopped and I was flying. First I thought i must have broken something on the boat. The boat was OK when I reached it. So probably i hit a lump of seaweed. The capsize cost me one place and I finished 4th. All other races where postponed as the breeze was measured to be in the mid twenties and some time above. Tomorrow the last day and it is possible that 4 races will be sailed. So still anything is possible for everyone. Although Simon looks solid with 1,1,2,2 and Arnaud is matching him if counting a discard DNC, 2,1,1. Looking forward to great day, forecast is a little bit less wind. Hopefully for myself not too much less.....

Day 1 Europeans, Mixed emotions

Today was the first day of the Moth Europeans. it was nice and windy today in denmark. So perfect sailing weather, especially for one who likes to sail in the breeze. It was an early day as the scheduled start was at 10 O'clock. Although the harbour with a small canal and almost non existent slipway is not the perfect place to launch appr 40 moths in onshore breeze of 20 knots. It took some time before we were all on the water. And after some delay the first was started. I was pleased with my upwind speed. Downwind I lost a bit and boathandling can still be better. But the result was a 2nd place and that made feel good and ready for the next race. The 2nd race same story and I was trailing Arnaud and Simon when half way I heard some crack. Firstly I couldn't see that there was something wrong and continued sailing. later I saw that my mast stump cracked and my mast was few centimeters down. I could continue sailing and my goal was to finish the race in one piece. So trying to do everything gently.... on the last run the mast sinked 5-10 cm further in the mast stump, luckily it stayed upright although all the tension on the rig was gone. I finished 3rd and went straight in to avoid any further damage. So the day started with an up and finished with a down... almost literally. Now we just finished all repairs. Lets see what kind of surprises the next days of the Europeans will bring.

Galway wrap-up, Rotterdam

Unfortunately the trip to Galway has come to an end. It was a great experience to be part of the Volvo festival. We had a great week practice sailing, while being able to enjoy the view of the volvo boats. Most of the week there where light winds. Last friday was a great sailing day. Saturday there was plenty of wind sometimes too much with guts well over 25 knots. This was great wind for the start of the volvo leg to marsstrand. However thanks to the waves of the huge spector fleet and the gusts It wasn't easy for a moth. We could give a show to the spectators of how fast a moth can be. My topspeed clocked during this day was 26 knots. We also showed how you can make spectacular crashes. One time I hit the water with such a speed that I bounced two times on the water before sinking in it. A spectator boat nearby was applauding and yelling "we want more...". Great people the irish :-)

Hereby also a picture of the start day whereby I was sailing close to the beach, lined with hundreds

of spectators. The water was pretty cold and it was sometimes very difficult to shake of the ventilation of the rudder. (as can be seen of the spray from the back).

Today it is up to Rotterdam to sail the same course the Volvo boats are going to do for the coast of Rotterdam. This time with my own boat and Puma sail. This is a race to see which boat can beat the time of the Volvo 70's. It will be for the first time to sail a moth on the open water of the North Sea, for sure it will be a new experience!