Sailors map updates

The sailors map is updated, added Chris Jeeves, Constantijn, Eelco. Let me know if you want to be on (or off) it.

dead rabbits on foils

After reading on Rohan’s blog about a destroyed penguin (was that a penguin?) here’s a bit from the lowlands.

Rob told me the story that all rabbits on his lake are dying every three years or so. Since they all go blind, there’s a ridge on the side if the lake, they all fall in the water. And there’s loads of them. So when sailing there you catch dead rabbits on your foils. May sound funny. But these beast smell!

Ps What’s up Rohan? We’ll miss you!

Racing Bruinisse

It seems that each year I visit Bruinisse conditions are the same, with winds somewhere between 10 and 20 knots, some chop, and some sunshine to top it off. Yes, this is an invite for you UK guys to get your ass on the ferry next year, and come sail with us!

After some years of silence for Mothies in the lowlands we had a whopping 9 entries for the regatta. They all showed up, and they all sailed. Good stuff. We got some help from Sven (who came all the way from Hamburg, on the way to training at Garda) . Fantastic to get some good racing in your own country. Together with all other skiffs, that made a nice fleet.

I wasn’t quite sure what to weekend would bring for me, hoping that working myself to swet on my new house would have given me good fitness for mothing. Dream on. I wasn’t even sure how my moth was looking, after weeks (or was it months?) of neglect on the boat park. All ok there though, and on friday night (so, where shall we sleep?) all was sorted on the beach, and ready to race (the boat, that is).

The wind was a bit on and off on the day, ranging from marginal foiling, to some 15 knots. Most were foiling upwind, which did them good. I decided to stick to lowriding upwind, as I hadn’t figured out my upwind problem yet, and I knew I would be slower by trying to foil. I was slow anyway, but having good fun racing and changing places with Chris and Rob. Chris was flying well, but not making a lot of height, I had the height, but not a lot of speed. I didn’t have a lot of idea what was going on at the front, as Eelco, Sven and the others were lapping us may times.

On the second race the wind picked up: woop. I stuck to lowriding at first, then downwind the fun started. Foiling was good, confirming my thoughts that my settings are still ok. These are  not changed since I bought the boat at Garda, and carefully photographed: the improvements are to be made on my skills.

I remember quite easily sliding along downwind at 18 knots, pondering whether to pass that 29-er to leewind or to windward. I’d read those stories (ok, most of the time that was about 49-ers, and 18 foot skiffs), but now I was doing something similar. At least, the 29-er was looking like they were going fast, and they didn’t hear me coming. [Big grin]

But, as a skiff sailor you can be put back down to earth pretty quickly. Eelco passed me to leeward, sailing 40 centrimetres of my wing (confirming my thoughts that my depth downwind is good). It took a bit of time, but I did crash. The rest of the race was crash and burn until the finish. I was dead, and needed some 20 minutes to get some of my breath back. Cramps were beginning to set in on many places (that’s what you get when you don’t train), and I thought the only way I could get to the finish was by no more capsizing.

So it was back to good old lowriding in the third race. Upwind was easy and comfy, and not so much slower then the foiling boats. Downwinds were fun, with the good-old splashing of water in your face thing. Rob and me were having a bit of a battle, with Rob (on Sven’s old GER 1040) foiling on and off, and me just plodding along. Glad I made it round, I was even recovering a bit during the race, starting to think about foiling again.

We had a comfy Dutch and Belgian members meet in the evening, planning some stuff for next year, since we are near the sea, it seems like great fun to race from Scheveningen, but were do we find the rescue boats? Hope to get that sorted…

The next day brought more on and off wind, albeit a bit more then the saturday. I even managed to sneak in a second place when half of the fleet wasn’t awake yet, and late to the line. I had a good start in some 5-6 knots of wind, and I was using my agressive sailing-on-crappy-german-small-lake-pond-without-wind-and-loads-of-trees-and-building-on-shore style. Near the end of the first beat I thought I was rounding first, but Sven had found a patch to foil, so he got there first, with me 40 metres off. Down it went, straight down, pushing out the boom to get the sail out to the max.Great fun trying to make Sven nervous, looking for a puff to pass. He held me off, but I starting thinking about how nice it’d be to get my first place ever in on a regatta leg.

I unclipped the foil to get some more speed, and we hussled for the next upwind too. In the meantime Giovianni was flying all over the place, but I had no idea whether he was flying upwind or down. It turned out he did rather well, since he started late, and still got third in.

We were doing three rounds, and we got some more wind rolling in, so clip on the foils again, and there we go, all or nothing. Downwind was good, I managed to get a reasonable gybe in, and was back foiling pretty soon (surprising what motivation does for you). It seemed a second place was doable, foiling towards the finish at a good angle. A bit of trouble started when I started overtaking a Musto Skiff just before the finish, how on earth do you slow this boat down when foiling? I didn’t know, and apparantly though a bit too much about it, so back swimming it was. Unlcipped again, and cruise in to finish second. A sneaky second, but the grin on my face wasn’t any less for it.

The wind was there to stay, and grew into a great 12-14 knots. Ideal to try out whether the changes Constantijn suggested made any sense. My clew band (the connection between the sail and end of the boom) had quite some play in it, causing my vang to be less effective. I noticed in Hellevoetsluis I didn’t have any height upwind and this was the cause, not my foil settings. Also Constantijn was nice enough to sail a bit upwind with me, and give some tips. After another decent start it was time to try this, and it seemed to work, I had the idea I was more or less keeping up with the front runners. That didn’t last long, but it was good to notice (check that clew band!).

