catastrophy

Today my mast cmae down as I wass doing tacking practice down by the island, and I was getting somewhere when I did one last tack from port onto starboard, so I could be on the layline back to the club. But that was not meant to be, I tacked across, catapulted myself onto the new side, when I hear a bang and a screech and see myself going into windward and my mast going the other way.

First thought, oh shit, I was nowhere where anyone could rescue me, and therefor spent over an hour de-rigging my boat in the swell, and using the windward trampoline as a sail to slowly but surely make my way to the beach, about a half a kilometer away, the only fault, I was being pulled into the bay area from the suction flow, so as I got closer to the 'ladies beach' (where I am not allowed) I had to turn more upwind and attempt to get to the beach club next door.

Whilst I was drifting I had 4 boats come past, who neither were bother helping me, and even a coast guard helicopter hover above me and then do nothing.

Once I got to the beach I had to fight my way over a restriction line to stop swimmers going to deep, which wasnt easy with my foils still being in!

Once at the beach, three helpful lads came over to help me lift the boat onto the beach, after completing that effortful tast, as they had no-idea what to do, I went with one of them to borrow their mobile. There I called for help.

Joel our sailing manager then arrived on a rib, and we loaded the boat and gear up and drove back. At the club, I investigated the damage, and it didnt seem too bad. I only have to replace the shackle, bend the bracket back and find a new boom gooseneck shackle.

On the bright side, I tried my new 4-1 mainsheet purchase, and it is definetly the way to go!

-m

Charged Up

Im all set, with my batteries charged for my  speedpuck and my boat in top top tune,  I have been sailing pretty much 12 hours a week until now, and im on the right track to be ready for the worlds.

Im also thinking at going to the europeans, thinking? well ive already entered. The only issue I have now is getting my boat there :( I dont want to go through the hassle of taking my boat all the way there and back again, so im looking at borrowing or renting one from someone, but havent found anyone yet. As for accomodation, I will be camping, as for flights I will ship myself on a standby ticket, as for family? I dont know, they don't have to come if they dont want to.

So if anyone knows of anyboat for hire at the europeans, please let me know.

Video game Moth Racing

According To Chris, Moth racing is like a video game:

Level one: Going in a straight line, while very easy when you know what you are doing there is always some stupid little part in the level that is slightly above your skill set and you always wind up falling down a hole in the ground like in the Mario Brothers.

Level Two : Sailing Upwind and Downwind, While almost as easy as level one, hell you might even have the exact same level in a game, there is one extra gold coin that makes all the difference.

Level Three : Veal Heal, again uber easy when you have the know how, but a significant jump in level difficultness which makes any game onlooker think you have a fair idea about what you are doing, a complete red hearing as a true gamer knows.

Level Four : Gybing, This is a crux level or you could class it as the first big boss man in most shoot em ups. While you may beat the boss man with a bit of luck the first time , you always find a better and quicker way to beat him each time you play the game.

Level Five : Competitive Race : While its all well and good being able to play the first four levels, at some point you need to actually learn what each button does and some different button sequences to do different moves..... and remember them. This is a bit like Tony Hawks skateboarding where there are at least 1 million different combo trick things you can do (an experienced gamer told me this). When you learn the correct combinations, a race comes together and you look fairly respectable.

Level Six : now even for an experienced Gamer things are becoming tricky and deaths more common. In Moth sailing, this is gacking in my book. Its pullable most of the time but even the top boys still fuck a few of them up. But when you pull the most ridiculous trick in Tony Hawk and meant to do it, then you can sit back on the couch with a air of smugness.

Level Seven : learning to Foiling Tack. There is a massive difference between learning and doing consistently. This is the level where a top gamer can look decidingly average. An inexperienced eye will look at the sailor and gamer and say to his muscle bound mates on his power boat that this sailor is shit and have a good laugh at him while blasting out the Venga boys on his crappy radio. Other experienced gamers and sailors will look and go, this kid is pretty fucking good if he is close to doing one of those quadruple back flips while pulling out a gun and killing off the first big boss man with his eyes shut.

Level Eight : This is the daddy big boss man, this is it, the top, the impossible, the holy grail. No matter how many times you think you have him down, he still gets back up with a full energy bar and gives you the smack down. Pulling a foiling tack under pressure from starboard to port off the start line at the pin end to cross the whole fleet. Foiling tacks on request coming in on port layline with 100 plus foilers on starboard.

Can you complete the game?

Looking good so far

I have been able to sail for the last three days, which is amazing for this time of year in Dubai. Whilst blowing a steady 12-14knots, I was happy with my boat speed both up and downwind, so i decided to do some tacking, or shall I say facking, practice. I still havent got it right, but I feel that im coming awefully close to pulling one. I clocked over 20km worth of sailing today, which is more than once around the world Islands. I checked my speedpuck after today, and speedplay told me that I could have completed the round the world trip, in under 1 hour and 30 minutes, taking into account upwind, wind angles, etc. Therefor I will have a stab at Rohan's Round the world record on Saturday, providing that the wind is blowing more than 12 knots from a westerly to southerly direction, or Northerly, meaning that I spend the backside of the palm, on a run or reach.

I clocked 20.2 knots 10 seconds average in a strong gust today, so I think the Dubai water temperature is favourable for attempting to break a speed record ... you can bet that I will be out next time it blows.

Kerstin got her new KA Sails today, for which I managed to find her a sponsor to buy them. Hopefully my new North and Souther Spars kit will get organised fairly quickly, as I cant stop thinking about it...bit of a dejavu from when I wanted a Moth!

I will be running for commodore for the next year...sort of as a pisstake... but we will see, If i get voted, I have alot of changes that I will propose, for the benefit of the Moth Class. 

VOR, next time around might be seen in the gulf, so I was thinking, if India was a problem to get to because of piracy, then wont the gulf be a disaster? 

Moth Nationals, will be in late October, and we will have round two of the Nationals acting as a pre-moth worlds event, on the week before the Worlds here in Dubai.

thats pretty much it from the frying pan!

-m