Not quite foiling worlds

Yesterday blown off, today becalmed at the Moth World Championship in Italy

It was another disappointing day in Italy at the Moth World Championships. Competitors arrived this morning to discover very light winds and rain. What breeze there was soon faded out and it looked as though the famous ‘Ora’ breeze would never arrive. “It’s never like this,” the locals claimed but today, at least, it was.

The breeze did fight back breifly as it suddenly switched from on to off and a solid ten knots filled in at around 13:00 (local time). Competitors hurried to rig as the race committee took down the onshore postponement flag and headed out to the course.

20 minutes later and spectators were being treated to the sight of 50 or so Moths foiling around in perfect sunny conditions. Clearly bored with days of big breeze and looking foolish as they went from pitch-pole to pitch-pole the Mothies were relishing in the conditions. There was a definite feel of peacocks showing their feathers as sailors tried to get as close to the various camera boats as possible, showing their skills.

These conditions were short lived though and mere moments later around 50 moths were sent ashore in near flat calm. As I write this the rain has returned and, though racing has yet to be officially canned, it seems very unlikely today will see anymore races.

There will be one man who is happy with the abandonment though. Gary Ireson (GBR) was one of the three ‘British heroes’ who braved yesterday’s conditions and returned in one piece to triumphant cheers. Today, however, upon rigging up Ireson discovered a major crack in his wing bar literally as the rest of the fleet left the beach. Still this is the Moth fleet and a few hours with some strips of carbon and a pot of epoxy the boat will be ‘as good as new’ (ish).

For results see yesterday's report, here .