Silence Is Golden

HOkay Peeps

So its all been a bit quiet on the blog... but only because we've been so so busy Mothing. Now its winter we'll waste a while on windows rather than whipping wildly round Poole harbour on foils!

So here is a little summary -

1. The weather wasn't at all summery
It seemed to blow 2 or 20 kts but anything in a Moth is a joy. And after the windy worlds at weymouth the scales get recalibrated.

2. I said goodbye to my M3
We had our ups and downs but it was an exciting time, and then a big hearty welcome to my new Prowler Zero - "Arjuna".

3. The Powers of Parkstone yacht club....
are brimming with enthusiasm to see the Moth class prosper - which is a marvel. I remember a club full of young talent - and it will be again. So a big thanks to our supporters.


4. Poole week arrived and so did the Mothies.....
Mike Pascall gave us some great w-ward l-ward racing on the Saturday and we explored the far corners of the largest natural harbour in the world on Sunday. (Finally bloody finally I got that foiling gybing malarkey nailed. Whoop whoop). Cheers to you all and to Alan for assisting with emergency trampettes. Dix Point. Ps.. your late night dancing set the club on fire!



5. Poole Yacht Club handicap racing
In the cool cool eves the wind comes and it goes, and so I didn't make as many races from the Poole line as I'd hoped. But when I did - Blimey - Sublimey!! Flat water, a red orange sun hissing towards the horizon and cheers and whistles from the Poole yachties. Lots more of this to look forward to in the Autumn. Nearby mothies are welcome to join the fray....



6. Foiled foil
So I had to get dragged in by the scruff of my neck for only the second time in my sailing career- thanks for the tow. And a right Big Cheers to Mr John Claridge - it was great to hook up again after.. oh about 20 years!! Weird how things come around. And he's as skilled and humorously understated as he always was; more so maybe, brilliant to behold in this "professional" age.

7. Studland Bay Babey
One of my big look forwards to was...... to foil out into the clear blue waters of Studland bay, and the occasion arrived on the invite of Steve Lang (who looked after us so well in Tobago). Studland was informal and fun, and deserves support next year. I got a shock when i flipped off the wing to see my moth foil happily bolt upright towards the beach, leaving me 1/4 of a mile out in the bay. Ho ho ho! How I laughed.

8. The World Championships in Weymouth
I had the plan in my mind for the best part of a year. And John Illet delivered Arjuna in time for a weeks glorious f3-4 blue sky foiling practise before the worlds. Norman was booked into a local hostelry as temp Pub Dog. But work meant I couldn't make the pre-worlds - It was criminal really. ho hum. But my mates got my boat ready in my absence ready for the racing ... Thanks - I owe you. Then the racing got blown off and off and off and off. So what did we do - flew helicopters, did the tiller of doom, scaled roofs and got banned from Weymouth's poshest (dodgiest!) nightclub. When the racing came it was full full on. And this class is a proud class of individuals who make up one team.. lets keep it that way.


9. Powermann bay race and Mothie Open
Skilfully put together by the driving force of high performance yachting in Poole Harbour Mikey Pascall, this was a great event. Gary Ireson was on blistering form and the fab suspects of Alex and Helen, MikeC, and AndrewF made it a classic event. Sorry to the 49erBoys - you're quick but not quick enough - but a great try all the same!!




10. Flighty Knighty
So she's cut and shut her SomnerSpecial and soon it will be foilborne. It'll be great when Katherine can join the action proper with her CarbonFootprint foiler. She'll be quick as she's good and determined. Let it roll...





11. Norman the Foiling Dog
He's cool, he's calm, he foils and he looks for the shifts. Give the dog a bone man, he's got style the helm only dreams of. Whatever next??

















