Tom Gruitt / www.yachtsandyachting.com

Limbering up for the Big Event

UK Moth Nationals set sail on Hayling Bay

Wednesday July 16th 2014, Author: James Boyd, Location: United Kingdom

The International Moth UK National Championship got underway at Hayling Island Sailing Club today. The club is awash with the vast fleet getting set for this Saturday's World Championship and this morning saw sailors bimbling with their boats, talking about the wind (or lack of it) and many preparing for their first true racing at the worlds venue.

PRO Tim Hancock's thorough briefing assured competitors that the wind would come in and told the fleet to launch at 10.30am for a 11.30 start. His prediction proved correct and the fleet carried their boats into the water and foiled out to the race area.

There is a vast fleet of 116 helms for the UK Nationals with many international competitors using the event as a worlds warm-up. This has necessitated the fleet being broken up into yellow and blue fleets, racing on an inner and outer loop of the same course.

Race 1 started in 10-12 knots of wind with a little more at the windward mark. The yellow fleet raced on the outer course but the blue fleet were less lucky, suffering a complete failure of the wind after one lap, leading to the abandonment of their race

Mike Lennon, who won the first race on the outside course, described the final run: " Chris (Rashley) gybed outside of me, further east and in better pressure. He nearly got me; there was three boat lengths in it at the finish - I'd lost about 100m. It was pretty scary at the end, when I gybed across I thought I might not stay on the foils, it was getting so light and fluffy."

The wind was back up to 12 knots again for race 2 with the fleets swapping to yellow on the inner course and blue on the outer course. Chris Rashley turned the tables on Mike Lennon to take the race win in the Yellow fleet, while Scott Babbage took the win in the Blue fleet.

Mike Lennon described his race: "I think the tide has slackened and was turning so I thought going offshore was better. The pressure felt good going left. Going up the beat I tacked simultaneously with Chris. We were pretty much holding station but Rob suddenly was way ahead. When I got within 50m of the windward mark I got this massive knock; I went down about 15 degrees - Chris didn't get it! Suddenly from being in the hunt with those two, I was way off. Even when I tacked I had very little pressure to get back up on the foils. I was struggling a bit.

"It paid to the stay on the right (east) on the run to get the wind and nothing changed. Going up the next beat I'd sort of decided I'd pump it all the way out to the layline and overstand it slightly, so at least if the pressure dropped I could put the bow down and go in with some pace.

"Then the wind did exactly the same thing as before, but even more so. Rob was even worse off than me; he was off the foils for ages. Chris went round first and I went round second. Down the last run it was light and fluffy but nothing much changed. It was scary because you could see the wind going... and going. Luckily I stayed on the foils till the last 30 metres and that was it."

Blue fleet then re-ran their abandoned first race with Josh McKnight taking the win ahead of of Jason Belben.

Overall there is a three-way tie at the top with Chris Rashley (GBR), Josh McKnight (AUS) & Mike Lennon (GBR) all on 3 points. The top 15 is packed with the top names in the class. The quality of the fleet is highlighted when you see names like Chris Draper, Luna Rossa's America's Cup helmsman, in 13th place after two races.

The International Moth class is hugely grateful to the companies that are helping make this championship possible; Magic Marine, LV, Lennon Sails, CST Composites, Ronstan and Blueteq.

