So I hopped back on the boat 3 weeks ago, as sailed at the worlds. Headed upwind, no problem, then turned back downwind and thought … this setup is SHIT.

So I went back to Rohan’s original Bladerider setup guide, and made a new bell crank to those dimensions, which also required a pushrod tweak. And OMFG, I can actually now sail the boat downwind …

Bolt on upgrade #2 is Luka’s old rudder that he had built for Scalpel, but didn’t quite live up to his expectations. On my boat however, it was a bolt-on twin-turbo.

The rudder is a lot longer, and features a tweaked version of the rudder that Dave Lister designed for the Geelong Nationals. With this new rudder, in a breeze that just touched 20 a couple of times in a building swell. The boat was as comfy as a lounge chair. It also drummed into my brain, just how wrong the old big Bladerider and Prowler rudders are.

The next piece of work is an AOA change to fly the boat more ’11 style, and also a gearing adjuster is in the works.

Oh well so much for no boat work …

And the answer is pretty, bloody good. The first show to break the 1000 mark was Dave’s show, but now the new record holder is Joe Turner with 5,601 downloads !. Coming in second is the latest show with Bora and Bear managed to pull an audience of 5,164 unique downloads.

Most surprising though is that all the existing shows still get heaps of downloads with our launch show having 714 downloads since November 2010, so now even it will be well past the 1000 downloads mark.

Show advertising slots are still available, and we do accept contra deals.  :-)

We discuss their wing campaign at Belmont, why they blew up, and set a new record for the number of times we say f%#k in an episode.

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This episode is sponsored by Regatta Graphics.

Speaking of sabots, here is me skippering in my first boat, Skye Bird with Martin Wells crewing, the boat was made by dad using a club mould, so essentially we had a true one design sabot fleet with all the hulls, masts, booms and sails being identical.

The first regatta I sailed in was at the VJ nationals in Teralba on the lake in 1987 as crew for my brother Andrew. Check out the complete lack of vang tension in those days …

That same lifejacket was being used some 9 years later at the moth worlds at Sunshine. Another fashion must have were the home made bright orange dacron, padded hiking shorts. The big expense for this regatta was the new carbon mast and one design sail. The all carbon wreckair hire in the background ended up at St. George sailing club as well sailed by Grant Weymouth.

Another was spending time with Charlie, Bora, Bear and Rob including a full day in the US rib, getting a inside view of a wing campaign and how it works. As a result I wanted to post a few thoughts about the wings as a lot of questions have already been answered in my mind as to whether they should be allowed or not.

Initial impressions

Initial impressions of the wing are fucking impressive. The are awesome bits of kit, that appear, on the surface to be quite complex, internally they have flap control lines everywhere in the second element, flap connectors in the front element, and the pre-preg curved leading edge was a work of art. Even though I had already seen build photos and know how it was put together the thought that ran through my mind was “Fuck, how am I going to ever build one of these?”

After the initial oh fuck moment, and after spending time with super support guy Rob Patterson throughout the regatta, I now know that, whilst these wings do indeed have secrets that they aren’t giving up easily, they are not the holy grail of unbuildable technology. The seed had been sown, I have to build one.

Then they started breaking.

Reliability

Bora’s wings should not be used as an indicator of wing reliability. My foredeck has more than double the laminate of Bora’s wings. If Adam May walked along the leading edge of one of Bora’s Bemont wings he would fall right through it. All three wings suffered the same compression failure, and the final repair, that added another layer of laminate to the front of the wing solved it, Charlie managed to get it around in 30knot winds, so I would call that sorted. That said, the wings were delt multiple capsizes and kept on kicking.

When the wings fail they look broken, really broken, and I was quite surprised when Rob would simply shrug it off as not too bad, and then systematically start putting them back together. He was right. The wings, when they break, because the film rips look absolutely destroyed, and they are, but, because they are so simple, as long as you planned for it and have spares, you can patch them up, and go sailing again. They also seem to be able to get along with bits missing as well. The csylar film is bloody strong, it took me four attempts to punch through it during one of the recoveries to tie the wing into the rib. I think that these things are the great, great daddy of the terminator, they are very, very hard to kill.

Rigging

Now this was unexpected. If you have multiple people, then rigging is much easier than a soft sail. With one person holding the boat, and one at each end of the mast, you can literally rig the boat in less than a minute. I know this because we did it in exactly that time after a failure. When we tried to do exactly the same thing with Dalton when he snapped a mast, it took us heaps longer to turn him around and get him back out there. That said, I would not want to attempt to rig and launch a wing by myself, although I am sure it is possible.