12. The FUTURE is Bright
Get your shades on as next year is going to be BIG for Moths at Parkstone. Richard And Dingers home build foilers are coming along great. Dunc Moses McCarthy will be giving me a run for my money in his new Prowler. Katherine is already foiling fast and will get quicker and quicker. And latest news is that a classic of Moth design will be joining the squad this autumn; A Magnum 8 to be piloted by Kristian Starr (yep!). Its great to see a boat of that age and know its still ahead of almost all the modern plastics... Way to go.

Besty best

Rod
(and Norman)

Knight Flight

She’s only been at it five minutes and despite a few early dunkings, by Jove I think she’s got it. Very interesting to see someone from the world of freestyle windsurfing take to a moth and begin with waterstarting as the chosen method of taking flight. So here’s a warm welcome to Katherine Knight and her purple wonder - an axeman derivative from the stable of Chris Somner, and well pimped by the hand of Mr May – our hearty thanks.

Despite the chilly water and weird winds Katherine’s been keen as mustard to get out there. No fear here. I cut my now crowned teeth on low riders, and those narrow ones are rather tippy, and that’s without the breeze blowing F1-F5. So nice one Katherine – we look forward to seeing you on the start line soon.

Later in the year we’ll be joined by Richard Edwards and Simon “Dinger” Philbrick whose boats are progressing well. Next to join the Poole Pilots in his Prowler Zero will be Duncan “Moses” McCarthy, and lets hope he gives Southworth a run for his money, who’s apparently been testing his new Bladerider in his back garden, if the latest rumours are to be believed…(?)

So who are the next mothies to join the Poole Flying Squad. Mr Devereux? Bob "Sidekite" Alexander? And then of course the Powerman team need a really fast boat in their fleet. Lets hope so…

Eagles fly high

Just another note of thanks to everyone who helped to make the Parkstone open such a success.

We were a bit worried about making sure there was enough water in the course area of the harbour during racing. (You don’t want to be the one responsible for grounding anyones recently developed kit!)

It was great to see the latest designs one the water that have been kept under such close wraps. Although there were a few set up problems these were eclipsed by times of blistering speed which took things to a higher level.

Ventilation was certainly an issue but then the water was very very chilly. We can but look forward in anticipation as the season heats up.

Rod

When I was a lad and boats were made out of trees

When you work at a sailing school and earn enough money to buy yourself a bag of chips and a hangover you look for something sensible, reliable, practical and affordable to sail. Yeah right. And so it was back near the dawn of time that I spent a drunken evening in a dim smoke filled caravan at Rockley point sailing school in Poole (can you see the emerging thread that holds this blog together?) .

Imagine if you will a Hagrid like fellow, fuelled on a bottle of cheap red wine, with flares big enough to swallow a beach and he was raving about phobias, magnums, petrochecks, Harvey wallbangers, wombles and skols. Jim Baumann was his name – or Jimbo to his friends. Where are you now? He was, and I hope still is, a very unique and quite distinctive character and so I hope hasn’t bitten off more than he can chew.

And the next day when I saw my folks I proudly announced I’d bought a Moth, a petrocheck, I never saw it in writing so the spellings wrong but that’s how it sounded. Apparently it was conceived – because moths back then were the result of a long hard labour, in Czechoslovakia or maybe that’s where the big tree was found from which it was hewn. £200 quid or so. Deep V hull, more rocker than billy idol, a wooden unstayed mast borrowed from the Victory, and a lovely billowing white sail made out of some long dead Nazis parachute. She was fun and pretty and had varnish and she went quite well in light winds…. And I loved it.

In those days homebuilt Moths sometimes needed a little maintenance, and some seemed sponsored by Isopon. Posh for plastic padding. But my girl, she never needed fixing on a daily basis; Jimbo was always "refining" his Dragon from the ahead-of-his-time designer, Sean Cox.

No.. she was not one for daily gripes and niggles. She was saving herself to depart of this world in one gigantic epic flourish. I had always been puzzled how that unstayed mast stayed up there. And then one very windy day the mast ripped the poor girl open through foredeck to bow. And she was gone. Sad day, but she went how she went. With grace, and style.