The rest of the race grew into carnage. The wind stepped it up a notch and it got hairy for me at the upwind mark, I hit it and while going fast downwind I didn’t have any clue how to stop that boat, and do a penalty turn. Then it was time to gybe, and I joing a company of other skiffs all merrily swimming around and trying to right their boats. We exchanged some niceties, while waiting for the wind to lessen a bit, enjoying the scenery of spinning out, and nosediving skiffs, with Eelco and Sven thundering through the fleet, what a sight!

I tried to do something as a lowrider, but I’d gotten to slow to react, and I had big problems righting to boat, even getting back to shore seemed quite a problem.I was neat the downwind mark, and tried to make it round (upwind is normally easy, then we’ll see what happens for the downwind bit). But even with the foils unclipped I couldn’t help to start flying, and it didn’t stop lifting, and I had a huge crash straight next to the downwind mark. Great. Public apology to the 49-er who missed the mark while avoiding me. After getting out of the way, I was spent. So, some more rest, water, and power bars, and time to head in while I was still having fun.

It was getting more quiet on the water with Giovanni breaking a stay, Constantijn breaking a stay adjuster, Juryk breaking his sail, and Rob breaking himself as well. The remaining four Hans, Sven, Eelco, and Chris kept on merrily foiling their rounds. I was hugely impressed with Hans (2 months since he moved from a lowrider to a foiler now) pulling off a foiling gybe at 40 metres for the finish. Good stuff.

I wasn’t really aware what was going on at the front, but upwind-Eelco was doing great, and took the win, Sven was very consistent in 2nd, and Hans is getting to grips with the foiler to take 3rd. Chris did very well to keep sailing in big winds (Axiom looking good on the water). Giovanni and Constantijn were umlucky break stuff, Rob is getting there on an older Moth (flying very much nose-up), and Juryk was unlucky to break his sail (and his foils, while not able to get a replacement).

Mothing in the lowlands feels very much alive. And I’m sore.

Pics here

PS didn’t realise this post has gotten so long, seems I’ve missed mothing!

Bruinisse open

Ready to go for Bruinisse, found nearly all my stuff back in the house. Now see if my Moth is still there after a good 5 weeks of neglect (bad), put it on the car, and hopefully go for a test sail tonight with Hans. Off!

Bruinisse Open

Things are looking good for the Open Skiff trophy at Bruinisse, 8 boats are registered, so hopefully we’ll get our own start.

I must say it is great to have a group of Dutch and Belgian mothies now, we’ll have a wee class meeting there to make some plans, and maybe get some more members next year?

Living up to Bruinisse isn’t what it should be for me, I’m living in the right part of the country now, but too busy sorting my house out. Seems like the earliest time I can get some training in will be this winter…

Ah well, this was all planned, more or less…

Not much on

Seems likes ages ago I’ve been mothing. I remember trying some gybes but sitting too far back. It’s funny though that the amount of crashing keeps getting less and less. I think I need to start taking some more risks when sailing.

But honestly, I’m too busy with other stuff outside sailing. Sold my flat last week, and looking for a new house now. Criteria are: near a place where good mothing is possible (check), needs a room at least 3.20 metres by 2.20 (check), location near enough to work to be able to train weekday evenings (check).

Happy with the Dutch and Belgian mothies getting underway. It seems like we might be getting a fourth official even. Wow… Now all we need is a Dutch or Belgian European Champion!

(ok Hans, there’s your update!)

Dutch and Belgian moth regatta

More news from the Dutch and Belgian moth regatta at Hellevoetsluis:

Blog post by Eelco Boers (new blog!): http://ejbmoth.blogspot.com/

Blog post by Giovanni: http://giovannigaleotti.blogspot.com/2009/05/sunday-races.html

Photo’s: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildetukker/sets/72157618004140840/

Results: http://www.hellecat.nl/wedstrijden/uitslagen/2009/moth10052009.html 

 More stuff (video, photos) to follow…

Dutch and Belgian Mothies very alive!

We’ve had a very succesfull regatta this weekend with a mixed bag between no wind, and a seabreeze building to a nice 15 knots. First photos and results from www.moth.nl
Personnaly, I’m not happy with a 5th place out of 7, but I know I’m getting better, and quite happy to be fully in control of the boat in 15 knots of wind. More on the regatta later.
No foiling gybe yet, but one neeeeeeaaarly, and I found a more important goal, to find height upwind (ups).

Packing for racing!

After ages of not being on the water, I’m packing my stuff for Moth racing in the lowlands! I’d nearly forgotten what mothing was about, but getting my boat sorted yesterday brought me back in the mood, what a boat. Participation for the regatta is looking good (7-ish boats).
Now, if only I’d gotten myself more fit… Playing volleybal a few times over the last few months isn’t really enough I’m afraid. A well that will come with sailing.
After the regatta my boat will go to Lemmer, where the good foiling waters are…

Getting there

Some things happening lately, unfortunately none of them about me sailing a moth.

The Dutch moth class is getting established back. Eelco Boers is now the treasurer, and Hans has found a very welcoming catamaran club for our first regatta for years. More info is at:

http://internationalmoth.ning.com/forum/topics/hellecat-regatta

We hope for some good participation from our Easterly neighbours, and there is a rumour Simon Payne is interested to be there (you comin Si?) We’re starting 5 mins after the catamarans, so it should be a nice challenge to beat them.

There was a nice meeting from the german mothies (winterversammlung) where I finally learned how you actually change gearing for your foils (sounds easy: change the length of the connectors, but I’ve read how to do that, or seen some pics somewhere?).

Spring is making the first moves here, so if I don’t work too hard, I might actually find some time to go sailing sometime…

Keeping busy with the virtual volvo (Wilde Tukker on there) darn, lost 4000 places today, so dropped to place 5000 now, some fighting needed, but it is still a long way from somewhere halfway to southern ocean to Rio. I -must- get back to the first 1000…