Recovery

Recovery of broken wings, with Bora’s Dux catamaran rib, was easier than recovering a standard soft sail. A broken wing floats (mostly), although the crunchy crunch sounds it makes in the waves is very, very disconcerting. To recover, the wing needs to be disconnected from the boat, then floated next to the rib then pulled in one go, and kept flat so the wind does not grab it. The boat is towed back to shore behind the rib, with the wing being held down. To contrast this with a soft sail recovery with a broken boom I did straight after, it took two of us to swim around with vice grips trying to remove the broken boom and then de-rig the mast. (It was at this point Jimmy Spithill came by to tell us that the second wing had broken, and we quickly fled the scene leaving Jimmy to finish the tow to shore for us.)

So, assuming you have the right recovery boats, recovering the wing is actually easier than a soft sail rig, I have done two of both, in the same conditions on the same day. The other challenge is that the longer the wing is in the water, the more damage is done to it.

The important lesson here though is most of the boats that are used to recover moths, simply aren’t the right boats, and for big regattas you need lots of the right ones.

The wing mid capsize (yes it survived without a scratch), and the author on pre-race drink duty with Charlie in the M2 and Rob driving Bora’s rib.

Storage and Transport

This is where the wing looses major ground to the soft sail rig. The US Air force had a container, which served as their wing hanger for the event. I am sure that if they didn’t have that, then they would have simply hung them up in the Belmont boat shed. So the problem with the rigs is that you need a “wing tent”, boat shed or a container to store them in. The advantage, is that because you have wings, you now have a “wing tent”, boat shed or onsite container to store all your other crap and to be an onsite workshop. I can see how with some planning this could be done in most clubs with boat storage, and definitely at regattas, just not ones held at Woolahara, where there even the boats are outside unprotected. Otherwise it would just take a some pre-planning with the club to pre-arrange hanging space inside the sheds, or erect a tent.

Transport is where the main issues would lie, sending wings to a regatta in a box or container is one thing, putting them on a trailer and driving to a local club, or for a couple of hours up the freeway is another, but it is nothing that a large, enclosed trailer could not fix.

Conclusions

When Bladerider first came on the scene I was concerned that the DNA of the moth class would be lost by the new members who joined as they would prefer one a one design approach over the development route. People like Bora, Bear, Joe Turner and Nathan have proven to me, beyond a doubt that this was wrong and wings or no wings, the ethos of the moth is alive and well.

Wings are something we should be cautious about, but we should not be afraid of them. If they are allowed, then I can guarantee that I will be building one, or two, or three, and mental design process has already started. If they are banned then I will have the experience of a lifetime to remember.

There is definitely a cost argument against wings, but since no one seems to care that people have 5 masts and multiple foils to choose from, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

I think we should trust a little that, with wings, the sky won’t start falling, but, we might want an evacuation plan just in case.

17 (e) Equipment usage

(i) Sails. Each boat, irrespective of owner, shall have for use not more than one (1) mainsail, two (2) headsails and one (1) spinnaker for use during any one regatta.

(ii) Mast and spars. Each hull is only allowed one mast, one boom, one bowsprit and one spinnaker boom for use during any one regatta.

(iii) Centreboard/daggerboard. Each hull is only allowed one centerboard or one daggerboard for use during any one regatta.

(iv) Rudder. Each hull is only allowed one rudder for use during any one regatta.

(v) Hydrofoil. Each hull is only allowed one hydrofoil (as defined in Rule 6) for use during any one regatta.

(vi) General

(i)  This Rule 17(e) applies only to World Championships, other International events, and to National Championships

(ii) The mast, spars, sails, rudder, centreboard/daggerboard, and hydrofoil of each boat, irrespective of owner, must be declared at the start of each regatta.

(iii) Any application to change a mast, spar, sail, rudder, centerboard/daggerboard, or hydrofoil must be in writing to the PRO and permission will be granted provided (a) the discarded mast, spar, sail, rudder, centerboard/daggerboard or hydrofoil is damaged beyond repair and is not used again by that boat during the regatta and (b) any official stamp on the discarded mast, spar, sail, rudder, centerboard/daggerboard, and hydrofoil has been appropriately crossed;

The first day of the nationals was a shitter for me, as I spent most of the day low riding around, and I scored a DNF after a late start when my vang strop broke and I had to re tie it on the water.

Starts are critical and my nationals results show what happens when you simply don’t engage at the start.  Now that we have split fleets, and smaller boat numbers on the start line I will be getting right in there.