So to Lymingtown I travelled, and met a great big black tail-wagging skinny-dog called Shelley. And John Claridge – he's a very nice man. Norman would have liked Shelley.

Norman -

My Mum and Dad always took cakes for Shelley when we visited the Johns Moth “Factory” in Lymington. The factory was renowned in Japan where it had assumed gigantic mythical proportions as a result of the fantastic boats that rolled off the production line. (All the best Ichino if you’re out there – “Now we go down boozer?”). And so John built me my very own new boat, a beautiful gaboon and sapele (am I right?) Magnum 3. State of the art and oh so narrow. 7.5 secs to 60 was quick too, then. And John gave me a sailing lesson at Rockley point – free. None of this £600 a day stuff! Those were the days. John did wonder though - out loud, waist deep in water, if I would ever get the hang of it. And may still do.

And then when I was all grown up I got a magnum 5, and I could sort of sail it. It was really, really narrow, and quite cool.

Thanks again John.

They were, and are, great boats.

Best

Rod

To be continued. ...

The Parkstone Yacht Club Moth Open

A Flying start to the Parkstone Yacht club Moth Open
or

A Heady Brew

– in case you’ve read the reports and thought it was about results…

Never was so much talent, distilled in so few, cast into the melting pot of Poole Harbour to form the most headiest, unsteadiest, glorious brew.

It all started on a cold dark night, when Norman the psychodog bounded through the air to greet Squadron leader May. Next cartoon man, they call him Booner, with a hangover and more wine. And still on the highway like a bat out of a hell, chap of the right stuff Wingman Rover Feltacious Gary Ireson the First. “There can only be one”. He was late, doing a ton with a trailer, kmh of course, and got pulled by a girl in a uniform on the A34. “Can I see in the back of your truck” she said, trying her luck. But he hadn’t got time to rhyme.

So when the posse finally met, the cook was inebriated. You remember how to prepare for an important event and then you forget at the last minute. In the early hours the night ended in with a Wii bit of tennis.

The cock crew and Rod roused the rabble “off blocks, on socks”. A few bacon butties later they were down the club. “ooh its right chilly” said Gary, as he’s hard.

Then apparently some serious sailing took place… Mikey Pascall and a great bunch of highly
skilled crews did a brilliant job of getting the mothies cleanly away.

So with hissing, ventilating foils we flew our way round. 21.4 kts and I still got lapped! The talent in attendance was legendary. Jason Belben was on blistering form and took most bullets. Adam May it look stylishly effortless but was hampered with a low powered sail. Gary and Booner were quick and shook some trees.

I never really got to see Mike Lennon as he was well ahead; really a speedster who’ll go faster still. Si was rapid but his magic wand left in Oz, the wizard was pressed and searching for Zen. With more quality bath-time tank-testing he’s got his form to come. Mr Tagg smoked it round when not totally on fire.

Alex K on 1st generation foils and a hull mimicking "Das Boot", kept pushing till the end, while Tommy "legend” Whicherman was bedding in his new axiom. And all after haring 24hrs across Europe to get to the event – Dix points. And me Maxi Rod? - Well I was revelling in it, knackered, hungover, cramped, slow off the line – yep that’s me towards the back, but I’ll live to fight another day. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – no gym for me - more pain less brain. Time to get off the pies and spend more time on the water.

So after a big day we all went out for a big curry and beer. Then crumpets at the crack of dawn and off we go again. Marginal winds and technical early foiling ruled the day. The pros and the young pretenders showed their metal. And three great races later it was all over.

Well that was the start of the Poole Parkstone Moth season. Interest in the class grows and we’ll be arranging a “try it and fly it” day for all you wise ones who are keen to have a go and thinking of joining this friendly, helpful, skilled and enthusiastic group of sailors.

A Big Cheers to you all, and a serious Thank You to the team at Parkstone Yacht Club for their encouragement and help to get the event off the ground.

The Foiling is indeed awesome.

All the best

Rod