2008 Moth sailing

Toby Heppell charts his progress as the Moth Worlds approach

Recently I have received a number of messages from readers asking what has become of my foiling Moth sailing. I suppose this is inevitable given I have not written about this for some time now (you can see my first two blogs here and here). For all those concerned I had given up on Moth racing I can assure you - I have not. It has been a bit of a slow winter though.

In truth I stepped away from 49er sailing and took up foil-born Mothing simply because the boat looked a lot more fun and at the time I promised myself that I would not go out when it was painfully cold - one of the few things in life I have never seen much sense in. This being Britain, of course, the bitterly cold conditions are, in effect, November through April and so the boat got tucked away in the garage over these winter months and has only recently been back out on the water.

Winter has taught me a couple of things; principally that my carbon boatbuilding skills are a long way from being perfect. Also when it comes to boat bimbling in the garage the tool you most need almost always seems to be the tool you have not got – B&Q should look at sponsoring the Moth fleet I think. I was hoping the winter would represent a chance to do a full sand down and repaint of my boat making her feel more like mine but, as it turned out, I am as unkeen to stand in a cold garage sanding in January as I am swimming around in the water.

With all this in mind the Glyn Charles Pursuit in Hayling Island was to be my first proper outing of 2008 in a foiler. Knowing that current European Champion and ex-World Champion, Simon Payne, was spending a lot of time in Hayling I arranged to meet him for a quick sail on the Friday before the event began. Cunningly, I thought, this would allow me to have my boat more or less ready to roll come the main event on the Saturday as well as some valuable time on the water in my woefully short foiling log book.



Suffice to say the day started badly and I found myself undoing much of the work I had done over the winter. The holes in the side of the boat where the wing trampoline laces up I had neatly re-filled with resin only to realise the holes I had drilled through said resin were far too small and need to be re-drilled to the point where I needn’t have bothered in the first place. Of course all this fixing takes time and I was very late onto the water and feeling extremely annoyed, not particularly condusive to great sailing. Without describing everything that went wrong I had a ghastly sail and came ashore pretty down about the whole thing, genuinely considering pulling out of the Glyn Charles altogether. Essentially I found the old problem of struggling to find lift was back and every time I got the boat out of the water I had to work really hard to stop the foils breaking the waters surface and sending me crashing back into the sea.

Late in the day Simon took my boat out for a sail and decided my wand was too flexible which was the root cause of my lift problems. Wand rigidity is not something I had yet considered as this tends to be a tuning consideration. The flexibility of the wand controls the amount to which the flap on the main foil reacts to wave conditions. A flexible wand acts as a dampener, flexing when it hits a wave instead of moving the main foil flap. Obviously a stiffer wand does the opposite, giving very direct feedback on the wave conditions, but adjusting the main foil for every last ripple on the surface. How stiff a wand is tends to be a matter of taste and is strongly debated, as well as being the subject for considerable experimentation.

There are certain set-up rules that most follow early on in Moth sailing, the main one being when the wand is swept backwards at an angle of 45 degrees the main foil flap should be neutral, giving neither positive nor negative lift. Obviously this set-up means if the boat floats higher and the wand drops a little the boat will lose height by causing negative lift and vice versa. I had set up my boat according to these rules but my wand was flexing so much when the boat was in the water that I needed to set my system up to allow for this flex. I went home that night feeling disappointed with the day but hopeful I could cure my lift problems.

Saturday morning at the Glynn Charles dawned with fantastically sunny weather though unfortunately very little wind. I had long given up any hope of doing that well at the event with several top Moth sailors there and the Moth fleet sailing off a handicap of 583. However, I was desperately hoping for a bit of wind so I could get some good time on the water in. It did not look likely as I arrived at the club and the couple of Moths out training were struggling to stay on their foils.

I played with my set-up ashore to provide the required lift and sadly spent a little too much time playing and not enough time looking at the watch and duly missed the start. Disappointing for me but perhaps more disappointing for my Editor, James Boyd, who was out on a rib with his stills and video camera and, I suspect, laughter waiting. However, the wind picked up a little and I hit the water planning on taking the opportunity to get some training in.


Simon Payne at the Glyn Charles

Well what a revelation I have to say. I set the boat up, she popped out of the water and I was off. Previously it had been like trying to sail in a very 3D environment controlling fore and aft trim as well as height. Now the boat had a much more autopilot feel about it and foiling felt, if not easy, then much easier. Blasting around in this way I began to appreciate just how much of a boon an off-the-shelf product like the Bladerider or the many of the newer designs must be to the first time foiler.

I am now faced with a bit of a conundrum, however. I would like to change my wand at some point for a stiffer version but with a foil package that now feels closer to right than ever before I am somewhat loathe to change it. As ever time is going to be the real constraint. The Moth Worlds are fast approaching and I have to find more time on the water to not only get better at foiling but also to enable me to tune my foiling package better. This weekend there is a Moth Open at Weston Sailing Club in Southampton and it looks as though a good turnout is to be expected. I will be competing but more for the excuse to sail against other Moth sailors competitively than trying to be competitive. That being said I am looking forward to the event and I am sure the ever friendly Moth fleet will make me feel welcome.

As I have said the Moth Worlds is now approaching rapidly (the event is from the 5-11 July). Over 100 foilers are expected, both old and new, and hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to give myself a reasonable goal for the event. Originally the hope was to get to the stage where it was the more boat holding me back than me holding the boat back and buy a new (ish) hull at the end of the Championship. Increasingly this looks to be unlikely, but I am still keen to upgrade.

I have a feeling I am still going to be slow in a straight line and corners are a long way from being pretty or fast. I recently had bought home just how much work I have to do when top American Bladerider sailor, Bora Gulari, released an impressive video of him foiling round in circles - now sadly removed from Youtube it would seem. Still, at least it is warmer now and the days are longer meaning post work foiling is doable. If things run according to plan I should rack up quite a few more hours over the next few months. As with all of these things though time is looking tight.

By the by I have yet to name my 11 foot rocket ship so if you have any suggestions I would gladly welcome them. Send ideas to batmail@thedailysail.com.