We are having great racing down the back, at least we were once the breeze was in, but as always I am struggling for depth due to my weight and I am loosing places due to the extra distance.

Apparently I have also forgotten how to gybe.

On the physical front I have already lost 1.5kg in two days, and whilst sore, can already notice some changes. No surprise really when you are exercising for 6 hours in a rubber suit in the Australian summer.

This regatta has also changed one of my key ideas about moth sailing and I can’t beat em, so I will be joining em. I have decided that at some point in the future, say a couple of years time, I will be getting myself a Mach2, or whatever the current dominant design is, and developing that. The amount of time being spent just so I can plod around the back in a slow boat simply isn’t worth it, especially when people I have been racing and beating in the past have brought M2′s and I am now nowhere near them on the race track.

In fact, given the choice of a one design M2 class or a class of only homebuilt moths I would choose the one design class without any thought.

What we really need though is a second builder, that has the same performance of the Mach 2 going head to head …

So we are back at it tomorrow, and we all get to see how they will fit two courses into the space where only one has fit so far.

Oh and can we please move the top mark back down the racecourse 100m, so I don’t have to low ride and loose 10 places every time I go there… thanks.

When a boat has a lot of miles, there is a matinence cycle that needs to happen. For some people this translates to “fix things when they break”, and for others it translates to “sell the boat and get a new one”, the approach I am trying is “identify and fix marginal stuff before it breaks”.

The other thing that will happen at this regatta is that there will be people looking for spares for the older boats after things break.

And with that I thought I should outline some of the things that commonly break and that you should be looking at, especially if you are sailing a home build, Bladerider or Prowler.

1. Control rods. A common failure is that the thread strips out of the brass barrell nut, or the pushrod breaks at the thread. You should have spares of both, and know how to replace them.

2. Bladerider sika hinge. The sika hinge is a known failure point of Bladerider foils, and if it fails it is game over, the flap will rip off and take the pushrod with it, and tear through the vertical. You need to check the sika, especially at the tips before every sail.

3. Loosing unique parts. Bellcrank clips, ball joints, bolts that are a strange size. You should have spares of all of those.

4. Breaking the wand. Accidents happen and wands break, it may get caught in a spectators dress, the boat may fall on the bow, it may come untied and drag on the road, it might be destroyed on the beach, or someone may crash into your boat and break it. (All these have happened).

5. Gantry attachment points. Where the gantry attaches to the hull, mainly for boats with a Prowler style joint (like mine), this is a known failure point. If you have bolts they need to be replaced pre-regatta. This gave me a DNF at the states.

6. Tiller universal joint. This is another one with tricky parts to replace. This was a states failure for me and one of the reasons I now run gantry adjustment instead.

To summarise … replace worn bits NOW and get spares, spares, spares and more spares.

Personally I hope I have all my failures out of the way, at least I discovered this mast stump failure last week, and it is all repaired now.

Bring on Belmont !!!

Well when I read rule number one, to me, the phrase “fullest liberty in design and construction within these rules”  that implies, that “Any development that is not explicitly banned, is allowed by default”, however that does not appear to be the case. Maybe that is something we should look to add in the future.

Then the propellor heads of the world are free to create things like this … “but it’s only used to cool the engine.”

Yes this blog post is just an excuse to post  a picture if the Brabham fan car.

We also discuss the controversy around wings at Belmont, Amac’s secret weapon amongst other things.

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This episode is sponsored by Regatta Graphics.

I also have popped out a new horizontal to go onto my old, white foil vertical, the remains of which can be seen here.

Unless this foil is a rocket out of the gate, this will be my backup foil for Belmont, and I will be using my current Ilett / Bladerider combo as my main foil.

So you can watch me DNF every race in all it’s glory… assuming the 10 minute rule applies again this year.

When I went to Geelong, I was rushing to build a competitive foil package. The new foil that I worked on for months before had some serious flaws that I needed to resolve during the event leading to a depressing regatta.

Well I am not doing that again.

My worlds (and Nationals) goal is simple. Finish in the top 49% of results, and even that will be hard. That will require beating Mach 2′s and generally getting things right 99% of the time and being consistent with no alphabet. At the last regatta that is what I aimed for as well. I beat my current benchmark (Phil), but I am still yet to do it honestly and convincingly on the course.

My current ride, is a very different beast to what I sailed at the states. Sure the foils and hull are the same, but the setup is different and the rig is completely new. I can now point upwind with speed, and the boat is a comfortable as a lounge chair.

