I thought I was getting there moth-wise. But after ripping my tramp this weekend it turns out I’m not. So no racing yet next week. I’m in desperate need of some sailing time, so I’ll stay at Largs to try and do so (now that shouldn’t be too bad ;).
I got to Largs and booked a B&B in order not to lose time on travel between Largs and Glasgow. Saturday was just glorious weather, a gentle breeze, sunshine, and NO easterlies, yes! So I got out. The wind near the yacht club was unfoilable, but there seemed to be a good patch under the island of Cumbrea. And there it was, getting about a mile off Largs we had liftoff! Happy to have lost those last kilos of body weight!
The ride was just great. It was marginal stuff, but I managed to foil nearly all the way to the tip of Cumbrea island. It was a very rewarding sail, as all aspects of foiling seemed to be involved to stay up on the foils, twitch of tiller, little move of bodyweight, little pulls on the sheet, twitch of tiller back, more speed, boat more flat, more speed, puff coming, bear off a bit, main a bit flatter, speed from 10 to 14 knots. Woopie! Main a bit fuller, body a bit aft. Keep movin. Just great. Speeds were mainly 10 knots. This seems very slow now on the moth, and given a working boat would be great for many a try for foiling gybes.
Headed back to Largs for more of the same. It was fun as the winds gradually decreased, and slowly but surely the boat got back into lowriding. Then my trampoline decided to tear. A rip developed all along the length. I saw it soon (learned to check stuff when you hear something strange). Tried to sit on the wing bar with my upper body, but not enough wind. So I had to take some kind of spider pose to keep the boat upright and get back to shore. That was an hour of sailing done.
But the weather was too good to get depressed. So I moved ahead, and got the bloody thing off the boat. Then: how on earth am I going to get dacron/something! To get my tramp patched up? I started to throw hungry looks at my sailbag! It is saturday 19.00 hrs. I know about 2 people in Largs, sailmaker closed. Mhh. I must get out on the water tomorrow.
Time for some old-skool mothie tricks!
Luckily there was a lot of rubbish lying about in the harbour, and I found some stuff they use to cover lorries (vinyl-ish stuff, very heavy duty). After brushing all the rubbish and mud off it even came out white!
So I’d found myself some repair materials! A phone call to the lady of the B&B later, and it turned out she had a needle and thread (there’s something new for the moth-box!). Time for dinner, a wee beer, and a look at the sun going down.
So sunday was spent repairing, pics on the right hand side. All a bit of mixed feelings. Hope the repair works.
Waterworld-style-moth anyone?
