Im never any good with thinking of a witty or clver title, so ill just leave it blank.

I got my boat back about an hour ago from Premier Composites, and I must say that they have done an excellent job on repairing my deck, wing bar rack and gantry bolt. So now the boat is back, I will get onto the job of re-assembling it tomorrow morning before it gets too hot, and then I might go for a sail over lunch. Which will be me reunited with my machine once again :)

Sailing for me is desperately necessary as I need to get back into a sailing rythm before the DXB worlds next March. I have got my physical training sorted, with going running nearly daily and swimming, playing badminton and visiting the gym becoming more frequent too!

I am 100% certain that the worlds here will set the benchmark so far. I heard that no matter how little you do, it will be better than Weymouth. But Dubai will be good, Chris, Glenn, Joel and Lisa know what they are doing and will have it all planned out, so, BE THERE!.

form guide 2009

So this is my form guide for the 2009 Moth worlds at the Gorge:

1st- Nathan Outteridge

2nd- Arnaud Psarofaghis

3rd- Rohan Veal

4th- Bora Gulari

5ht- Scott Babbage

6th- Simon Payne

7th- Chris Graham

8th- Amac

9th- Glenn Raphael

10th- Kevin Hall

no questions asked.

limping along

For those who were curious about my entry into the Europeans and not showing up, its because I had problems with the freight company :( So I have set my sights on the 2010 Moth Worlds in Dubai instead of anything in between.

In the mean time, I am looking for a set of racing foils! My foils have been scratched badly over their time in use, and are no longer in a good racing condition, so if anyone knows of any bladerider foils for sale, then please let me know.

But that isnt the only problem I have at the moment, my deck is cracked about a foot long, my gantry bolt was one of the not stainless steel ones and my rear wingbar attachment to the deck is cracked! But i strongly belive it wasn;t because of my way of sailing or treating the boat, but rather the previous owner and the sun combined :(

So I predict a trip to premier composites, to fix all that and whilst im there I will get my trailer strengthened too.

confused water

So this is what the water flow in Dubai looks like. The red dot labeled 'UMMS' is the sailing club and for the worlds we will be racing all over the sheltered area. This kind of makes it hard to apply tactics, etc.

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?