I am sailing better than I have in a long time, and want to keep up the momentum towards the worlds.

That means getting out of the shed, and sailing SIRs instead of boat building.

What really made me decide was being hour late to the start on Saturday. All in all I hit the water a full two hours later than I normally do.

Why …

New bits. I spent the morning putting new bits on the boat, so I was late to rig and late to the start, by an hour when all the cams decided to pop off and then break a batten or two.

So at that point I decided. If this is what happens with the old boat, and a new rig. I am not going to have another Geelong with a new hull that needs to be sorted. The only bits I will build now will be things I can bolt on, and remove if they don’t work.

Decision made.

And I feel really good about it. Now if only I had decided that BEFORE I had to pay a $100 SIRs late fee …

Give the wing a fair run

The idea of wings is completely within the ethos of the class in-fact, rule #1 almost demands that it is allowed

“The International Moth is a single-handed development class boat. The intention of these class rules is to give the designer and builder the fullest liberty in design and construction, within these rules to develop and produce faster boats.”

So I think that we should give wings a fair run, say 2 years of development and racing and then re-visit the subject and decide if we want to ban them or let them continue. That way we still have the option to “close the door” if we like, but we can still give them a fair go.

How big is that wing, anyway ?

Having said that there are a number of interesting aspects to our rules, such as different “sail sizes”, depending on a bolt rope, pocket luff or sail on a wing mast.

As you an see in the above diagram we essentially have three different sail sizes: bolt rope, pocket luff and wing mast.

The current state of our rules puts the wing in an enviable place where it can fully exploit the 90mm allowances for mast and boom.  So far, the “gentleman’s agreement” has prevented a wing that is 8.5m2 being built, but why should it?

In a development class it is our job to push the rules as far as we can, leaving no speed on the table. I think that. John Harris made a great point in his comment about the last Mothcast, in the spirit of open discussion on the subject.

“My interpretation of this is that Adam has exploited the rules to build a wing that has the potential to render every current rig uncompetitive or at least mean that people who want to be competitive will need both a wing and a soft sail rig. But then he says it would not be right for anyone to exploit the rules any further than he has. Further he says that it would not be right for anyone to build a wing out of better/more expensive materials than he has. So exploit the rule but only to the arbitary line in the sand that he has chosen? Sounds like having one’s cake whilst also eating it to me.”

This is why we need the rules to be clarified ASAP. If we decide to tidy up in this area, then the simplest way is to make the rule 8.25m2 true area, including the pocket and the area of any wing mast,  and an enclosed boom comes off the area as well.

One slot or two?

The way the rules are currently being interpreted is that there is a mast, and the flap is a sail, restricting us to a single slot. I have no opinion either way, but is that what we really want to restrict. Does anyone care if we have 2,3,4 or 5 element wings?

Hard and soft

Does everyone want to have a hard AND a soft sail, or sails? Do we really want to add $10k to the cost of the boats?

If we decide not to ban wings, then we should move to control cost.  There are a number of ways we can do this. We could limit materials, i.e. No high modulus carbon,  nomex etc. Nice on paper, but in reality these types rules are essentially impossible to enforce.

The other way is a run what you brung, one equipment rule. After talking with Adam about it on the show, I have devised a way so that we can have our cake and eat it too.

The rule  idea simply is that any boat that is in the top say 60% at a regatta is not allowed to use more than one mast and soft sail combination or one wing ( with no option to swap to a soft rig) and one main foil and one rudder.

Exceptions would be for gear breakage, with approval from the race committee on the same day that the breakage occurred before or after the change is made.

This would let the guys down the back chop and change, but the guys up the front are restricted.

Thoughts ?

In this episode, we talk 100% wings with Adam May. This is the second hour of the chat that started with show 16.

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This episode is sponsored by Pukka.com.au

Security. The idea was to keep spammers and Doug Lord out … success, but it kept everyone else out too … fail.

Contributions …  Karl, Richard and I were the only ones that actually contributed … FAIL.

I lost my password and stopped checking for new account requests, as I was not getting emailed about them … also fail.

Well I am giving the wiki one last hurrah. I have opened it up, so everyone can read the three pages that are there. If you like the idea then vote with your content, if you don’t then do nothing.

What will happen … If the wiki starts to thrive, then I will let it continue. If it does not then please, copy any content you want as I will shut it down in January 2011.

Thoughts … ???

In this episode, we talk with the builder of the first Moth wing sail Adam May.

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This episode is sponsored by Pukka.com.au