20% = painfull

Not much moth news from the past weekend. Last thursday I cycled the 160 km "Steven Rooks" classic. It was a successful effort of finishing this tour. More important I could complete all the climbs cycling and didn't had to resort to walking.

When I started cycling 2,5 months ago and someone told me that a climb of 15% is pretty of though I thought can't be that difficult as it seems like it that it can be 85 % more difficult. Little did I knew...

From experience I can tell now that a hill with a climbing percentage of 20% is painfull. There were two of those on this tour and these are climbs I will not easily forget. Although the muscle ache the day after was less then after a day hiking in the moth..

The rest of the weekend was very enjoyable as I spent it with my family.

Next stop will be Galway. Together with Constantijn I will manage the Team Puma bladeriders there. Looking forward to that.

Hellecat action

Small movie of the action at Hellecat last weekend (1oth of may).

Sailing & preparation for "the steven rooks classic"

This weekend I had a good weekend sailing. There was good breeze wind and the location, greveling, was very good. Although I can feel now all those muscles I wasn't conscious about before starting moth sailing. My new bladerider performed well and didn't budge under the abuse I gave it.

It was a good plan to meet up with Giovanni and to do some sparring. Although the sparring worked out differently as planned. As Gio got his new Mach 2 the day before. When we met on saturday I could help him rig the boat, as some things are very similar to the bladerider. In the afternoon we could go sailing. Only Gio had to go back after 20 minutes to fix a few things. Sunday was more or less the same. Although Gio could stay out a bit longer than saturday before before he had to return. A new boat is always nice unfortunately it takes some time to get it right. For some boats it takes a bit more than some time....

The picture shows the Mach2 and the bladerider next to each other.

Two and half months ago I entered in a kind of bet to do a cycling tour. The "Steven Rooks" classic I didn't had a boat at the time and seemed like fun to do with a friend. The only other thing I was missing was a Bike. So I bought a second hand bike and had to do some training... Coming thursday is the start of the "classic tour. It is 160 KM through The Netherlands and Belgium in which there are 7 climbs. The latter are the most worrying for me. As I noticed during some training that cycling in the flat is OK, going down is exiting and good for the adreline levels, however climbing is painfull. I will probably know by thursday late afternoon how painfull.

We have got him.... :-)

The boat was released by customs on friday. After a long wait I have got finally a sailboat again!

This weekend there was the first race of the revived Dutch Belgian moth association in Hellevoetsluis. It was a bit of a race against time to get everything ready for this, however i managed. This in spite of having two left hans and breaking a crucial part when assembling the boat

The event was a great succes. We got a great welcome from the catclub hellecat and everything was well organised. For me it was the first time to attend a moth event and special to see some people with whom I only communicated by e-mail before. It was great experience to meet a great bunch of people who all share the passion for moths and sailing this strange spieces of boats in particular.

In total the where 7 boats. Foilers and so called low riders. I managed to get the boat ready in time and the set-up as set from the factory was very goo

d. We gave a good show to the spectators on the beach and the cats who were also racing. Especially on sunday afternoon when there was a good breeze to get foiling. The last race I managed to overtake all the catamarans who started 5 minutes before us. This was a great experience.

Looking forward to the next dutch moth event! Attached a picture of how the boat arrived and how it looks when it was assembled. Results of the race can be found here

Hope II Customs hassle

Good News! The boat arrived at schiphol airport. The chances are becoming more likely that i can sail this weekend the first dutch moth regatta. However first the boat has to be cleared by the dutch customs office. And as there was some misunderstanding in the Air bill it is taking longer then expected. Next to hope, some time is spent on e-mails and phone calls...

Hope

Good news today from the bladerider factory. The boat is now complete, including the missing mast and boom. Apparently CST hadn't delivered them in time.

If all is well it is dropped off at the airport in Australia.

If all goes well it should be delivered at Schiphol airport next week. Hopefully then also the converted to moth trailer old trailer tent (vouwwagen) is then ready. As I'm then able to transport the boat.

If this all works out I will be able to participate in the first Dutch moth event of the year of the new revived dutch moth class.

So I hope all the if's work out positively, If so then see you all the 9 and 10th of May in Hellevoetsluis! :-)

ps attached a picture of the new boat in the factory