Full results

Pos Nat Helm R1 R2 Tot
1 GBR Chris Rashley 2 1 3
2 AUS Josh Mcknight 1 2 3
3 GBR Michael Lennon 1 2 3
4 AUS Scott Babbage 3 1 4
5 AUS Nathan Outteridge 3 3 6
6 GBR Jason Belben 2 5 7
7 AUS Rob Gough 5 3 8
8 GBR Robert Greenhalgh 4 4 8
9 GBR Ben Paton 4 4 8
10 GBR Dylan Fletcher 6 6 12
11 AUS Andrew McDougall 5 8 13
12 GBR Tom Offer 7 7 14
13 GBR Chris Draper 8 7 15
14 ITA Stefano Ferrighi 13 5 18
15 GBR Richard Westbury 9 9 18
16 JPN Kohei Kajimoto 8 11 19
17 GBR Oliver Holden 10 10 20
18 GBR Ricky Tagg 14 8 22
19 JPN Hiroki Goto 16 10 26
20 NZL Jason Russell 11 15 26
21 FRA Seb Col 13 15 28
22 ITA Marco Lanulfi 20 11 31
23 GBR Dan Vincent 23 9 32
24 GBR Dan Ward 21 12 33
25 GBR Simon Reynolds 15 18 33
26 GBR Daniel Henderson 14 20 34
27 GBR James Phare 18 16 34
28 SUI David Holenweg 23 13 36
29 FRA Yann Andrillon 17 20 37
30 ITA Stefano Rizzi 11 28 39
31 GBR Tim Penfold 25 14 39
32 IRL Rory Fitzpatrick 18 21 39
33 GBR James McMillan 24 16 40
34 AUS Brent Pearson 17 24 41
35 AUS Luke Molloy 22 19 41
36 GBR Matthew Lea 29 13 42
37 GBR Paul Goodison 6 38 44
38 GBR David Hivey 26 18 44
39 GER Sven Kloppenburg 33 14 47
40 GBR John Clifton 19 28 47
41 GBR Matthew Stark 28 21 49
42 GBR Leigh Albrecht 16 34 50
43 GBR Phillippe Oligario 27 24 51
44 GBR David Simmonds 31 22 53
45 GBR Alex Koukourakis 22 31 53
46 GBR Geoff Carveth 30 23 53
47 GBR Graham Simmonds 28 26 54
48 GBR Neil Baker 38 17 55
49 SUI Adriano Petrino 34 22 56
50 GBR Andrew Friend 24 32 56
51 SUI Philippe Schiller 29 27 56
52 GBR Dominic Hutton 31 25.5 56.5
53 GBR Stevie Morrison 39 19 58
54 GBR Rob Partridge 21 37 58
55 IRL Annalise Murphy 35 23 58
56 GBR Kyle Stoneham 26 33 59
57 GBR Chris Jeeves 30 29 59
58 AUS Phil Stevenson 25 35 60
59 GER Burhard Staabs 37 25.5 62.5
60 USA Brad Funk 59.0 DNC 6 65
61 BEL Giovanni Galeotti 7 59.0 DNC 66
62 GBR Diederik Bulters 39 27 66
63 NED Constantijn Weber 34 32 66
64 AUS Will Logan 32 35 67
65 GBR Thomas Lambert 33 34 67
66 NED Eelco Boers 9 59.0 DNC 68
67 GBR Cameron Stewart 10 59.0 BFD 69
68 ITA Fabio Mazzetti 59.0 DNC 12 71
69 RSA Jonathan Heathcote 12 59.0 BFD 71
70 GBR Doug Pybus 12 59.0 DNC 71
71 SUI Caspar Buettner 36 36 72
72 GBR Steve McLean 42 31 73
73 SUI Christopher Rast 15 59.0 DNC 74
74 SUI Jean-Pierre de Siebenthal 59.0 DNC 17 76
75 GBR Guy Stewart Raynes 43 33 76
76 SUI Arnaud Psarofaghis 19 59.0 DNC 78
77 JPN Wakako Tabata 38 40 78
78 SWE Nils Akervall 20 59.0 DNC 79
79 GBR Matt Ponsford 59.0 DNC 25 84
80 FRA Benoit Marie 27 59.0 DNC 86
81 NZL Glen Read 59.0 DNC 29 88
82 POL Michal Domanski 59.0 DNC 30 89
83 GBR Katherine Knight 59.0 DNC 30 89
84 IRL Alistair Kissane 32 59.0 DNC 91
85 GBR Miles Burrage 35 59.0 DNC 94
86 GBR Dave Smithwhite 36 59.0 DNC 95
87 GBR James Thomas 37 59.0 DNC 96
88 GBR Jamie Morgan 59.0 DNC 39 98
89 GBR Jon Bennett 40 59.0 DNC 99
90 GBR Eddie Gatehouse 59.0 DNC 41 100
91 GBR Jamie Pearson 41 59.0 DNC 100
92 GBR Jordan Woods 59.0 DNC 42 101
93 GBR Joseph Wellerd 59.0 DNC 43 102
94 GBR Ken Barker 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Matthew Bergmann Smith 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Nic Streatfeild 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Patrick Cunningham 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Paul Hayden 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Richard Edwards 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Rob Cage 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 IRL John Chambers 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 IRL Ryan Seaton 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 ITA Gian Maria Ferrighi 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 SUI Fabien Froesch 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 SUI Tristan Mathez-Loic 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 USA Zack Downing 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR James Sainsbury 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Jeremy Hartley 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Ian Southworth 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Danny Clark 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Chris Grube 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Dan Ellis 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 BEL Quentin Blondiau 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 ESP Pablo Arandia 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 AUS John Genders 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118
94 GBR Simon Hiscocks 59.0 DNC 59.0 DNC 118

 

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